The Valorant Meta: Key Takeaways
- The Valorant meta dictates what agents are played the most.
- The Valorant meta determines which agents are the most powerful.
- Take a look at the current Valorant meta if you’re looking for an agent to climb the ranks with.
A “meta” is used to describe a powerful strategy in games that can lead to wins or progression. This can be anything from basic tactics, in-game items, specific builds, or specific characters. It is best summarized as the “most effective tactics available.”
Different games have different metas. In Valorant, most metas revolve around the different agent picks, team comps, and strategies for different maps. However, it can also be focused on buying specific weapons or abusing specific locations.
So, if you want to find out how the Valorant meta is developed, make sure to stick around.
Make sure to check out the Z League App to earn rewards by playing your favorite games, connecting with a friendly gamer community, or joining a Valorant tournament within minutes!
Table of Contents
From Valorant Professional Players
One of the first places that the Valorant meta develops from are the professional teams. It makes a ton of sense since these players are the best of the best and basically live and breathe Valorant. They spend most of their time playing the game, trying to find any competitive advantage they can over their opponents.
Once Valorant pro players take their newly found strategies, techniques, and agents on stage and pull it off, they slowly enter the Valorant meta. This is especially true for the more popular teams since most people like copying their favorite players.
However, only some things from the Valorant meta come from professional play. Some plays require a bit more teamwork and coordination to pull off. This is why not everything from pro play translates to ranked queue and vice versa.
From Popular Agent Picks
Valorant metas can also develop from agents with a high pick rate. Typically, agents with a high pick rate are extremely powerful and work well on a variety of maps. This then translates to them being a huge part of the meta, while agents who aren’t as powerful slowly falls off.
Pick rates and the Valorant meta typically go hand in hand. The more players who find success from a specific agent, the more it gets picked, and the more it solidifies its place in the meta. The whole point of a meta is to make it easier to climb the ranks, which is why overall power is key.
However, some agents, no matter how powerful they are, can still be considered “off-meta” if they are hard to use. If only Radiants can take advantage of an agent’s power, then the rest of the Valorant community won’t pick that agent, and it won’t solidify its place in the meta. Metas are more general and have to be accessible and useful in almost any rank.
From New Updates and Patches
The final source for new Valorant metas are updates and patches. As a competitive online game, Riot does its best to balance Valorant as much as it can. This includes releasing periodical updates that change the maps, agents, and weapons.
Patches play a huge part in determining the Valorant meta. They are the main source of overall power levels, after all. Most buffs to weapons or agents will result in them having a better place in the meta, while most nerfs will result in them falling slightly.
Overall, the Valorant meta is an unpredictable and uncontrollable thing. Even if Riot wanted to remove a specific weapon or agent from the meta, like the early versions of the Stinger, the community would still find new ones to replace it. The meta will always change, so it’s essential to keep your eyes wide open if you want to keep yourself up to date.
