Valorant
During Valorant’s life cycle, there has always been a sentinel agent who rocked the meta. In the early days, we saw the likes of Sage and Killjoy causing havoc. When she was originally released, Killjoy’s abilities had no range limitation — resulting in Killjoy being picked across each map.
And of course, we saw Chamber dominate the meta for over a year. Having two weapons in his ability kit, alongside plenty of escape options from aggressive angles, made him quite the pick and one of the best agents on defense.
But, following his nerfs a few months ago, things have changed for Chamber. Now he has the lowest pick rate in the current VCT leagues. This drop has many factors, but that investigation is for another article. For now, let’s look at Chamber since the nerfs and see what can make him viable in the new meta.
Bind will always be Chamber’s Playground
If we take a look back at the maps Chamber dominated the most, the first map on most people's minds would probably be Bind. Not because both the map and Chamber have a form of teleport in them — the actual reason is due to the sheer combinations he had on the map. Chamber had an insane teleport from B cubby to U halls. It just killed the attacking teams' man advantage on either site. With the nerf that teleport isn’t available anymore, but other off-angles are.
In the changes to Chamber, Rendezvous received a small buff; the height difference no longer matters. Meaning while on the defense, Chamber can anchor his teleport in A, close to the entry of showers, allowing him to hold an aggressive angle to get a pick. The same play can also be made on the entry to B garden. Or another angle to get another opponent. It’s a play that allows Chamber to be able to use a martial or operator, get a kill, and fall back to safety.
While there are many points on this map, the trademark, hookah is also quite effective. In an ideal situation, you can place your anchor in the hookah and wait for an opponent to get detected. Then, Chamber can hold the angle to snipe the opponent's head with a clean shot, either on his Tour De Force or Headhunter.
Another aspect of Chamber’s kit is the economic buff he can provide to his team. Thanks to having the ability to play on Headhunter with 8 bullets, if Chamber dies without using any, he can use them the next round — as well as buy a gun for a teammate.
There are additional plays available to him on Bind too. When he has his Tour De Force activated, he could get ready to snipe his opponents with ease, either in showers or B long. You could set Chamber's Rendezvous at B window if you want to play a very aggressive match.
With Bind’s return, there’s a strong chance teams won’t shy away from picking Chamber on it, despite his current low pick rate.
Image Credits: Riot GamesChamber has been tested on Split
Despite having one of the lowest pick rates in the VCT tournaments in all leagues, one team has not forgotten Chamber: Furia from Brazil.
In their games against Loud and Kru Esports, their team composition consisted of Chamber. In most scenarios, this wouldn’t be that effective, but in their series against Kru Esports, Chamber was key to Furia’s success. Why?
Currently, for Chamber’s Rendezvous ability to be effective, the angle it’s used on needs to have walls. Split’s map consists of multiple walls, including mid vents, mid mail, B main, A ramps and even A elbow or rafters. All of these locations allow Chamber to use Rendezvous and teleport back to safety after a kill. And these are some of the positions exploited by Furia to cause chaos and gain the upper hand against Kru Esports.
Chamber’s Sentinel Potential
While Chamber’s Tour De Force is quite tough to obtain due to being eight ultimate points, it’s still one of the best ultimate abilities in the game when it comes to true aggressive power. Finding the most usage from it could be during an economy round or a round where the player feels the need to be on a sniper rather than a rifle. Plus, the Chambers trademark also has a distance lock similar to Killjoy’s alarm bot, so both can be played with an identical pattern.
Image Credits: Riot GamesChamber is going to be quite a tough character to relearn due to the nerfs being quite drastic. Ideally, he needs some buffs added to his kit; another trademark would give him more of a sentinel vibe. Some might say that would make him too overpowered, but both Killjoy and Cypher have abilities allowing them to gather information on two parts of a site, while Chamber just has one and has to hold an angle on another.
As it stands, Chamber lacks the power needed to play solo sentinel in the current meta; only time will tell if he’ll be used again in team compositions.
