KAY/O (Kill All Your Opponents) launched by Riot Games on 27th September, has not been at par with our expectations. Having the lowest win rate in Valorant, we wonder where has the agent gone wrong.
KAY/O was launched with the hopes of it becoming another popular picked agent such as Sova or Skye. His fresh and unique kit of abilities generated a lot of excitement.
The agent design is extremely similar to the training bots in The Range and many players joke that the agent is a “buffed training bot”.
His Q ability, a Flash/Drive is a flash with two ways of tossing it. One is a simple right-click which is a pop flash, whereas the other one is left-clicked which flashes after a bounce. E ability, Zero/Point is a dagger he equips to throw. Once thrown, agents in his radius get suppressed and can not use abilities for 7 seconds.
KAY/O’s C ability, Frag/Ment is a simple grenade or molly which deals damage in pulses. His ultimate, Null/CMD makes him a beacon of suppressing waves and sends waves four times. Also, movements and animations get faster. If he is shot down during his ult, he gets a 7 second period in which his teammates can revive him.
Why has KAY/O not met expectations with the worst win rate in Valorant?
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Since his launch, the initial excitement of playing the new agent wore off rather quickly. Players started noticing that his utility doesn’t help the team as much as the other agents in his class. Sova, Skye, and Breach provide absurd amounts of information along with help to push a bombsite. Players have complained that his utility doesn’t help as much as the other agents and would much rather pick another agent.
Starting with his Flash/Drive, CS: GO players were extremely happy when he was introduced. They are already used to the dynamics of tossing a pop flash through CS: GO but unfortunately, they were met with disappointment. The gameplay in Valorant is quite different compared to CS: GO, the structures, map design, and pace of the game aren’t favourable for a pop flash. The angles are much tougher to toss a pop flash and easily peak.
Moving onto his Zero/Point, it provides great information when on defence but players have found it hard to push a site on the attack using his dagger as the main source of information. Unless you suppress a Killjoy or Cypher who is holding a site and disable their abilities, it is extremely tough to get utility out of his knife. His knife too can be broken easily. Similar to a Sova recon dart but the difference is that you can be creative with the recon dart with the bounces and different lineups.
KAY/O abilities are extremely underwhelming when compared to the meta picks for the Sentinel-class
His weakest ability, Frag/Ment which is a simple molly has a lot of issues with it. Firstly, it deals very little damage unless an opponent is in the centre of the molly. That makes it easier to push through the edges of the molly and doesn’t really slow down a push.
Secondly, the molly lasts for 4 seconds which is far too little for an ability that costs 200 credits. Again, this makes it very easy to just wait it out and continue pushing which provides zero help on attack or defence. Many players have suggested another molly in his kit which increases utility.
Lastly, his ultimate. Most of the players would agree that his ultimate is definitely the best-developed ability he has but needs some tweaking to perfection.
KAY?O
Firstly, the pulsating radius of waves he sends out helps the enemy team understand where the agent is on the map. For a game based on information, that gives away a lot of advantages.
Secondly, his ultimate is extremely situational. It can only be used in a handful of situations such as pushing a site or stopping a retake. Otherwise, it’s really tough to get utility out of his ultimate.
Overall, KAY/O needs some tweaking and redesigning for it to perform better in ranked and professional tournaments. He definitely has the potential to become another staple pick in games.
