Find out what Riot has to say about the growing number of Valorant player complaints regarding the Operator being too overpowered in-game.
Too OP?
Riot have responded to many Valorant players after the growing backlash on the Operator sniper rifle. In patch 1.06, many think the weapon is “too overpowered.”
Sniper guns are often among the most popular weapons of choice in first-person shooting games, including Valorant.
The Operator rifle in particular is known to reward those who hold correct angles in-game with one shot kills.
As a result, many players are complaining that the famous bolt-action gun might be a bit too strong.
It also leaves little ways to effectively counter Agents carrying an Operator around.
Controversial?
This led to the Operator sniper having a controversial reputation in the Valorant community.
Professional players such as TenZ dropped the suggestion of adding small changes to the weapon, such as scope sounds to make it better.
However, the general consensus agrees that the Operator should at least be tweaked for it to become a balanced weapon.
Riot took it to their latest ‘Ask VALORANT’ blog post on August 27 to address the criticisms, along with issues in footsteps and update times.
According to Valorant dev Nicholas ‘Nickwu” Smith, Riot’s Game Design team does not think that the Operator is “too OP” at this point but they understand the issues raised.
“We think the Operator isn’t “too OP” but do believe that the feeling sometimes comes from a lack of personal agency against the weapon (for Agents that don’t have tools to break line of sight for themselves),”
“… coupled with an overwhelming amount of team coordination to effectively counter an Operator.”
He further added that minor adjustments may be in place, but the overall power of the Operator will still remain:
“We’re looking into a lot of avenues to help smooth out the experience but we do believe the Operator should be powerful and should encourage a team to thoughtfully enter a space where it might be in play.”
The dev team had tried various “iterations” of the game where the Operator’s strengths weren’t as sharp as they are today (especially in holding defensive angles), and discovered that without moments where a team was forced to sit down and plan how to play against (or around) a good Operator, a lot of gameplay boils down to who could rush faster.
He concluded by saying:
“The Operator—like all weapons, maps, Agents, etc.—is a part of our continuous holistic review of the state of the game, and we’ll make changes in the future if we feel it’s needed. No changes now doesn’t mean no changes ever.”
Although there are no planned hard tweaks to the weapon as of yet, devs promised to constantly monitor the state of the game and will make necessary adjustments when they deem fit.
Read all about this week’s Ask Valorant #6 here.
