Chamber’s pick rate at Red Bull Home Grounds remained unchanged despite significant nerf

The 2022 Red Bull Home Ground event was the third installment of the series, held in Manchester, England where eight of the best teams worldwide were battling for bragging rights heading into the 2023 VCT season. 100 Thieves managed to take the victory against all teams as the only team with a no-defeat streak. We analyze the various agents' pick rate at Red Bull Home Grounds event including the infamous Chamber who saw some signficant nerfs in Patch 5.12.

Let's analyze the agents picked throughout affected the event, especially after the buffs and nerfs placed on some agents.

The maps were pretty even to each other on the win-lose ratio at 51% to 49% on each side. Only Pearl had a significant difference in its win-lose ratio, at 63% to 37%.

On December 6, Riot released a Valorant update, right as the Red Bull Home Ground event was about to begin on December 8, leaving the teams to scramble to prepare and accustom themselves to the changes. Riot Games made the biggest nerf change to Chamber and as one of the highest-picked agents in most maps, teams had to scramble to ready themselves for the changes.

During the Red Bull Home Ground main event, it's been observed that certain agents are preferred over others on most maps. Despite the huge nerf made towards him, Chamber has the highest pick rate throughout the 7 maps, and it's been a consistent pick since its release. During the Home Ground series, Chamber had a low 21% pick rate on Ascent and the highest pick rate on Fracture at 100% despite the recent nerfs.

Compared to the 2022 VCT Champions Playoffs, there was been a significant drop in the agent's pick rate on some maps, while it increased on others. During the VCT Champions, Fracture & Pearl had a 100% Chamber pick rate, whereas, during the Red Bull Home Ground, Pearl had a 50% pick rate.

Breeze and Bind had a small increase in the agent's pick rate by about 10%. Chamber had a decline in its pick rate on Icebox and Haven from 88% to 67% and 79% to 64% respectively. Chamber is chosen due to the usefulness of his skill range, from the Trademark (destabilizes enemies in range), Headhunter, Rendezvous (teleport) & Tour de Force. Those who play him will need sniping skills.

It is an agent that tends to be chosen when long-distance shooting skills are used. One of the best players in the world, yay prefers playing Chamber and puts up some amazing shots with the agent.

Fade is an agent that only had a minor buff to its Prowler, changing its HP from 100 to 60. She's tied in pick rate with Chamber at 62% during the Red Bull Home Ground, compared to its 53% during the VCT Champions.

The three maps that Fade has the highest pick rate on are Haven, Pearl (90%) and Ascent (86%). Fade has a 0% pick-rate on Breeze along with an average of 30% pick-rate on Bind and Icebox. Ascent had a 19% increase in Fade's pick rate compared to VCT Champions.

With minor changes to both of them, Kay-o's pick rate during the Red Bull Home Ground decreased to 43% compared to the VCT Champions while Viper maintains its 42% pick rate. On Breeze, both Kay-o & Viper have a 100% pick rate, while Viper also has a 100% pick rate on Icebox. Despite having a 100% pick rate during the VCT Champions on Bind, Viper's pick rate during Home Ground decreased to 75%.

While these agents were played too, Killjoy & Phoenix were played at a low pick rate. Neon had only been picked twice on Fracture throughout Red Bull Home Ground, despite having a 100% pick rate on the same map during VCT Champions.

It is all narrowed down to his ultimate, as having the previous firing rate meant that someone could push if you hit the initial person. It was almost as fast as the Marshall but it could hit ANYWHERE. His effectiveness is at its best on maps like Bind, Split, but he's good at any maps because of his range, despite his primary gun.

Before the range nerf, it allowed him to set it up and forget about it because it would hold flank, like Cypher, which makes him irrelevant. The teleport skill that Chamber made it hard to trade, without Kay-o around to suppress his skills. The headhunter gun's pullout is faster than any other gun, making itself useful.

Although the nerf was significant to the agent, the pick-rate of Chamber was not significantly changed.

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