Valorant Roles Explained

Valorant, as a team game, requires players to organize their squad to fill certain roles. Each Valorant role will have a different purpose in the game and will stick to doing these tasks for the success of their team. Like League of Legends, team play plays a huge part in moving forward and is not only limited to one or two players smurfing on the enemy team. This will be useful for players who are planning to enter tournaments or play in 5-man squads to increase their chances of winning each game if executed correctly.

What are Valorant Roles?

Valorant roles are assigned duties that a specific agent specializes in depending on the skillset they have. These roles give the player a sense of direction on what they need to do during games to ensure that their team has a better chance to do their tasks and win the game as a unit. In the game, each Valorant agent is given a specific role depending on how they are built. These are the examples of roles that Valorant has:

Primary Valorant Roles

• Sentinels
• Controllers
• Duelist
• Initiator

Secondary Valorant Roles

• Entry Fragger
• Leader/Captain
• Lurker
• Crowd Control
• Reconnaissance
• Support
• Sniper

Understanding these roles play a key figure in player development, removing individuality and adding a deeper sense of team play to all kinds of players as well as an extra layer of strategy. This will prove to advantageous to players who don’t perform exceptionally during games but want to contribute nonetheless. You don’t always have to have a high kill score to succeed in Valorant, just a great team presence.

Primary Valorant Roles Explained

There are only 4 primary Valorant roles and these are the categories used officially in games. These roles give an overview on what the agent’s skills look like and how they specialize in skirmishes or combat. The names of these categories give you a general overview of what you are tasked on doing for your team but doesn’t really give a specific task that you should be doing each round. Here are these roles explained in detail:

1. Sentinels

Sentinels protect the team from enemy attacks and advances. They specialize in protecting their allies by keeping them safe from the enemy’s reach or line of sight. Sentinels often don’t have offensive skills so they rely purely on gunplay to get kills. They are more efficient as defenders than attackers which is why they have huge disadvantages when they’re trying to push for objectives instead of staying in one place.

Agents: Sage, Cypher, Killjoy

What Sentinels should primarily look out for is the well-being of their team. This means that they are urged to react more towards their allies needs rather than securing objectives around the map. Sentinels can be left alone in the map but they should be quick to move from one place to another in case a fight breaks out that overwhelms their teammates. Sentinels can often place down traps or walls that aims to hinder the enemy team.

2. Controllers

Controllers change the state of the battlefield to favor their team. These include slow fields, smoke screens, vision-impairing abilities, and stuns. The controller is efficient in both attacking and defending because their abilities are not limited to staying in one place. Their abilities dictate the flow of the fight and act more of a supporting role rather than a primary carry role in the team. However, this doesn’t mean they can’t use their own abilities to their advantage when fighting alone.

Agents: Viper, Brimstone, Omen

Unlike other agents, Controllers’ abilities work on wide areas of the map. They can also act as double-edged swords against your teammates if they lack game knowledge or general team coordination. Controllers should be careful on how they use their abilities if they don’t want to end up screwing their allies and give the enemy team the upper hand in fights. Controllers may look simple but they aren’t easy to use in team settings.

3. Duelist

Duelists are fighters through and through. They have damaging skills or supportive skills that benefit themselves to take advantage of a fight. A duelist agent usually has high-mobility, high damage-out, or self-sustain ability that keeps them longer in battle. Duelists have a high skill ceiling since they need to combine both gunplay and abilities to securing kills for them or their team. A duelist will always play for the kills.

Agents: Phoenix, Jett, Raze, Reyna

Duelists are dangerous on the battlefield because of their ability to freely move around the map without worrying about enemies. While other roles have abilities that help them run and hide, Duelists often rely more on their general gunplay and spend very little time trying to cast their abilities to help them score a kill. Duelists often rely on Rifles to help them secure skirmishes around the map from any distance possible.

4. Initiator

Initiators open up the battlefield for their teams to pick a fight with the enemy team. They do this by disrupting the enemies positioning and cause them to be disoriented for a short period of time. An initiator may or may not be the first to enter the battlefield but because of their low mobility stats, it’s best that they create openings for duelists or controllers to charge right into the fray and be the last to enter in case some things go wrong.

Agents: Sova, Breach

The initiator isn’t a role meant for players who like to play solo. While it’s true you can immediately follow up your own engage openings, it’s best that you have allies near you to fully utilize the openings you give. Valorant is still a team game and shouldn’t be taken into the context that one man can carry the game solely by having the most kills out of all your allies. Play selfless when playing as an initiator and help your allies achieve victory.

Secondary Valorant Roles Explained

Secondary Valorant Roles are used to identify the categories used in professional play and by the community. These categories aren’t exclusively used nor created by Riot Games for their agents. In fact, these categories have been used in past Tactical FPS Esports which is why some of you may already be familiar with some of these terms. Nonetheless, for new players who want to learn, here are the secondary roles explained:

1. Entry Fragger

There are two types of entry fraggers – Primary & Secondary. The entry fragger is tasked with being the first to enter the battlefield and take control of the area for their team. The primary entry fragger is the main person to do this with the secondary entry fraggers following closely behind. These players should be extremely skilled in gunplay and knowledgeable of all FPS tactics. A bad entry fragger will almost always die 0.5 seconds after entering an area unprepared.

Preferred Agents: Reyna, Phoenix, Jett

2. Leader/Captain

The Leader or Captain is the team’s main shot-caller who will decide what the team needs to do. This is to avoid conflict on what the players are interested in doing and make sure that everyone is working together. The Captain should be someone everyone respects and have a great understanding of the game and its mechanics. The leader should have excellent decision-making skills to avoid leading his team to defeat.

Preferred Agents: N/A

3. Lurker

The lurker is tasked with strategically separating from the team to look out for threats elsewhere on the map. They can either strategically flank the enemy from behind and disrupt their defenses or try look out for enemies trying to do the same thing. These players should be extremely cautious and communicate with the team only if they have gathered useful information that will prove useful to the team. They should remain stealth and act only when necessary.

Preferred Agents: Omen, Jett

4. Crowd Control

The crowd control is essential during teamfights as they disrupt enemy players from being able to free-fire at your allies. They are basically the controllers who try and stun, slow, or blind your opponents so that their allies can find better positions in the battlefield that’ll help them secure kills and objectives on-site. The Crowd Control should know when and how to use their skills and not just randomly throw it into the wind.

Preferred Agents: Brimstone, Breach, Phoenix, Killjoy

5. Reconnaisance

Reconnaissance agents give information on the enemy team’s exact location to help the team prepare to fight. These agents should be able to communicate well with the team regarding what they see on the map as not to create confusion on how their teammates understood what they meant. Providing recon is extremely important, so make sure you get as much as possible before letting your team run straight into the fight without any knowledge of the situation.

Preferred Agents: Sova, Cypher

6. Support

The support provides aid to their allies who are in-need. This comes in the form of healing or giving them resources that they might need to stay longer in the fight. For now, Sage is the only agent able to do that successfully but future agents might serve the same purpose. Supports always stick with the other members of the team and don’t wander without having at least one other person with them at all times.

Preferred Agents: Sage

7. Sniper

The sniper is in-charge of using the Operator weapon. This is usually reserved to your best player in the team who uses the Operator extremely well. There should always be one sniper in your team but having more than that number creates a disadvantage for your team in short-ranged fights. This player should know positioning and should not be left alone when the enemy team is trying to close the gap between your team.

Preferred Agents: N/A

Team Compositions

Combining these different Valorant roles will play a huge part in your team’s performance. While there are no strict limitations to how these roles should be combines, there are roles that you’d want to have in your team in order to play better than unorganized teams. By knowing which actions you want to prioritize, you can build around doing these tasks to successfully engage against the enemy team with higher success.

Site Control

1 Sniper, 2-3 Crowd Control, 1 support, 0-1 Lurker

Offensive Skirmishing

1 Reconnaissance, 1 Primary Entry Fragger, 2 Crowd Control/Secondary Entry Fragger, 1 Sniper

Defensive Skirmishing

1 Reconnaissance, 1 Entry Fragger, 2 Crowd Control, 1 Support

These are some examples on how you should build your team. The only constant about building your team is that there should always be a Leader/Captain and an efficient Sniper that will help other players succeed in their roles. Ultimately, Valorant is a skill-based FPS so no matter how organized you are, you won’t be able to win on tactics alone. Make sure to read up on some Valorant Tips to help you improve in the game.

Communication and Strategy

Communication is the most important thing in every team game. While you don’t exactly have to talk to your teammates through the voice channel, you can still use Pings and the Chat Box to let your allies know what’s happening in your area. That being said, the voice chat is still the best way to communicate with your team because it takes the less time to deliver and gives a clearer definition on what you want to tell your allies.

The team captain should always lay out a clear strategy for the team to follow so that you don’t end up scattered around the map being picked off one-by-one. The team should agree on how they want to approach the fight depending on their team composition and follow the plan without being tempted to do things that are way out of line for them to do. The best team will always find a way to win the game even if they’re down a significant amount.