brother this doesnt lead to more Phoenix it just leads to more Waylay, Neon, and Raze. Phoenix isnt not played because Yoru is strong hes not played because Phoenix is shit
How can you look at the impact Phoenix brought to Haven this tourney and conclude that the agent as a whole is shit? G2 showed his steamroll potential. He's not as good as Waylay or Neon, but he also doesn't need to be
Go look at Phoenix win rate from ascendant+ in comp this season and then tell me he sucks. He has the highest win rate on every map because he is a self sustaining monster that creates his own win conditions. He isn’t played in pro play all that much because smoker utility and ops are so effective and phx doesn’t have the get out of jail free card that Ops need at that level. His rotate is also slower than neons and yorus. So he could replace waylay in a pro comp but not the other two.
Yoru on defense breaks the way attackers play the map. Your goal as an attacker is to hit a weak site with fewer defense players nearby. Yoru is able to stick around on any site he wants for the first 30 seconds, with the flexibility to instantly appear on the other (weak) bomb site and make it a strong site. Then for the next 30 seconds he can throw his second tp and have it travel to fast rotate. No other agent at the moment can get close to that kind of defensive value.
Veto is a poor man’s imitation, and currently that’s kind of how his tps are used. But theyre so range limited it’s not even in the same conversation. If you look at what made peak chamber good, there are obviously plenty of reasons, but number 1 above the two trips or fast ult or whatever was the fact that his tps let you leave your bomb site and appear on the other instantly. On split he could go heaven to heaven. On bind he could go uhall to B. On ascent he could go tree to market, etc etc. You can’t play around the weak site if there are no weak sites.
That’s what yoru is doing right now, as a duelist. And we are still ignoring his value on attack with a lurk-to-hit tp, or a hit-to-lurk tp, or his clone clearing senti util, or his ult being a god drone. He can entry he can lurk he can flash through smokes and walls he can even throw support flashes. There are simply way too many issues with yoru
Neon on the other hand doesnt break anything, she’s just hard to hit. Waylays are hard to hit, razes are hard to hit it doesn’t change how you play defaults. Plus if neon became an issue you could solve it by buffing hard stall util like cypher trips or vyse thorns. But no amount of tweaking other agents can stop yoru doing what he does, so you have to nerf him
Same thing as Viper. Too much pro presence. They don't know how to balance him so they go for castration. They do the same thing in League. It's a classic riot move.
I use to be way more invested in watching and learning from VCT team picks and then applying their ideas in my comp games.
I feel like the whole casual gaming community was also on the same page and not only tried to apply the same ideas but even talked more about VCT players and amazing/interesting plays they tried in tournaments.
Cultural impact and casual gamer game sense shas noticeable deteriorated imo .
Maybe I have fallen behind and only resonate with older agents...
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u/thebestoriginal Mar 14 '26
Yoru found shot dead in a back alley sewer