VALORANT’s newest agent Clove has officially been added to the VCT pool, but pro players are already identifying issues they believe will hold the aggressive Controller back.
After a small delay and fixing bugs in VALORANT Patch 8.07, Clove can finally be played in VCT matches now we’re in week three. To welcome the newest Controller agent to VCT, pro players like TenZ and aspas discussed their first impressions and wider thoughts about Clove. While most agreed the Controller is very strong on their own, there are some big concerns about where Clove will actually fit in pro play.
“I think it’s hard to adapt to teams because I’ve been trying it, and its smoke range is a little short,” KRÜ’s Melser said. “So in some maps, it couldn’t replace an Omen or Astra smoke that covers the whole map.” Indeed, when it comes to smoking—aka a Controller’s main job—that’s where Clove is lacking compared to others in that role. Still, Melser believes Clove could “come in handy” in new team compositions running two Controllers.
In addition, vanity pointed out Clove’s biggest weakness in pro play: A lack of utility for their teammates. “They don’t really have anything that helps set up their teammates, and I think that’s going to be something that limits them in the pro setting,” Cloud9’s IGL explained. This sounds like a similar situation to more selfish agents like Reyna, who sees a lot of use in ranked but not as much in VCT where teamwork and coordination are more important.
Despite these weaknesses, Clove still received praise from Leviatán’s star player, aspas, who expects to see some comp changes due to how strong the new agent is. Meanwhile, we also have players like TenZ who simply find Clove to be fun to play. “I do think the addition of Clove has made VALORANT really fun for me recently… And being able to just experiment with everything is really fun,” the Sentinels star added. Since we’ve seen TenZ on Omen a lot this season, it’ll be interesting to see if the team cooks something up with him on Clove to play more aggressively.
Based on VALORANT pros’ initial thoughts, it seems like Clove is in a good spot without being too busted or too unviable in VCT. NRG’s Ethan Arnold summed it up well: “Definitely won’t be meta-changing, but I think Clove will be played a lot.”
