Clove has only been out for a day, and while their long-term place in the VALORANT meta is still to be decided, it’s clear the new controller has the ability to terrorize the other team with their ultimate.
In the hands of a Champions winner like Evil Geniuses’ Alexander “jawgemo” Mor, any VALORANT agent can be deadly, and he’s proven that after putting on a masterful performance with Deadlock of all agents during VCT Americas play. But his aggressive playstyle fits nicely with an agent like Clove, and he’s already showing off why they could be the new “ranked demon” agent.
With an Overheal ability that fills up so quickly and an ultimate that encourages players to be aggressive and take fights with less risk, it’s no wonder jawgemo is already running right at the enemy with Clove. He’s also incentivized to keep playing aggressively and take those fights; since Clove dies if they don’t get a kill with their ultimate, jawgemo would die anyway if he doesn’t win his fight.
Clove’s ultimate ability has drawn some comparisons to Phoenix’s as they both provide the player with the ability to play with an “extra life.” But Clove’s ultimate is arguably better. Phoenix’s Run it Back ultimate has a high potential for wasted use, and unless a team is coordinating and watching his spawn point, he has the potential to get backstabbed after the ability is cast. One of the most infamous misplays on the pro VALORANT stage comes from a player casting the Phoenix ultimate in a one-vs-one and failing to find the opposing player who was waiting for the ultimate to end.
While he has less time to get used to Clove after just winning Masters Madrid, the new agent feels like it could be a prime choice for a player like TenZ, who primarily plays smokes agents for Sentinels but also has extensive time spent on the duelist role as well as incredible mechanical prowess. Clove feels like they could sub in for agents like Omen, who is currently a popular choice for TenZ.
Regardless of how well Clove fares in the pro meta, they almost certainly feel like an agent that will be prominently featured in ranked for a long time.
