Ever since Riot Games launched the closed beta of VALORANT, players have been constantly complaining about how overpowered the operator feels in the game.
Riot Games took heavy inspiration from Counter-Strike while making VALORANT and it is really apparent in the way guns and economy work in this game. Furthermore, most of the weapons in VALORANT are also modeled after CSGO.
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However, movement speed in VALORANT is way slower than CSGO. This paired with the fact that the stagger effect in VALORANT is so extreme that it literally slows players down to a trickle. At the same time, there are just not enough flash or stuns to properly deal with an Operator holding an aggressive angle.
All of these combined have made the operator way too effective in the game. Times and times against players have voiced their frustration on how oppressive the gun feels to play against. Even pro VALORANT players like 100T Hiko mentioned that pro players are literally abusing the gun. But in the past Riot refused to make any real change and claimed that the gun was in fact not overpowered.
Riot finally nerfs the operator:
In the current patch 1.08, Riot Games did foreshadow a possible nerf to the operator. Although the exact details of the nerf were still uncertain. Riot wanted to test out their new changes internally before actually dropping them into the live servers.
Many pro streamers like Shroud have suggested Riot to increase the price and make some sort of movement nerf. It seems like Riot Games finally listened and implemented both price increase and a movement speed reduction while scoped. Additionally, they also decreased the fire rate of the weapon so that it won’t be as easy to just decimate an entire squad like before.
The operator nerfs in patch 1.09 at a glance:
Price increased from 4500 —> 5000
Decreased scoped movement speed from 76% —> 72%
Adjusted deadzone from 30% movement speed to 15% movement speed (become inaccurate sooner and longer to become accurate)
Fire rate changed from 0.75 —> 0.6
Increased* instant equip time from 0.3 —> 0.5
Leg damage from 127 —> 120*
In a recent dev interview with MendoKusaii who is a streamer for Team Liquid, Nick Wu confirmed all the upcoming operator nerf.
How this change will affect the game, in the long run, is yet uncertain. Although VALORANT players are ecstatic learning about this massive nerf from Riot Games. Riot Games really put their foot down and nerfed the Operator to the ground. It should be interesting to see what VALORANT will feel like after patch 1.09 officially hits the live servers.
