FNS says Riot should consider removing cooldowns for initiators

Over the last few weeks, there has been a rise in discussion around the current state of VALORANT, and how prevalent utility usage has become in the game. Many people have complained that the game has veered away from the original premise of "precise gunplay" that Riot Games promised when the game was first announced. There have been, however, suggestions that could help fix the ongoing issues plaguing the game, including the removal of rechargeable initiator abilities.

Increasing the skill ceiling

We spoke to NRG's in-game leader Pujan "FNS" Mehta, who gave a deep dive of his perspective on the situation, including how he would improve the game with a single change. In an interview, FNS agreed with a recent take from fellow pro player Timofey "Chronicle" Khromov who suggested that Riot remove the cooldowns from abilities, and even said that he had suggested the same idea three years ago but was lambasted by the community who said he "just wants it the game to be like Counter-Strike."

"It increases the skill gap of everyone playing the game if you get rid of the cooldowns, because players have to now be careful on where they use specific abilities," FNS explained "If you only have one Breach stun, you now have to use it either for map control or for the execute in the bombsite, and that allows more critical thinking to be done than being able to just constantly breach stun three, four times in a round potentially."

He continued by saying that there must be consequences for using an ability if you use it, since right now, players can continuously spam an ability multiple times during a round since the cooldowns are not too long. By taking away cooldowns or increasing cooldowns significantly from initiator utility, players must strategize and decide what the perfect moment would be to use an ability rather than just throw them out whenever they please. Additionally, FNS believes that this change would bring about more variety and balance among the initiator agents in team compositions, since teams must choose what abilities are more important for their in-game plans, such as Breach stun or Sova dart.

FNS also talked about how not many pros voice their ideas to the public since "it's [their] job not to cry about it, but to adapt." However, having suggestions about how to improve the game they are playing is still very important to creating an enjoyable game for pro players and casual ranked players alike.

If you want more VCT interviews, check out our interview with Zellsis and stay locked in with THESPIKE.GG for more coverage.