Notable changes to balance from LCQ

Riot Games made some changes that have affected the meta of VCT 2022 - Champions Istanbul and we have prepared a brief summary of them, starring the nerf of Chamber!

Not so much has changed since the end of the Last Chance Qualifiers, except the “big” Chamber nerf. The “so-called” Sentinel was the go-to pick of almost every team on various maps. As covered, Chamber got nerfed again in Patch 5.03. This is one of the biggest changes that has happened in the game but it looks like the agent will be picked frequently again. Chamber’s skill set is very useful for teams to get early kills or even take positive results in eco rounds. The nerfs will probably affect the pick rate of the agent but still, Chamber will hold one of the key roles for the majority of the teams in the tournament.

A new map has arrived for the game, Pearl, and it may be the biggest change that has happened in the game. With Pearl’s arrival, Split has left us and you can read more about it here. The new map came with the 5.0 Patch, which was introduced a while ago. With its different angles and of course a different style, Pearl will affect the strategies. It may not be a balance change but still, the new map will change the dynamics in certain scenarios.

The biggest balance was introduced with the Patch Note 5.03. Besides Chamber’s nerf, Neon and Jett also got updates for their ults. Neon’s ult will give less damage as it was reduced to 18 from 22 but the shooting distance has been improved to 20m from 15m. It gives less damage to legs but the headshot multiplier has been increased from 1 to 3. Jett had also received an update to her ult as the leg shot multiplier of it has been reduced from 1 to 0.85.

The latest patch before VCT 2022 - Champions Istanbul mainly consisted of crosshair updates and such so it did not contain any agent updates. It looks like the competition will be closer to the previous international tournament as most of the mechanics and dynamics have stayed the same!