VALORANT Meta Report #12: Japan

When I started to put together the bans article, I found the Japanese scene extremely interesting. With a mixture of styles, it’s easy to appreciate the work of a region that tries to push the envelope.

With all this information, I’ve created the Meta Report, using RAGE VALORANT JAPAN TOURNAMENT, GALLERIA GLOBAL CHALLENGE 2020 - QUALIFIERS + GALLERIA GLOBAL CHALLENGE 2020 - PLAYOFFS and A.W EXTREME MASTERS Japan Invitational. The last one was one of the tournaments that included a ban system. I analyzed 147 maps between the three tournaments. Because it is a breakdown of several tournaments, I am going to change the structure of the report. I’ll start with the use in the different tournaments and their dates:

• RAGE VALORANT JAPAN TOURNAMENT (33 maps): 01-08-20 to 02-08-20.
• GALLERIA GLOBAL CHALLENGE 2020 QUALIFIERS + PLAYOFFS (41 maps): 08-08-20 to 16-08-20.
• A.W EXTREME MASTERS Japan Invitational (73 maps): 31-08-20 to 21-09-20.

Agent pick:

Some of the interactions between agents:

We saw some patterns that we’ve seen from other regions. Omen's popularity grows by taking space from Brimstone’s pick rate as the team's smoker. What is unusual about this situation: In the Rage Invitational, the sum of both agent pick rates was higher than 100%, which means that several teams tried to play with double smokers, particularly in Ascent.

It is also interesting to see how quickly Japan dropped Sage (before patch 1.07, which was implemented in early September), but even more surprising is to see the relatively low use of Cypher, who despite being the most chosen agent falls well below his near omnipresence from Western regions. The question becomes: what agents are occupying that space in these team compositions?

Japan made an interesting change in their game style and it is reflected in their pick rates, changing from a defensive to a more aggressive play style. The biggest change comes from adding a second duelist. At first, Phoenix joined Jett in the team compositions, a composition we've seen repeatedly in North America, but Japan took an interesting turn: they decreased their use of Jett and Phoenix and opened the door for Reyna to enter team compositions. Another element to highlight is the use of Viper. which, despite still being low, increased in the last tournament, A.W EXTREME MASTERS Japan Invitational, reaching similar levels to Sage, something unthinkable a few weeks ago. There are not many teams that use Viper, the few teams that have tried to use it are: [team_id=19], [team_id=168] and [team_id=178]

Let's talk about the team compositions:

These are the top 5 team compositions:

• Cypher, Jett, Omen, Reyna, Sova: The most popular team composition, teams started using it mainly in the A.W EXTREME MASTERS Japan Invitational. This composition is a good example of the style that the Japanese region took, was used mainly by Reject and Detonation.
• Cypher, Jett, Omen, Sage, Sova: The main composition in the Rage Invitational, at that time, Cypher and Sage dominated and their decrease favored a more varied meta in the following tournaments.
• Cypher, Jett, Omen, Phoenix, Sova: Same concept as the first composition, fast and aggressive double duelist, but replacing Reyna with Phoenix.
• Brimstone, Cypher, Raze, Sage, Sova: Another popular composition in the early tournaments, mainly on Bind.
• Brimstone, Cypher, Jett, Phoenix, Sova: The modern version of the previous composition, replacing Raze and Sage with Jett and Phoenix, mainly used on Bind.

Is the Japanese meta different?

We have seen some of these team compositions in other regions, but the point is to distinguish when it is a particular strategy of a single team or player, like [Player_id=151] using Reyna, or more generalized, like the difference in styles between Europe and North America. The different regions approach the competitive scene in different ways. Even though North America and Europe are usually the regions that lead the way, some regions dare to take components from different regions and add their own touch. Have you seen games from the Japanese region? Do you think that regions outside North America and Europe have more freedom to innovate in their team compositions? Should any other region try to replicate what the Japanese players are trying to do? Let us know in the comments!