The introduction of French sentinel Chamber has shaken up the Valorant pro meta. While Jett has long been a staple in agent compositions on most maps, certain teams are now replacing her with the dapper sentinel instead.
This isn’t just a case of having their main sentinel player pick the smooth-talking weapons expert. Instead, some teams are actively choosing to put their star Jett player on the teleporting sentinel, a role that’s seemingly at odds with their original position as an entry-fragger.
Mehmet Yağız “cNed” İpek, Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker, and Matthew “Wardell” Yu have at some point traded their signature Jett for Chamber to varying degrees of success.
CNed’s Chamber noticeably weakened Acend’s ability to push sites, resulting in a 2-1 upset by Guild Esports at the VCT EMEA Stage 1 Challengers Main Event last weekend.
- OpTic Gaming shows why Astra and Viper are absolute must-picks on Bind
- Valorant Episode 4 Act II Battle Pass: 5 best memes and weapon skins
Can Chamber replace Jett?
While Jett’s ability to create space for her team is unmatched in Valorant, the parallels between Chamber and the fleet-footed Korean duelist may be the reason he is considered a viable alternative.
Jett is one of the only agents who can utilize the Operator effectively, which is why she is picked so often in pro play. In addition, her Tailwind dash lets her get out of sticky situations, making it difficult to punish her even when she is out of position.
Chamber’s kit enables him to do both these things, and he is arguably even better at them. His Rendezvous anchors can be thought of as an even better version of Tailwind, requiring only a single keypress to execute successfully.
Unlike Jett, there’s no chance of dashing in the wrong direction, or into a teammate or a wall.
This means he can hold the same angles that Jett would with an Operator, and still guarantee his safety with an instantaneous get-out-of-jail button. What’s more, his Tour De Force ultimate is a faster version of the Operator and can be utilized to great impact on eco rounds, just like Blade Storm.
On top of that, the global effect of his Trademark traps makes him one of the best agents for watching flanks, particularly on large maps like Breeze or Fracture.
However, teams that drop the knife-wielding duelist entirely will need to find a way to fill the gap she leaves. On attack, the Gallic gentleman cannot compete with Jett’s ability to dash onto site and disrupt the enemy’s defense.
OpTic Gaming showed exactly how to play without Jett in their recent match against Sentinels in the VCT NA Stage 1 Challengers Main Event. With yay on Chamber and Victor “Victor” Wong on Raze, OpTic used Astra’s and Viper’s utilities to help create space for Victor on Bind.
However, relying on a sentinel agent to get picks can easily backfire as well. In 100 Thieves’ unfortunate 0-13 outing against The Guard, Peter “Asuna” Mazuryk played Chamber in a zero duelist composition while attacking on Ascent.
The Guard counter-picked Sage, which stopped them dead in their tracks. The team then found themselves lacking utility on attack.
Jett and Chamber aren’t mutually exclusive
Not everyone sees the merits in making your Jett main play an agent that’s built to lock down sites. Valorant caster and analyst Donnie “Elevated” Chell has said that he doesn’t like teams putting their star Jett players on Chamber, especially on maps where they need Jett to aggressively push on attack.
“It honestly feels like pro teams are looking at agents in a super one-dimensional way. Please just play both Jett and Chamber,” he tweeted.
Some teams have done exactly that. Cloud9 runs both agents on Breeze, leaving star player Nathan “leaf” Orf on the entry-fragging role. Sentinels left Tyson “TenZ” Ngo on Jett as well, and put Michael “dapr” Gulino on Chamber.
Either way, the myriad agent combinations and possibilities in Valorant mean that there’s more than one way to play the game. Jett is overall still the more versatile agent, and teams will have to find creative ways to take site control without her aggressive kit.
READ MORE: Rawkus no longer coaching Sentinels, wants to return to pro play
