Valorant: Shroud provides two unique and viable solutions to the ‘Operator problem’

In a game like Valorant, balancing Agents is not the only problem that the Riot devs need to be constantly concerned about.

Along with the Agents, weapons also need periodic tweaking, as truth be told, they at times feel more overpowered than abilities, themselves. And to Riot's credit, the devs do seem to be bringing in patches which are nerfing the broken weapons.

In Patch 1.06, itself, the Valorant devs brought a patch that nerfed the shotguns in the game, and it was quite a necessary change, as weapons like the Judge and Shorty were becoming a bit too overpowered in the hands of specific high mobility Agents like Jett and Raze.

However, even though some weapons are going through balance changes in Valorant, others are yet to see any tweaks since the closed beta hay days. And the most broken weapon in the lot is the Operator, which is by far the most oppressive tool in Valorant, especially on the defender side.

The Operator's overpowered nature isn't precisely because it's easy to use, and any amateur can one tap his/her way out with it. On the contrary really; the weapon is quite hard to master and much like the AWP in CS: GO, it needs a considerable amount of skill to wield.

Valorant's Operator is broken because of the lack of in-game utility. In a very recent video, the FOS god and popular streamer Michael "Shroud" Grzesiek seems to agree as much.

Shroud feels that the Operator does not belong in Valorant

Image Credits: Shroud Image Credits: Riot Games

This is precisely why the Operator is so very attractive, with next to nothing counterplay. The weapon is indeed very broken and highly sought after.

Shroud says that "If you're oping a certain angle and a Phoenix or Breach flashes, chances are you can sidestep and step back in like nothing happened."

Valorant's lead character designer, Ryan "Morello" Scott, is quite aware of the issue. However, he feels like in CS: GO, Valorant cannot afford to have a 'pop-flash' mechanic to counter the Operator.

Shroud suggests that, where things are at the moment, the Operator doesn't belong in Valorant, and that "They [Riot Games] don't want pop flashes in the game because it would make it a little more skilful. They want to make the game easy for everyone, so when they introduce a character, they want the character to be relatively easy to play."

Shroud gives viable solutions to the Operator problem

In his stream, Shroud suggests two methods of dealing with the Operator problem in Valorant:

1. Flash ability like Jett's Cloudburst.

As the game will not allow for a pop-flash mechanic, Shroud says that "They should have a character that can do flashes like that (Cloudburst) because if you want to flush out an Oper, you can perfectly pop a flash and they're not gonna see that sh*t."

And it indeed feels like quite an apt solution, to be very honest. A new Valorant agent with a Cloudburst flash, or reworking how the Breach and Phoenix flash works, would solve much of the Operator's oppressive nature.

2. Increasing the price of the Operator

Increasing the risks to match the rewards of the Operator, would be another great solution to the problem.

Shroud suggests that increasing the cost of the weapon from 4500-5500 credits will significantly improve the risks. Valorant players will have to think twice before purchasing it and be on point with their accuracy if they do end up buying it. Failing with the Operator will then leave the team economy in tatters.