Shroud feels that Valorant’s latest Agent Astra only does well “in a coordinated team”

With the release of the latest Agent Astra, there have been some subtle shifts in the Valorant meta which affected pro-play and standard matchmaking separately.

Astra is, by far, one of the more complicated Agents in the tactical shooter. Her release has received some mixed reactions from the community.

While many believe that Astra’s kit alone is very overpowered, others are of the opinion that her skill cap and supportive nature are what make her a bit too underwhelming when it comes to solo-queue and standard matchmaking.

In one of his recent streams, former CS: GO pro-turned streamer Michael "Shroud" Grzesiek opened up about just how overwhelming Astra’s kit can be in the right hands.

However, he also stated that Astra is not fit for Valorant's solo-queue as she comes with a very high skill cap. According to him, one needs to be constantly aware of what is going on in the map to wield her effectively.

In one of his recent stream highlights, Shroud talked about why Astra is going to be incredibly underwhelming when it comes to solo-queue.

He stated:

“If your team is listening and playing well, I’d imagine she’s pretty good. But in most ranked games, people play for themselves, not for the team. Nothing wrong with that. It just hurts when you play a character like this because she shines in a coordinated team.”

Shroud opens up about Astra’s state of play in Valorant

Valorant's Controller Agents shine when the other players on the team cooperate with each other and try to call out enemy positions as effectively as possible.

While getting the required amount of team coordination in pro-play and during 5-man stacks is very much possible, this is not the case when one or two people are queuing up for Valorant’s ranked matchmaking.

This is one of the primary reasons why Astra will not do as well in standard games as she would on the competitive stage.

Shroud continued:

“If I have an idea that my teammates want to push through a certain area, I can help them from the other side of the map. So it’s really cool in that regard as long as they’re communicating and letting people know what they’re doing.”

In Valorant's solo-queue, people play for kills more than anything else. So duelists like Jett, Raze and Yoru are some of the fan favorites across every ranked tier. This fact, along with Astra’s complex kit, makes it quite hard for players to use her effectively in standard matchmaking.