The first thing you may see when you load into a match is a player instalocking a Duelist, in which such a simple act of “instalocking a Duelist” ' is something that can trigger a player right on the spot. This is because everyone has an opinion on how Duelists are played, in which most players think these agents are meant to hard-carry the team.

According to Riot’s official description of what a Duelist is, they are classified as simply “self-sufficient fraggers.” The Duelists of Valorant as of right now are Jett, Phoenix, Raze, Reyna, and Yoru, in which these agents are designed to create space for the team while entrying, which provides a pathway and space for teammates to enter onto site. Duelist abilities either consist of flashes and/or movement-based abilities that can be utilized as ways of engaging first-contact with the enemy. The expectations of Duelists are to get a great amount of frags and take engagements first, but who’s one to know how a role should truly be played?

Roles of a Duelist

Duelists are one of the four roles in the game, and although each role is unique amongst the others, our prime focus is on analyzing and acknowledging each of the many different actions and goals a Duelist may achieve. We will discuss the importance of entry and creating space for the team, which go hand-in-hand with each other, as well as the ability to frag out.

On attack (T side), Duelists are most often expected to be at the front of the pack and get opening picks on the enemy team, considering how their abilities can be utilized to take advantage of an enemy during engagement.

On defense (CT side), it’s recommended that Duelists hold an angle where an enemy will likely try to enter the site. It’s possible for all Duelists to hold a risky angle, but as long as you are able to reposition after getting a pick, you’ve secured the number advantage. When playing for retake, Duelists should also be the first to engage just like they would on attacker side, which would allow for separation of chokepoints and give the rest of the team space to work with for engagements.

As a Duelist, your primary task when entrying is being the first one on site to gather the enemy’s attention on you while your teammates trail onto site, as well as gathering intel and being in a position where your teammates can trade you. Ideally, you may push up even further to create some space, but as stated, you should be positioning yourself to where you can be traded by your teammates so that you don’t die without a cause. Jett and Raze are the ideal entry-type Duelists as they have movement abilities (Tailwind and Blast Pack) that allow them to swiftly reach into the back of a site.

Misconceptions of a Duelist

Whenever there are certain roles an agent must fulfill, there are also misconceptions on how an agent is meant to be played. Though it is expected of Duelists to be high fraggers, that alone is not necessarily the requirement to playing one’s role correctly.

If you have been playing Valorant for a while, you may have heard of the terms “frags” and “impact frags” being tossed around by your teammates in their comms, whether it be them mentioning to look for impact frags or just mentioning it in general.

To those who are unaware of the terms, to simply put it, “frags” can be determined as eliminations itself, while “impact frags” are any eliminations that set your team up for success. For example, getting exit kills when your whole team is dead and the bomb timer runs out don’t necessarily count as impact frags unless if you want to just hurt the enemy’s economy. One example of an impact frag is eliminating a lurker, which can offer control of both the site as well as the ability to cut any enemy rotations. From there, it’s up to you on whether you want to push up into the enemy’s defense and become the lurker yourself or regroup with your team to not risk getting picked and not getting traded. Another example of an impact frag can be getting a pick in an eco round, then safely and successfully picking up a rifle to make the eco round slightly more “winnable” than before.

Though there are many various situations where an impact frag has occurred, it should be acknowledged that such an advancement pulls forth from game skills such as your game sense, timing, and positioning. With the knowledge of the difference between impact frags and normal frags, it can level up one’s gameplay (and possibly play style) by simply understanding the importance of one’s eliminations, whether they’re just blatantly fragging or getting the kills that matter the most to the team.

How Support Players Can Play Around Their Duelists

To be straightforward, any support player can support their Duelist by tailing them shortly after they have successfully made space for the team to enter onto site. There seems to be a support player victim complex where support players believe that their Duelists aren’t fulfilling their role correctly and proceed to blame their Duelist(s) for losing the round. While this may happen sometimes, whether it be a Jett dashing onto site without getting traded, it’s a major problem if they aren’t getting traded out.

Ways that smoke players can help not only their Duelist, but their team as a whole, is to smoke off angles, reducing the number of angles the Duelist can be killed from. Support players that have the ability to concuss, blind, and/or create vulnerability in any areas an enemy on site may be playing at should utilize their utility when their Duelists are pushing up to give them an advantage in the engagement.

Conclusion

The importance of the “self-sufficient fragger” role, known as a Duelist, revolves around creating space for their team and to take on more aggressive engagements than their support players. The rule of thumb for Duelists is to be at the front line of the team and aggress the enemy team on both offense and defense. Know that many players have different opinions on how each of the four roles should be played, and that as long as you are playing your role properly, your teammates can also play around you.