Differences in pick rates and usage between different archetypes are an inherent characteristic of any class-based game. Be it in RPGs with the trinity between Tanks, Healers, and Damage Dealers; MOBAS with champions designed to specific roles like Carries, Bruisers, and Supports; or an Agent-based game like Valorant. Analyzing these pick-rates, what one can, normally, see is the biggest share of the player base fluctuating towards ‘Carrying’ roles - which can be summarized in Damage Dealing roles in most MOBA and RPG games, and offensive type utility in class-based FPSes - while other archetypes see minimal numbers.

Staying away from the demerits and possible solutions for this problem, what I want to talk about today is one single, recurrent phenomenon that originated from this situation which can be observed during Valorant’s Agent Selection screen: triple Duelist compositions.

With the meta revolving more and more around single Duelist or even no Duelist compositions, seeing three Duelists being locked can definitely generate loads of frowns and even some tilts. However, thinking in a purely theoretical way, is triple Duelist really unviable? Or is it just people too focused on playing meta agents and compositions, and forgetting to try and experience new ways to play the game?

What is the Problem in Compositions with Three Duelists?

Now, with so much flame and ostracism hovering over this topic, there's going to be a problem with tri-Duelist compositions… right? Well, it surely has, but it’s not as big of a problem as people tend to believe.

Besides gunplay, what is one key element of any Tactical Shooter? The answer to that question is Utility. Be it in Rainbow Six Siege, CSGO, or any other Tactical Shooter, utility holds importance by creating possibilities, creating a tactical depth for games that, otherwise, could become monotonous, and even stagnate in many situations. Innovative ways of using utility can form new metas and specific pieces of utility can be core elements of how the game is played - the prime example, in this case, is the usage of smokes in CSGO and Valorant. This element carries a lot more weight in a game like Valorant where you can find a plethora of variations in utility.

Relating what was exposed above with tri-Duelist compositions gives us the key problem of this type of composition: the lack of utility. By adding more Duelists into your composition, important pieces from particular types of utility will have to stay out of your game-plan - since each role carries different sets of utility. This makes certain approaches to the game unfeasible to use. In many cases, this addition can be translated as the lack of a Sage Wall, a Lockdown, or an additional set of smokes. Summarizing this utility diversity topic, the scenario created by the addition of more Duelist agents in your team composition makes the greater part of the available utility in the composition fall into one specific archetype - the offensive, disrupting the balance between types of utility in your team. As such, you’ll have a greater number of flashes at the cost of lacking area denial or information gathering tools (like smokes and traps), which reduces your team’s overall flexibility and limits your possibilities within the game.

One last circumstance created by this utility deficiency is the constant need for the triple Duelist comp to take crude aim duels to gain space or during info-plays - both things that can be easily done with some types of utility - which ends up building an unreliable aim-dependent play style.

Despite This Problem, Is There a Way to Make This Type of Composition Work?

While the lack of types of utility is detrimental to a composition, it doesn't make it unplayable. Instead, what has to be done is for you to think and plan your strategies from a different perspective.

One thing that can be made to make a triple Duelist composition more reliable is to choose the remaining spots of the team with agents that can maximize the good points of a Duelist. Here, two pieces that fit well in the picture are a Controller and an Initiator. While Sentinels possess pivotal sets of abilities for a good defensive side, they don't help improve the good points your Duelists should be bringing to the table. What Agents in each category should be chosen will depend on the Duelists present within the composition. The decision behind the choice of these two classes is pretty simple: without the line of sight denial and information gathering tools possessed by then - and special care should be paid to the line of sight part - playing any composition will be hard, especially a triple Duelist one.

One good example of a composition and game plan that maximizes the power brought by a triple Duelist comp can be seen in the first map played in the match between Damwon Gaming and Desperado during the group phase of Korea's VCT. Using Reyna, Neon, Jett, Astra, and Sova on Bind, Desperado ran a fast-paced, execution heavy play style in most of their attack rounds that caught the enemy team off-guard. The rounds where they played slower, numbering less than a third of the rounds played by then during the attack side, were defaults with extremely fast rotations if they got the opening kill. This combination, coupled with a great match from Desperado’s Secret while playing Neon (and a messy defensive side that couldn't find ways to stop this aggressiveness by Damwon KIA) made them achieve a nearly perfect half with an 11-1 scoreline before they changed sides.

Damwon Gaming VS Desperado - Challengers Korea - Main Event - Day 11 - Twitch

The shortfalls pointed at the beginning of the article, however, did appear in their defensive side, and the lack of non-offensive abilities almost created Desperado's downfall - the only two rounds made by then while defending were the result of two great solo plays from the team's Sova, Godko. It should also be pointed out that while the team did win the game with a triple Duelist composition, most of the time, the role filled by both the Reyna and the Jett could be made with a better impact if other agents were used, even in a fast-paced scenario. With most of the space being created by the team’s Neon, the other two Duelists played more like a second man entering the site – positions normally held by other support roles – than actual Duelists.

Conclusion

While triple Duelist compositions aren't the problem believed by many, they do create quite volatile compositions with their lack of key pieces of utility. Knowing this also shouldn't discourage you to pick a third Duelist if you have confidence in it and believe that you can do your best with it. Just try talking to your teammates before locking it.