Now before saying anything, I will say that I'm a neon player with around 1100 hours on her. But this doesn't mean im gonna defend her brutal nerf without any reason whatsoever. I, just like anyone does really want the game to be balanced and i think what riot is doing in order to do that is not at all ideal.

Although, What I am trying to explain can be better explained with neon nerfs though so I'm gonna use her as an example.

**1.** **The** **people who think Neon doesn't fit Valorant** 

I was obviously very sad to see that players just started hating Neon because her movement doesn't fit the game and even started saying that she should be outright removed. But i thought it's just the community being a little toxic and obviously Riot wouldn't actually acknowledge it but i was even more disappointed to hear when someone from their balancing team in one of their yt shorts said that Neon doesn't fit their "Design Philosophy". And i immediately thought, Design Philosophy? What do you mean? Neon has been out for 4 years now and you're just now realising she doesn't fit the game? Then what were you even thinking back then?

And more importantly why did this thought of "she doesn't fit the game" come to your minds now? This leads me to the actual issue.

**2. Balancing issue**

The reason it didn't come to their minds because Neon wasn't the only dominant duelist in the meta as she is now. This is the reason why I have linked Temets recent yt post because I think he explains this best. But basically a year ago almost every duelist was viable. Neons pickrate both in ranked and vct wasn't as high as it was right now before the nerf and you had other duelists that had a healthy pickrate too like Waylay, Yoru and even Raze alongside Neon obviously. But it's just when Riot decided to nerf every duelist (including Neon) and then nerf Yoru again on top of it which basically killed him and then Waylay as well, then this nerf to Neon was bound to happen as she was basically the next best duelist and obviously players will take any advantage they can get including choosing an agent thats in the meta. I mean you can literally see it, Neon was basically in all of my matches. I have been playing her since years and trust me her pickrate was never as high as right now.

Now again, I'm not trying to defend Neon here I am just saying killing agents is not the solution, it never is. Sure it can work for a short term but then you'll have the same issue in the future which i will explain further. But nerfs so bad that you basically kill agents like Yoru and Neon which are arguably very fun agents to play as is just not it.

**3. This is just gonna continue** 

Well now that Neon has gotten nerfed who do you think will be next in the meta? Obviously it will be Phoenix. I mean look alot of vct pacific teams are already running phoenix comps and his pickrate in ranked is also gonna sky rocket. Why? Obviously because he's the next best duelist and he's util is also at an absolute dominant state right now. 2 undodgable flashes which are rechargeable for every 2 kills, mollies and walls that you don't need to touch for healing and ult that give you a second life and dominant for entry that only costs 6 ult points. A year ago teams and players wouldn't even think of touching him (except the mains) because he's such a basic agent that is not that fun to play but now everyones gonna play him because you just don't have any better options. Now this is not me complaining that Pheonix should also be killed, if I did, that would not make me any better than the people who complain about every meta but is Riot that lazy to just kill an agent the community complains about and then just move on? I have been one of the few players who usually gave Riot the benefit of the doubt every patch and always supported their actions even though sometimes they have been a little questionable but this is just absurd do they just not care about their agents and most importantly their identity? Instead of just killing them can a billion dollar company not find a solution that would actually fix the agent and the game altogether? Because if not, in couple months time players will complain about Phoenix and the cycle will go on forever.

**4. The nerfs**

Even the nerfs in this patch it doesn't make sense. If you are going to buff sentinels soon, if you are already going to nerf shotguns so Neon shotgun plays will not be as viable, if you are going to reduce her sprint duration by not being able to recharge it then does reducing her sprint speed itself really make sense? I mean tell me how does this make sense if a fast moving character can't move fast? And bhoping on her sprint is now just as fast as bhoping with knife out. Neon was all about movement always has been removing bhoping basically kills her. Temets post also highlights it and I'm glad he posted it so that someone in Riots creator PR comes across it since he doesn't feel very good about it. Neon is not an agent anyone can pick and be good at it. It takes practice and time something like dambi and Temet and other Neon mains have been doing since so long and that's how they kinda built they careers. 

**4. Solution**

Now obviously I want other duelists to be buffed too so the entire meta isn't focused on only one duelist. This includes Yoru because the state he's in right now is horrible. The sentinel nerfs are a good idea but it doesn't mean you nerf the duelists on top of it. If an equation is imbalanced you take away from one side not both. I still think Riot can come up with a better solution but I hope they don't just become lazy and kill an agent straightaway the moment the community trash talks about it. I also think the community needs to understand every agent have their own pros and cons and that obviously they will use their abilities to get an edge if they can, just complaining about something like Neon's slide and her movement just doesn't make sense for that is the core of her kit and she will use it just like Raze's ult and Waylay's ult which are annoying too.

And rather I think most of the players who are complaining about her are low elo (Diamond and under) and since the low elo comprises of like 85-90% of valorant player base obviously Riot is gonna notice it the most so I hope the community is more mature about this.

Tl;dr : Neon isn't the issue, she was just the next best option as a duelist hence the hate towards and also the nerfs. Duelists need to be balanced carefully instead of just being killed, if not, the cycle continues and the community will just find the next strong agent to complain about or worse duelists won't be as fun to play anymore.

This was never a Neon issue, this is a balancing issue