Riot Games Disables Three Agents From Competitive Queue Due in a Single Day

Abhimannu Das
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<div class="paragraphs"><p>Valorant - Cypher</p></div>
Valorant - Cypher

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Highlights
Astra and Yoru were disabled just a day after the release of patch 4.04 in Valorant due to bugs and exploits.
Astra was able to sell her stars in any round to get access to more expensive weapons while Yoru’s Dimensional Rift did not work in some cases.
After both agents were hotfixed in a new update date, Cypher had to be disabled due to an exploit that allowed the agent to crash the game in Bind.

After the release of Patch 4.04 in Valorant, bugs and exploits with Astra and Yoru have forced Riot Gamers to disable both agents. It has left a lot of fans unhappy as players waited months for the anticipated Yoru rework, only to have the agent disabled from the competitive queue along with Astra, who also received some tweaks to her kit in the new update. Riot Games eventually managed to fix the bugged agents, but soon after Cypher was disabled and is unavailable in ranked games at the time of writing.

Why Cypher, Yoru, and Astra were disabled?

Yoru’s DImensional Rift did not work as intended in the new update and a lot of players were unable to activate the ability in some situations. Astra players on the other hand were able to sell their stars and bought powerful weapons. It gave the exploiters a huge advantage in the early game by getting access to some of the best submachine guns and assault rifles during pistol rounds.

Riot promptly addressed the issues with a hotfix. But as soon as the hotfix arrived, Riot Games tweeted out that Cypher has been disabled from the competitive queue. Cypher was able to place a tripwire at the Hookah door on Site B in Bind, which could cause the server to break and kick everyone out.

The bug allowed players to intentionally cause the game to crash when in a losing position. The agent is currently not available in ranked play until a hotfix is available. It typically takes one day for a hotfix to be available whenever such issues arise and agents have to be disabled.

Patch 4.04 is the biggest balance patch we have seen in recent months with all Controllers receiving some tweaks. Icebox’s B Site was also completely reworked to make it easier for players to engage each other. Yoru’s rework is the highlight of the new update as the agent is now able to create a copy of himself with his Fakeout ability instead of just generating fake footsteps to throw enemies off.


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Abhimannu is a PC esports writer at AFK Gaming. With over seven years of experience in esports journalism, he has worked on a myriad of games and their ecosystems including Valorant, Overwatch and Apex Legends.