It is the VALORANT Masters Santiago Grand Final between Nongshim RedForce and Paper Rex. Following a rough start on Corrode, the first map of the series, Nongshim is forced to settle for a half-buy in round five: a couple of pistols, only one Vandal, and a Judge, wielded by the team’s Neon expert Lee “Dambi” Hyuk-kyu.
The round begins, and Nonghim’s players immediately push A-main. Except for Dambi. Dambi sprints towards the A-site through middle. With his knife out to achieve maximum speed, he comes across one of the Paper Rex players. Dancing and jumping towards his opponent, he avoids any deadly damage, pulls out his Judge at close range, executes his target, and secures a gun upgrade from the corpse. “How he keeps working these miracles I do not know,” exclaims one of the match casters.
Nonghim RedForce ended up winning Corrode and later lifted the Masters Santiago trophy, with Dambi receiving the tournament’s MVP Award. Only two days after Nongshim’s victory, VALORANT developer Riot Games released the patch notes for its 12.05 update. And the reception was mixed, from both the casual player base and the esports scene.
“This is very questionable from Riot,” commented M80 Coach Marc-Andre “NiSMO” Tayar on social media. “Neon bunny hoping around is as strong if not stronger then other agents that have one dash ability while this one has infinite with mouse wheel/space bar Neon needs a heavy nerf.” This kind of sentiment has persisted until even the newest Patch 12.06, where Neon remains unchanged.
Why has Neon not been nerfed yet? Surely, her performance at Masters Santiago must have shown everyone watching, including Riot Games, why this agent is a problem at her current power level. But is she really?
Individual Mastery Vs. Game-Wide Issue
Dambi undoubtedly had a massive impact on his team’s success at Masters Santiago. His mastery of Neon to the point where he appears unstoppable at times cannot be denied. But he is also a clear statistical outlier in VALORANT’s double-duelist meta.
Most teams at Masters Santiago combined Yoru (62% pick rate) with either Neon (45% pick rate) or Waylay (36% pick rate) as their secondary duelist. While Yoru excelled at map control and information gathering prior to his Patch 12.05 nerf, he was never good at charging in first and creating space for the rest of his team. That’s where agents like Neon and Waylay came in. Their mobility and “crowd-control” abilities make them the perfect spearhead during a site push. However, these “entry-duelists” typically have an unrewarding, if not frustrating, job: They must selflessly dive into enemy lines, often dying in the process, so that their teammates can capitalise on the created space and clean up with frags. Therefore, their immense impact is nigh invisible on the leaderboard.
Looking at the statistically best-performing Neon players at Masters Santiago, we can find proof of the “selfless entry-duelist” phenomenon. Only three out of the top eight Neons have a positive kill-death ratio (KDA) and a VLR performance rating of one or above. Meanwhile, all top-eight Yoru players at Masters Santiago recorded a VLR rating of at least one. Plus, ten out of the 15 total competitors who played Yoru at the event scored a positive KDA.
And then there is Dambi. Dambi, who is the highest-rated Neon player right now by a large margin, is sitting at a KDA of 1.24 and nearly one kill per round. Dambi, who began mastering Neon all the way back in 2024, when he was still competing in VALORANT’s tier-two esports scene. Dambi, who loves to exploit low-cost shotguns in a tactical shooter. Dambi, who disrupts even the most accurate aimers in the world with his Neon movement. Dambi, who seamlessly jiggle-peaks every angle, then slides across the screen and one-taps his opponents before they even know what’s happening to them.
So, is Neon’s strength actually a game-wide issue? Or has Dambi simply given us a glimpse into what this agent is capable of at the highest level of mastery? For now, the numbers across professional play indicate that no one else has come close to reaching Dambi’s Neon proficiency despite her strong kit and high pick rate. And, personally, I don’t think Riot Games should punish years of dedication to an agent until we see more players hit Neon’s skill ceiling.
Watching Vs. Playing
The case of Dambi and Neon is reminiscent of a similar story that took place during the season-ending VALORANT Champions tournament last year. At the time, millions of VCT fans witnessed NRG’s Brock “brawk” Somerhalder tear through his opponents with the Odin like no player had done before him. Both Dambi and brawk received MVP Awards for their incredible contributions to their respective team’s tournament-winning runs. Both players excelled at a VALORANT feature that had previously been unmastered. And in both cases, voices from the game’s casual and esports communities asked for nerfs in response.
The casual player base, in particular, has expressed frustration that more Odins and shotgun-wielding Neons have flooded VALORANT servers since brawk’s and Dambi’s dominating performances in professional play. Interestingly, OP.GG has indeed recorded a slight increase in Neon usage between the game patches before and after Nongshim RedForce’s Masters Santiago run. Is a Neon that runs you down at light-speed frustrating to play against? Yes. Is a Neon that runs her enemies down at light-speed also incredibly entertaining to watch at the highest level of play? Absolutely, yes!
And this is a key difference between brawk’s Odin case and Dambi’s Neon mastery. While both players have proven their skill in their respective disciplines, I’d argue that few people find it particularly exhilarating to watch professional players being spam-killed through walls with an Odin. But as someone who tunes into every VCT match, I always look forward to Dambi’s Neon performances. Especially in the Masters Santiago meta, where many matches followed a similar fast-paced formula of double-duelist site hits, it felt like a breath of fresh air to watch Dambi outplay his opponents in his unique and quirky way.
Until Neon pick rates and proficiency levels escalate, I think we should all sit back and enjoy Dambi’s Neon shenanigans for a little longer.
Nerfing Neon Vs. Buffing Sentinels
Even if we move away from the esports angle, I believe there’s still an argument to be made against a Neon nerf in the near future. Instead of taking away Neon’s thunder, Riot Games could make her counter-picks viable again.
I write “again” because Sentinels, the prime agent class to slow down Neons, were hit with a range of debilitating nerfs as part of the massive 11.08 update from October last year. According to Riot Games, this patch aimed to “strike a healthier balance between sharp gunplay and the unique abilities that give VALORANT its signature tactical flavor.” However, it disproportionally impacted different agent classes. Sentinels, in particular, lost a lot of their stalling power while duelists got off fairly unaffected. The result was a fast-paced double-duelist meta with little to no Sentinels action.
I personally don’t think an entire class of agents should be so weak that players with years of Sentinels experience are forced to move onto other roles. Plus, buffing Setinels would provide checks and balances to Neon through rewarding in-game interactions. Utility, such as Cypher’s Trapwires, Vyse’s Razorvines, and Deadlock’s GravNet used to excel at slowing down Neon site entries prior to being nerfed. Why nerf yet another unique agent when you can balance her through counterplay that’s already coded into the game?
Does Neon Belong In A Tactical FPS?
Starting with last year’s Patch 11.08, Riot Games has begun reducing utility clutter and strength to emphasise the tactical FPS component of VALORANT. Considering this vision for the game, one question arises: Does a character like Neon belong in a gunplay-focused, tactical shooter?
And this is the most solid concern raised by Neon critics in my eyes. Yes, Neon brings a unique form of mobility to the game. Yes, Dambi domination is fun to watch. But should her speed and move set have a place in a competitive PVP title, where success is largely determined by snappy and accurate aim? After all, even the best aimers in VALORANT struggle to reliably shoot down a top Neon player, as proven by Dambi.
Neon’s ability to disrupt an opponent’s aim is directly tied to her kit design: a fuel-based sprint with no cooldown and an even faster slide, combined with her Fast Lane to provide additional coverage. And despite already having received several nerfs throughout her VALORANT lifetime, she’s remained viable. Fixing such a disruptive kit, in my opinion, would almost certainly require more than just a nerf. It would require a rework.
So, if the short-term choice is between a Neon nerf or no nerf, I’d choose to leave her be for now, whilst buffing Sentinels. And if Riot Games continues its pursuit of an FPS title with less utility clutter, then the development team will likely need to make more fundamental Neon changes in the long term.
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