Harbor’s release has sparked discussion around the agent’s viability. There has been a handful of teams showcasing Harbor in the off-season tournaments, most notably Paper Rex, Team Vitality, and Gen.G. From my perspective, Harbor is useful; despite having minimal punishment for pushing through his abilities. Teams that are not treating Harbor like a Viper replacement, utilizing his utility to take/confirm space, alongside creating dynamic set plays with his kit are finding success.
One team that showcased a notable game plan with Harbor on Icebox was Valorians in the VRL France: Coupe De France Tournament. Valorians is a Free Agent VRL French Team. Their use of Harbor highlighted an extremely well-thought dynamic playstyle that was effective at taking space, confirming space, and flexibility on their site executes. When watching their gameplay live, I immediately knew it was a VOD to come back to. Their game plan revolved around using Viper's utility for permanent presence towards the B Site and Mid. Harbor’s utility was either used to take space, execute, or an extension of Viper’s utility. They did not need to create site executes that were never seen before, but the ability to make flexible executes that could use Harbor’s utility.
<aside> <img src="/icons/info-alternate_pink.svg" alt="/icons/info-alternate_pink.svg" width="40px" /> The purpose of this article is to take a deeper dive into competitive VALORANT games. This follows the part of the approach that I apply when reviewing games; identifying gaps, weaknesses, strengths, and understanding how teams play.
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https://youtu.be/EeF0xb66l_0?t=281
Valorians’ composition uses a double-controller instead of the common solo-controller Viper composition. It is important to note that Harbor is not a Viper replacement. When Viper’s wall is placed, it creates a consistent presence towards its location. This may cause enemies to change their playstyle to play around the wall. Harbor’s utility does not create this pressure as they are only temporary abilities. With Valorians’ composition, they can use Harbor as an extension of the Viper wall to create more flexible executes or find more timings due to less reliance on Viper’s wall.
Outside of denying line-of-sight, Harbor’s utility plays out like an initiator. His Cascade, a moving wall ability, allows all agents to make space. This allows Valorians to have multiple ways of making space on-site or in their defaults with Harbor, Sova, or both in combination. Agents without movement abilities can act as dive agents to scale with Harbor's Cascade.
Valorians’ composition also uses Harbor instead of Sage, which has an ~85% pick rate on Icebox. The use of Sage makes up for the difficulty in securing plants. Teams that do not play Sage often take more space to compensate for the lack of plant security or hit A Site more often. B Site is seen as a position where Sage is required to minimalize the angles that enemies can contest plant with utility or weapons. Teams may choose to fight beyond their Viper utility without a Sage. With Harbor, Valorians are reliant on his Cove to protect the planter. While his barrier is 300hp less than Sage's wall, it still offers immediate protection for the planter.
Confirming space is a tactic that takes advantage of putting enemies unfavorable scenario. This can be defined as the following:
Establishing a lane of control that enemies are expected to respect. If the enemies chose not to respect that space, they are put in an unfavorable scenario or are forced to expend more utility. Abilities like mollies, flashes, and/or smokes can accomplish this if used in the right method.
This has been seen with teams using Omen’s one-way on Ascent Defence towards A Tree or smoking off B Garden on Bind Attack to confirm space that enemies have to use more utility and bodies if they chose to immediately disrespect control.
Valorians’ main default revolves around using Harbor’s Cascade and Sova’s Recon to confirm space towards A Pipes. Because of the Cascade’s timer, 5s when static (Patch 5.10), there is a window where multiple attackers can be behind the wall. Enemies can only be in front of the wall if they disrespect this control, where the recon scans. With this combination Valorians’ take control with minimal resources. They can use this combination of utility to fake control, actually, take control, or post people behind the wall. This gives consistent information in their defaults no matter what they do. Anytime Karmine Corp attempted to disrespect this control as a solo-player, they were put in an unfavorable fight.
Within Valorians’ default, they pressure three different lanes: B Long with Viper Wall, Mid with Viper Orb, and A Pipes with Harbor Cascade + Sova Recon. Due to their consistent use of this default, Karmine Corp attempted to counter their pressure by bringing three players toward the A Site to retake control. However, Karmine Corp has 0 information if anyone is taking control unless they use Sova Recon, KAY/O knife, or bodies. This plays out within Round 12, where they attempted to counter the space with KAY/O, Chamber, and Sage. While Karmine Corp can break Sova Recon, they still have to wait for Harbor’s Cascade before pushing through. While they fight for control, Valorians' are preparing to execute Kitchen -> B Site where there is minimal presence.
VRL France: Revolution - Coupe De France (Karmine Corp vs. Valorians) - Round 1
VRL France: Revolution - Coupe De France (Karmine Corp vs. Valorians) - Round 12
Valorians’ attack was extremely flexible within their executes. They were never reliant on Viper’s wall as the main way of executing on sites. Harbor’s utility was used more to scale up for control and take sites. While they did not try to 'reinvent the wheel' on Icebox, their executes gained security from Harbor without sacrificing Viper's impact in defaults.
In Pistol Round Valorians set the tone with a fake A Site execute. To do this they take control of A Pipes while holding B Garage passively with Viper and Chamber. Viper sets her wall up towards B Site and her Orb towards Mid. This allows her to consistently make a presence towards A Site and deny vision for the mid-cross. Chamber’s teleports allow him to travel back towards A Site in case of the enemies push aggressively.
They started the round out by defaulting with Harbor’s Cascade to take control towards A Site paired with a Sova Recon for Pipes. They utilize Harbor’s Cascade as a way to scale up and take control of Pipes. Due to the Cascade denying line-of-sight, Karmine Corp is unaware of how many people are pushing behind it unless they expend KAY/O Knife, Sova Recon, or bodies.
After gaining control of Pipes, they Deposit Sova. They then make presence in Mid with Harbor while everyone but Sova groups up towards B Garage. While grouping up, Sova Recons and Drones towards A to make presence to sell the fake. By the time Valorians is scaling up towards B Site, Karmine Corp has given up control. Despite losing the round in the after-plant it is still a well-executed round.
VRL France: Revolution - Coupe De France (Karmine Corp vs. Valorians) - Round 1
VRL France: Revolution - Coupe De France (Karmine Corp vs. Valorians) - Round 1
Typically when teams execute on A Site, they change up their Viper wall to deny line-of-sight towards Screens or fight with minimal coverage. Because Valorians run a Harbor, they are not reliant on Viper's wall for executes. Valorians default Viper’s wall towards B Site every round, so they use Harbor’s Wall to take A Site.
Similar to Valorians’ Pistol Round and default, they use Harbor’s wall and Sova’s recon to take control of A Pipes. They then pause before using more utility. This creates enemies from knowing if they fall back or are behind the wall. If the enemies decide to retake control, they will run into the crosshairs of four players. After waiting, they execute on A Site with Harbor and Sova’s utility. Harbor, Jett, and Chamber all fight during post-plant so that Viper and Sova can focus on post-plant utility.
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VRL France: Revolution - Coupe De France (Karmine Corp vs. Valorians) - Round 3
When teams usually pressure B Site they use Viper’s wall to show presence and pull rotations. However, due to the lack-of secondary Controllers played on Icebox, teams are often reliant on Viper's wall for executing. Because Valorians play Viper and Harbor, they have more flexibility in their executes; relying on either Viper or Harbor for their walls. For example, Snowman takes previously have been done with a Viper wall similar to the Harbor wall they use. Because Valorians default Viper’s wall on A Site every round, they can use Harbor’s utility to flex into a Snowman take.
With this execute, Harbor puts a straight wall that allows players to scale up towards B Snowman. The wall blocks lines of sight both towards enemies towards Orange or rotating from Defender’s Spawn. Sova uses a recon to clear Snowman allowing Harbor and Jett to scale up. Since Valorians do not have a Sage they use Harbor’s cove to allow them to plant safely.
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VRL France: Revolution - Coupe De France (Karmine Corp vs. Valorians) - Round 4
Valorians showed their B Site execute through Kitchen using the Viper ultimate. While their execute is not too different from other teams’, their use of the Harbor wall is the main exception. Due to using Harbor, they can place his wall up while splitting the site. This allows them to block line-of-site towards Snowman. Because there is an extra wall towards Snowman, Sova and Chamber can fight a bit heavier towards the site without worry of Viper’s utility running out.
Valorians contact A Kitchen so they can break the Chamber Trip as soon as they are ready to execute. After breaking the Trip, Harbor puts his wall up for Snow, and Sova and Chamber clear B Long. This puts pressure on anyone between B Long and Kitchen. Enemies get pressured from both sides and put in an awkward position. Jett and Viper push through Kitchen while Viper ults as shown.
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VRL France: Revolution - Coupe De France (Karmine Corp vs. Valorians) - Round 12
Immediately when watching this game live, I knew I had to come back to review it. Valorians’ displayed a beautiful gameplan with Harbor that was simplistic yet well-executed. They did not need to attempt many mid-splits, however, were able to consistently pressure the map with both Viper and Harbor’s abilities. Viper could default her utility for consistent pressure, while Harbor could slot into a more dynamic playstyle to add extra coverage. This sort of playstyle creates multiple options for approaching the site when executing. In my eyes, teams that utilize Harbor to confirm space and maximize the impact of utility will find the most success in their attack. As seen from
While the Valorians’ attack was great, I wish they used more combinations to maximize the impact of Harbor’s ultimate. Due to the consistent stuns spawned under enemies, people tend to rotate off-site or play outside of the range when they can. This can push people into utility, or outside to take more space. Here are some ways they could have better taken advantage of Harbor's ultimate:
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Harbor’s ultimate can be paired with Sova's ultimate to take advantage of enemies rotating out of site. This could be paired with a deeper dart to allow them to take more space. This combination of utility was used by Gen.G within their executes to take advantage of enemies pushed out of site.
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Harbor’s ultimate can be paired with Viper's ultimate to take advantage of the space made. This aggressive ultimate puts enemies at a disadvantage in their retake when attempting to flood through screens. This also allows the attackers to change their plant if needed.