The Cypher era: How one of VALORANT’s weakest agents went on to become a mandatory pick

“Alright guys, listen up. I have a plan,” one of my VALORANT teammates announced right as we loaded up in Breeze’s attacker spawn. Hearing their enthusiasm, I was expecting something solid, but all they had was, “If you see Cypher, rotate. We win.” Well, they weren’t entirely wrong.

The Moroccan spy wasn’t always a point of discussion before a match began. Let alone rotating to a different site. Instead, players would be happy if they saw Cypher instead of a Killjoy or Chamber in the enemy team. It wasn’t too hard to break through his setups using a Skye dog or Yoru clone. Coupled with his underwhelming ultimate that used to reveal enemies only once, he naturally wasn’t a popular pick in VALORANT. But then, Patch 7.09 happened.