I still remember the exact moment I first laid eyes on her. It was 2020, and the Valorant closed beta had just set the internet on fire. As an old-school shooter junkie, I'd been refreshing Twitch for drops like my life depended on it. And then, during a TimTheTatman stream, the screen lit up with a blur of orange and a cocky grin – Raze had arrived, and she wasn't here to make friends.
Raze wasn't unlocked automatically, of course. No, Riot made me work for her. Every kill, every match felt like filling a savings account that would finally pay out in pure, unadulterated mayhem. I grinded for what felt like an eternity. And let me tell you, the moment that agent contract completed, my entire playstyle changed forever.
The first thing you need to understand about Raze is that she's not subtle. While other agents were peeking corners with surgical precision, I was already counting down to detonation. Her kit was a symphony of destruction, each ability a different instrument of chaos. Let me walk you through the arsenal that turned me into a walking demolition crew.
🛠️ The Tools of Annihilation
Boom Bot – This little guy was my scout, my instigator, and sometimes my best friend. I'd deploy him around a corner, and he'd scuttle off like an angry Roomba hunting for ankles. The moment he locked onto an enemy, you could see the panic in their movement. They'd backpedal, they'd shoot, but if that bot reached them? Boom. Early in the beta, players underestimated the Boom Bot constantly. I remember one game on Bind where a single bot cleared an entire hookah hold, simply because the opposing team scattered like bowling pins. It wasn't just damage; it was psychological warfare.
Blast Pack – This was my movement, my surprise factor, my cheeky double-kill setup. The Blast Pack was basically C4 that you could stick anywhere and detonate remotely. More importantly, you could use it to boost yourself into the air. I'd spend hours in custom games just practicing Blast Pack jumps, learning the angles to fly over walls no one expected. In the early days, pulling off a mid-air shot with a shotgun while sailing over an obstacle was the ultimate flex. It felt like breaking the rules of a tactical shooter, and I was completely addicted.
Paint Shells – The cluster grenade that turned tight spaces into funerals. Throw it, watch it pop into smaller bomblets, and listen for the delightful sound of multiple damage ticks. On maps like Split, where corridors were narrow, this ability was a war crime. I'd toss it into B Garage and hear the chaos unfold – first the initial explosion, then the secondary pops, and finally the kill confirmation ding... or three dings. It was a rhythm I came to love.
Showstopper (Ultimate) – The reason I mained Raze above all others. She pulled out a rocket launcher. In a game about precise gunplay, I was holding a weapon that screamed, "What's behind that wall? I don't care." The first time I fired Showstopper into a crowded Spike plant site, I actually cackled out loud. The damage radius was massive, the impact deafening, and the multikill potential was real. In beta, enemies didn't fully respect the warning sound yet, and I punished them for it relentlessly.
💥 Becoming the Duelist I Was Born to Be
At heart, Raze was a duelist, and I played her with a singular purpose: delete enemies before they could think. She didn't provide smokes, heals, or intel. If you picked Raze, you were making a statement – "I will get the opening kill, or I will die trying." And honestly? That pressure drove me to become better. Every round without a frag was a round wasted. I learned to push smarter, to combo my Boom Bot with a Paint Shells follow-up, to feign retreats and leave Blast Pack surprises behind me. Over time, she molded me into an aggressive entry fragger who thrived on calculated risk.
During the beta, Valorant hit 1.6 million concurrent viewers on Twitch, a record only touched by Fortnite and League of Legends. The hype was nuclear, and Raze's reveal right in the middle of it felt like Riot throwing gasoline on a bonfire. She immediately became the most talked-about agent, not just because she was new, but because she forced everyone to reevaluate their approach to engagements. Good positioning suddenly had a hard counter: overwhelming explosive force.
🚀 Six Years Later: The Spark Still Burns
Fast forward to 2026, and Valorant's agent pool has more than doubled since those early days. We've seen meta-defining controllers, sentinels who can reshape the entire map, and initiators who felt like cheating. Yet Raze remains my comfort pick, my "I need to have fun" button. Her core kit is lovingly preserved – Boom Bot still roams, Paint Shells still splits into death confetti, and Showstopper still makes grown players panic-jump. She's received balance tweaks, sure. The Blast Pack doesn't blast quite as far anymore, and her ultimate requires smarter timing with the newer agent counters in play. But her soul is unchanged.
What I've realized over the years is that Raze taught me a philosophy I carry into every competitive game: unpredictability is its own weapon. While everyone else walks through doors, I come through the ceiling. In a world that rewards structure, I chose explosions. Looking back at that 2020 beta debut, I can't imagine my climb through the ranks without the agent who made every round feel like a celebration. Here's to many more rocket launchers in the face – long may she reign.