Here's how popular Astra has been in VCT Stage 2 Challengers so far

April 6, 2021

by Gabriel Ionica

Astra, VALORANT’s newest agent, is a controller designed to wreak havoc on any part of the map using her astral abilities. Since the VCT Challengers qualifiers that took place last week used Patch 2.05, players could opt to use Astra for the first time in competitive events. Using RunItBack.gg’s analytics tools, we looked at how many players in North America, Europe, Japan, Korea and Brazil picked Astra in their matches.

North America

Astra was most popular in North America. She was picked 131 times, giving her a 26% pick rate in North America and making her the eighth-most picked agent (out of 15) in the region this weekend.

Some of the noteworthy North American players who decided to make Astra their main agent this weekend were Team Envy’s Anthony "mummAy" DiPaolo, TSM’s Stephen "reltuC" Cutler, Noble’s Dwaine "Jangler" Kirkpatrick, eUnited Joseph "Joseph" Rivera and Immortals’ Daniel “Rossy” Abedrabbo.

MummAy even had a deathless game playing Astra, with a K/D/A of 16/0/5 on Map 2 of Team Envy’s match against Ghost Gaming.

Teams using her had a win rate of 59%, which was the highest for any agent with a pick rate over 15%.

Europe

In Europe, Astra was picked in 214 maps, accounting for a 21% pick rate. With a win rate of 58%, she had the highest win rate of any agent played in Europe this weekend.

Players across many notable teams played her in every match: Wave Esports’ Mathias "SEIDER" Seider, Team Vitality’s Jokūbas "ceNder" Labutis, Entropiq’s Mathieu "LaAw" Plantin, Fnatic’s Jake "Boaster" Howlett, and Ninjas in Pyjamas’ Charles "CREA" Beauvois.

Out of every Astra player at the Europe qualifiers, the two that stood out the most were Team Heretics’ Auni "AvovA" Chahade and Opportunists’ Alex "AKUMAAAAA" Lo Bello. AvovA picked Astra in 14 out of 14 maps, and AKUMAAAAA picked her in all 13 maps he played.

Japan

Astra wasn’t as popular in Japan, accounting for just 14 picks (10%). Out of those 14 picks, none were from any of the teams that made it past the qualifiers.

Korea

Astra’s popularity also was low in Korea at 21 picks (14%). World Game Star’s Hong "iRdy" Soo-min and F4Q’s Kim "zunba" Joon-hyuk were the Korean players who played Astra most in the qualifiers.

Brazil

Astra was picked only 35 times (13%) in Brazil. She also was not picked much by the major teams in the tournament, with SLICK’s Rafael "mNdS" Mendes and Rise Gaming’s Gustavo “GuhRVN” Ferreira being the most noteworthy Astra players.

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To sum it up, Astra was most popular in North America, where she enjoyed a 26% pick rate, and was also fairly popular in Europe. In Japan, Korea and Brazil, she was mostly ignored by the players. She’s the newest addition to the VALORANT agent pool, so perhaps as time goes on we will see players choose her more often, especially as Riot continues to buff and nerf agents with every patch.