New Agent Spotlight: Waylay, Veto, Miks & Tejo

Riot has spread the last four agent releases across all four roles, which is unusual. Instead of stacking three duelists in a row, the roster now has a fresh face in every slot: Waylay for Duelist, Veto for Sentinel, Miks for Controller, and Tejo for Initiator. That means whatever your main role is, there is a new kit worth at least a few unrated games. This spotlight walks each one, what the kit actually does in a round, the maps they shine on, and whether they are worth learning now or worth waiting a patch for the dust to settle.

Waylay - the re-entry Duelist

Waylay is built around movement, not flashes. Her signature gives her a double-dash burst that lets her enter a site, take a fight, and then dash back out of the crossfire before the trade lands. Think of her as a Jett who trades linear escape for a more chaotic in-and-out pattern. She wants space and angles to reposition into, so she is at her best on open maps where there is somewhere to go after the first duel. On tight, corridor-heavy maps her dashes just eat wall and she becomes a worse Neon.

• Lead with utility, then dash. Waylay has no flash of her own, so pair her with an initiator who can clear the angle before you commit the double dash.
• Use the second dash as an escape, not an extra entry. New players burn both dashes pushing in and then die with no reset available.
• Best on Breeze, Icebox and Ascent, where long sightlines reward a duelist who can peek, trade and reposition off one contact.

Waylay

Duelist - double-dash re-entry on open maps

Duelist

Veto - the lockdown Sentinel

Veto is a flank-watching Sentinel whose kit is about denying space rather than gathering info. Where Cypher reads the map and Killjoy zones the plant, Veto is happiest holding one lane with a trap and a slow, forcing the enemy to spend time and utility just to move through your corner. That trade of tempo works beautifully on maps with a long, awkward flank to babysit, and it is close to dead weight on maps where the rotate is short and nobody flanks anyway. Draft Veto when the map has a real backline problem, not by default.

• Set up for the flank first, the site second. Veto pays off when a solo lurker walks into your setup and buys the team three seconds to rotate.
• On attack, Veto is weaker. Save the lockdown utility for post-plant rather than trying to entry with it.
• Pairs well with an info initiator like Sova or Fade, who cover the angles Veto is not physically standing in.

Veto

Sentinel - flank lockdown on maps with a long backline

Sentinel

Miks - the one-way Controller

Miks is a smoke Controller whose signature leans into one-way and directional smokes rather than the wide static walls of a Brimstone or Omen. That makes him rewarding for players who already know default lineups and want to angle their vision denial, and punishing for players who just want to click a spot on the minimap and smoke it. His skill floor is higher than the average Controller, but a Miks who knows the map can create pick angles a stock smoke never would.

• Learn the one-way spots per map before you first-pick him in ranked. A misaligned one-way smoke helps the enemy more than you.
• He can flex between the solo-Controller role and a second smoker in a double-Controller comp on bigger maps.
• On defense, use his directional smokes to hold two angles with one piece of utility instead of committing your body to one.

Miks

Controller - directional one-way smokes

Controller

Tejo - the safest pick of the four

Tejo is the one you can pick blind. He is an Initiator built around area denial and recon-adjacent pressure, and his kit does two jobs at once: force players off angles and clear space for your entry. He fits almost every comp, asks little of the rest of the team, and does not fall off on any particular map. If you only learn one of these four, learn Tejo, because the value transfers to every game you play regardless of map or draft.

Tejo

Initiator - flexible area denial, fits any comp

Initiator

Want the wider picture on where these four land against the established roster? Our Valorant agent tier list grades every agent by role, and the best recon and info agents guide covers the initiators Tejo now competes with. If you are deciding who to duo-queue around a new agent, the best agent duos and synergies guide pairs each of these with the partners that make them sing.