Is Valorant pay to win? Are Valorant skins pay to win? Answered

gamepur.com:

One of the questions that haunt most competitive shooter games — and especially free-to-play ones — is whether they have pay to win elements. Pay to win would be any mechanic or purchasable item that would allow a player to translate money into a competitive advantage. This question comes up so often because for so many titles out there it is quite valid. A large number of popular shooter games (even relatively high profile ones) have pay to win mechanics. In this article, we will answer the burning question of whether Valorant is pay to win in any way, including whether it has pay to win cosmetic skins.

Valorant has two main types of moving parts: Agents, and weapons. Outside of picking their Agent and their guns, Valorant players have no fixed statistic way to influence the outcome of matches. Agents have different skillsets and strengths, and are all pretty well balanced, with Riot deploying regular and painstakingly precise balance changes in an effort to keep the game’s power curve as flat as possible.

Players cannot buy Agents in Valorant, and instead, get access to new Agents through the Contract system. By continuously playing the same Agent, you can level up their Contract track to unlock some basic cosmetic rewards like titles and cards. When you complete the Contract, you can unlock another Agent. In this way, all Valorant players get access to all Agents by just playing the game, and there is no pay to win mechanic to influence with Agents.

In high skill competitive gaming, the margin of victory could be so slim that a minute detail like a slightly wider ironsights could have real impact. For that reason, first-person shooter players habitually scrutinize gun skins for perceived advantage.