NUFV Fervent Esports: Debuting Gekko With A Plan in AllG
It’s been a while since Gekko has been released and it’s fun to see Wingman waddle around every now and then in your casual games. As exciting as his addition to the agent lineup, no one actually uses Gekko, at least competitively. As per rib.gg, Gekko surprisingly has an abysmal pick rate, second only to the much-hated worst agent of the game Yoru. In fact, a lot of pro teams have ruled him out from team compositions as they think he’s pretty much a liability and is actually not an impactful agent.
However, as luck would have it, the AcadArena Alliance Games is now in full swing and a collegiate team believes in Gekko, thus giving Mateo Armendáriz De la Fuente his first spotlight in the Filipino collegiate scene.
Antoine Philipp “Hikari” Ochea from National University – Fairview’s Fervent Esports picked the newest initiator of the game not just once but twice. Hikari locked in on Gekko for all their matches in Haven and recorded a respectable 27/23/10 during their triple overtime win against Ateneo de Manila University’s Loyola Gaming (LG) Atlas and an unfortunate 7/16/7 in a loss against Southwestern University PHINMA’s Cobra Esports.
Their use of Gekko has revealed its strong points and weaknesses as an agent. Here’s a breakdown of how they used Gekko.
A Versatile Agent
Gekko’s kit combines some aspects of Skye and Killjoy’s utility. In fact, you can theoretically choose Gekko over the two other agents depending on what your team needs you to do.
Dizzy comes first!
First, let’s talk about Gekko’s Dizzy. As attackers, Hikari used Gekko just like how you’d use an entry-Skye: use their flashes to blind and confirm enemy positions while you or a teammate follows close by to get the kill.
What’s great about Skye and Gekko as entry pseudo-duelists is that their flashes not only blind people but they confirm if opponents are actually in the area, which is something other initiator flashes can’t do. But, what makes Dizzy even better than Skye’s Guiding Light is its mechanic of shooting plasma toward the exact position an enemy player was holding. To make it sound even more simple, Dizzy shoots its flash at the position of your opponents you also wish to kill.
They immediately used this tactic from the get-go and proved to have taken LG Atlas by surprise as they managed to be up by two rounds, 7-5, during their game’s halftime.
Moving on, let’s now compare Gekko to Killjoy, specifically their respective ultimates Thrash and Lockdown. These two ultimate abilities detain people, effective for pushing out enemies when you’re in a retake situation or taking the site to plant the spike. Now the stark difference between the two is that Killjoy’s Lockdown is stationary and takes time to detain people while Gekko’s Thrash can also gather site information by checking every nook and cranny similar to Skye’s Trailblazer and instantly detain enemies if they find (and was able to hit) them.
Hikari and Sean show how retakes are supposed to be done with Thrash and Hunter’s Fury.
Unfortunately, Gekko’s Thrash wasn’t able to shine that much at the hands of Hikari but it had its moments, just like his ultimate combo with Sean Mayote “Sean” Dillinger Jr. using Sova’s Hunter’s Fury to tag, detain, and kill an enemy and then proceeding to successfully retake the site during the nineteenth round of their game against LG Atlas.
Wingman Sixth Man
Wingman is the cutest little thing ever. You’ve got to protect the little guy. Or so they say.
Considering its gimmick of being able to plant and defuse spikes, Wingman became the unofficial sixth man of Fervent Esports. As expected, Hikari abused Wingman’s planting capabilities to the fullest which allowed the team to focus on clearing the remaining areas of the site, position themselves for a more favorable spot to defend the ticking spike, or take gunfights with the full force of the entire remaining team. With Wingman on their side, Fervent Esports planted the spike faster which meant they took control of sites quicker as well.
Theoretically, this can be applied on the defensive side too but Hikari and Fervent Esports need to polish this strategy more as Wingman’s HP is pretty low, something the Cobras reminded Fervent Esports during their faceoff.
Post-Mortem Mechanics
We’re not done talking about Wingman just yet.
Wingman still plants the spike despite Hikari dying to an Elderflame Judge.
Another interesting feature of Wingman is that it continues to do what it’s set to do even if Gekko dies first. As such, Fervent Esports was able to plant the spike even if Hikari was eliminated. A nifty mechanic they surely benefitted from considering Hikari died a handful of times during their games.
How They Used Other Utilities
At the bottom right corner, you can see where Hikari’s mosh pit landed after throwing it from heaven.
I obviously have yet to talk about Gekko’s Mosh Pit. Unfortunately, the observer wasn’t keen on spectating on Hikari and he himself seldomly used Mosh. However, from what little Mosh Pit action we saw, Mosh was used to block off chokepoints and used to deter enemies from planting via lineups. Basically, just like any other molly in the game.
A Low Pick Rate Doesn’t Mean A Useless Agent
So far, we’ve only seen Gekko used by Hikari and Fervent Esports on just one map and in two matches with a 50% win rate. The current sample size is still too small so judging Gekko as a useless agent is still a tad too early to say, in my opinion at least.
Hopefully, teams will further figure out how the agent can be used and we’ll be seeing more and more players picking Gekko.
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