Riot has officially introduced Skirmish: Ascension, the first-ever ranked ladder for a game mode outside of standard competitive play. If you want to grind the new 1v1 or 2v2 FTW leaderboard and flex those exclusive rewards to your friends, you need to know who to lock in.
The rules of Skirmish are completely different: matches are first to 10 wins on tiny, custom-designed maps. There is no economy; you pick from a restricted pool of 14 agents, and each agent only gets one specific ability from their kit. Because of this stripped-down format, some agents are incredibly broken, while others are essentially throwing.
Here is the definitive agent tier list for Ranked Skirmish, ranked from worst to best.
C-Tier: Avoid at All Costs
These agents provide abilities that are strictly worse versions of what other characters can do. In the fast-paced Skirmish format, picking them puts you at an immediate disadvantage.
- Breach (Flashpoint): Easily the worst flash in the format. The small maps are scattered with boxes, giving opponents plenty of cover to easily hide from his predictable flashes. Worse, the incredibly slow wind-up makes it impossible to self-flash in a 1v1 duel.
- Veto (Crosscut): He brings the slowest, clunkiest repositioning ability available. The audio cues for Crosscut are far too loud; your opponents will always hear exactly where you teleported to and from. There is absolutely zero deception value here.
B-Tier: Viable But Predictable
These agents have fun gimmicks, but they lack the flexibility and raw potency needed to consistently win 10 rounds against smart opponents.
- Vyse (Arc Rose): You can find some cool placements that cover most of the map, but smart opponents will quickly read your setups and destroy the Arc Rose before it readies. Getting value out of Vyse requires exhausting, round-ahead brainpower to constantly bait and trap your enemy.
- Yoru (Fakeout): The master of deception is high-risk, high-reward. You can make incredible plays by baiting your clone, but it requires you to heavily commit to the fake. You generally have to throw a few early rounds just to plant the seed of doubt in your opponent’s mind, which isn’t optimal for climbing.
- Iso (Contingency): A great tool if you are fully committed to a high-tempo, aggressive playstyle. It lets you scale up the map safely and isolate angles. However, if you get caught in a long-range duel, Contingency feels entirely useless.
- Sage (Barrier Orb): While verticality sounds broken, almost none of the boxes on the Skirmish maps are tall enough to provide cover while you stand on your wall. This leaves you completely exposed. It’s okay for blocking paths, but a dueling ability is vastly superior.
A-Tier: Dueling Powerhouses
Agents in A-Tier bring incredible dueling tools to the table. They are highly flexible and will win you a massive amount of fights, but they fall just short of being completely broken.
- Phoenix (Curveball): The wind-up on Curveball is lightning fast. You can flash high, flash low, or flash around boxes. The constant threat of an undodgeable flash forces opponents to significantly slow down their movement and play on your terms.
- Chamber (Rendezvous): An incredible safety net that essentially gives you a second life every round. It is only held back by its inflexibility: you must place it at the start of the round in obvious locations, meaning your opponent will always know exactly where you are retreating to.
- Omen (Shrouded Step): The exact opposite of Chamber. Shrouded Step is incredibly flexible but lacks a “panic button” potency. Omen can aggressively push or defensively retreat without crossing lines of sight, putting massive psychological pressure on the enemy.
- Raze (Blast Pack): The most flexible ability in Skirmish. Raze trades the safety of an Omen teleport for raw explosiveness. You can satchel peek, boost onto boxes, or displace enemies. In the hands of a movement expert, she feels like an S-Tier pick.
S-Tier: The Must-Picks
These four agents possess abilities that are both incredibly potent and wildly flexible. If you want to dominate the Skirmish ladder, this is your roster.
- Cypher (Cyber Cage): Cypher brings the only smoke-like ability to the mode, giving him unmatched control over space and vision. Not only can you use it offensively or defensively, but the audio trigger also acts as an incredible information-gathering tool if an enemy pushes through it.
- Waylay (Refract): Essentially a better version of Chamber’s Rendezvous. Because of Quickcast, you never have to put your gun away to activate Refract. You can charge into enemy territory, take a fight, and instantly back out. In 2v2s, this ability is downright broken for double-swinging and securing trades without dying.
- KAY/O (Flash/Drive): KAY/O brings the absolute best flash to Skirmish. His underhand flash was recently buffed to last 2.25 seconds (compared to Phoenix’s 1.5s). He has an incredibly high skill ceiling with un-dodgeable pop-flashes, making him a nightmare to duel against in 1v1s and a perfect initiator in 2v2s.
- Jett (Tailwind): Jett is officially the most broken agent in the mode because she “accidentally” gets two abilities. Alongside Tailwind—which is the gold standard for high-potency defensive escapes and aggressive entries—she retains her passive Drift ability. Drift allows her to scout over cover and make unique jumps no one else can match. Expect to see a Jett in almost every single match.
