‘I thought Deadlock was hacking’: This VALORANT player might be the most unlucky ever

No VALORANT player hasn’t experienced the frustration of getting hit by freakish headshots and extraordinary flick. But have you ever been shot in the head by an invisible enemy while picking an Ultimate orb? Awfully specific and unlucky, a player had the same situation happen to them, and we couldn’t be more sympathetic.   

On July 23, a player named reynad13 shared their unfortunate experience where they were eliminated by a brutal, unreal headshot by another skillful Deadlock player on Fracture. To add insult to injury, Deadlock’s peek wasn’t visibly apparent—at first. No wonder they thought Deadlock was a hacker.  

Running in from B Bench, Reynad13 wanted to capture the orb, which spawns near the popular B Arcade spot, to fill Raze’s deficient Ultimate bar. Just as Raze crouched to take the orb, the enemy Deadlock micro-peeked and decimated them with a precise, silenced bullet from the Ghost. The catch is that Deadlock didn’t even appear on Raze’s VOD, making Deadlock look like a cheater—but that’s not it.

Reynad13 admitted to having misinterpreted the opponent Deadlock as a cheater until they realized a significant visual flaw. Turns out that the player’s (Raze) hand was blocking their vision just enough to cover Deadlock’s player model. 

At first look, Deadlock seemed invisible, but upon careful inspection, it’s clear how she precisely peeked, shot one accurate bullet with excellent crosshair placement, and returned to cover—all in a moment.

While cheating is rampant in most competitive games, you may be surprised to know how easy it’s to declare legitimate players as offenders wrongly. Besides skill, competitive multiplayer shooter games are significantly based on luck. Not to forget, hardware and internet ping play important roles too.

In this case, Deadlock’s precise crosshair placement and astonishing luck paid off. Sadly, Reynad13 isn’t the only unlucky player in VALORANT—we all have fallen prey to such odd mechanics.

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To make it even more relatable, other players shared similar experiences on the thread. One of the most popular comments read, “POV you look away for a single second,” and we cannot agree enough. 

Some sneaky players shared how they love camping Ultimate orb spots, just like what the Deadlock did. Because players are vulnerable when picking an orb, if you’re patient and precise enough, you can get easy kills by lurking near orbs and taking your shots when they are trapped in the animation. 

At the same time, players picking an orb can bait you into peeking by canceling the capture right after the tap.

Some comments also highlighted the lack of a feature in VALORANT that allows players to lower their weapon’s view model for better visibility of their surroundings. Clearly, it is negatively affecting several players’ experiences. 

Be that as it may, it is near impossible for any player to have dodged Deadlock’s shot; crosshair placement may have played a part, but it was a lucky hit. Unfortunately for ‘precise gunplay’ fans, such godly occurrences will always prevail in VALORANT or similar competitive titles.