Team Vitality’s Czech VALORANT player Karel “Twisten” Ašenbrener will donate 25 euros to charity every time someone lands a kill with the Shorty at VCT LOCK//IN.
His promise covers every one of the 32 teams attending the tournament in São Paulo, Brazil, and not only him or Vitality as some fans initially thought. The Shorty is one of the five Sidearms available in VALORANT and is the cheapest purchasable weapon in the game (150 credits). The Shorty is technically a pistol but works similarly to a shotgun as it can deal lots of damage at close range but it’s useless at long range.
Related: VALORANT LOCK//IN São Paulo: All teams, full schedule, how to watch, and more
The Shorty isn’t among the most popular weapons in VALORANT. This Sidearm is responsible for only 0.5 percent of the total kills in competitive Radiant VALORANT matches in the past six months, according to ValorBuff’s statistics.
Players in Radiant prefer to play with the other Sidearms in VALORANT—Ghost, Sheriff, Classic, and Frenzy—as they’re useful at long-range gunfire. Unfortunately, nobody tracks the weapon usage at the professional level, so it’s impossible to determine how many Shorty kills we had in pro VALORANT matches last year, for example.
Nathan “leaf” Orf said Twisten will go bankrupt thanks to his Cloud9 teammate Anthony “vanity” Malaspina, hinting the North American in-game leader will use the Shorty during VCT LOCK//IN. At this point, no other pro has joined Twisten in his noble cause.
VCT//LOCK will be the first event of 2023 featuring all 30 franchised teams across the Americas, EMEA, and the Pacific. The $500,000 inaugural tournament will also feature EDward Gaming and FunPlus Phoenix ZHUQUE, two invited Chinese teams. The action will run from Feb. 13 to March 4 in São Paulo.
