VALORANT players don’t actually know what baiting is, and this clip proves it

Name-calling has become a ritual in VALORANT, often leading to players not recognizing their teammates’ efforts. While it’s not as annoying as other blaring issues, the sheer amount of misunderstanding surrounding certain terms that exist doesn’t seem healthy—specifically, words like “baiting.”

On Sept. 20, Reddit user u/Comfortable_Egg_4114 posted a laudable clip, presenting their ace on Haven as Killjoy. But they also wanted the community to confirm whether or not their performance counted as baiting, as their friend had accused them of being one.

“I got an ace playing Killjoy by lurking through B. When I got to site all my teammates had already died. I showed this clip to a friend, and he told me I baited my whole team, and that is the only reason I aced?” they asked. “I was confused am I in the wrong here? Was my lurk too late?”

Just looking at the clip, we can confirm that nothing about it was close to baiting. To describe it in simple terms, baiting in VALORANT is when players deliberately wait for enemies to pick off their teammates despite having a clear shot at them, or use their teammates’ vulnerable situation for a kill when they could have protected them instead.

Here, the player lurks through B Main and attacks the enemy team from behind in C Site—that’s lurking. They could have done a few things better—like alerting the team about a potential backstab since their Alarm Bot had deactivated or that they might have good timing on the enemies from behind—but it definitely isn’t baiting.

As players in the comments pointed out, baiting is a very overused word in low- and mid-Elo games. Sometimes, players accusing you of a baiting don’t even have a solid explanation as to why. I’ve witnessed duelists screaming at teammates and calling them baiters because they refused to push through Brimstone and Viper’s mollies, and honestly, they can’t be more annoying than this.

In high Elo, baiting can even be an excellent strategy, with players understanding the importance of securing a round over the number of alive teammates. But that doesn’t happen in low-Elo matches. If you point out a teammate’s mistake in Silver and ask them to correct it, they’ll probably accuse you of being a baiter out of nowhere.

Comfortable_Egg_4114 definitely pulled off a great bait-free ace. It’s time VALORANT players learn to appreciate good plays of this sort, and offer valuable advice on what their teammates could do better instead of calling them out for something they didn’t do.