Players in Valorant are currently dying in ranked matches on their own, without anyone shooting them. There is a nasty exploit behind it, which could be fixed with a simple feature from Counter-Strike.
What kind of exploit is this? In the beta of Valorant, there are often bizarre suicide scenes in ranked matches. Teams use the AoE skills of the agents Brimstone and Raze to kill themselves and their whole team as soon as they are at a disadvantage.
Team suicides prevent cash windfall for the winners
Why the hell are they doing this? What looks like a stupid action at first glance, giving away a complete victory point to the opponent, turns out to be advantageous in the long run.
If an opposing team dies quickly, the cash bonus for the winners is very meager due to the lack of kills and achievements, while the losers receive comparatively a lot of money thanks to a consolation prize. Winners receive 3,000, while losers get only 1,900 and then 500 more for each further loss up to a maximum of 2,900 credits.
Additionally, winners hardly get the coveted ultimate orbs this way, which can mainly be earned by kills.
Applied consistently, this suicide tactic can significantly disrupt the game economy of the initially disadvantaged teams, as the winners can only afford good equipment later on, while the “losers” can simply save and eventually be in a position to afford really good stuff in the third round.
The “winners” may have bought mediocre stuff in the meantime and are now at a disadvantage despite leading 0:2. They have less money, worse equipment, and just as many ultimate points as the “losers”.
A simple feature from Counter-Strike could provide relief
This is how easily the problem could be solved: This problem was once widespread in a similar form in Counter-Strike. Therefore, severe penalties for team kills were implemented to prevent such stalling tactics.
A friendly fire penalty that punishes such behavior with a deduction in money would be a sure solution to fix the problem of lucrative suicides. Let’s just hope that Riot Games reacts quickly and puts an end to this nasty tactic.
The exploit involving lucrative self-kills is not the only unintended effect in the game. Those who experiment with the agents Raze and Jett in Valorant can shoot themselves across half the map and create a lot of chaos and confusion. This exploit is also likely to be fixed soon.
