Players in Valorant have found a trick to gain a strategic advantage in the hero shooter. By using long usernames, they concealed important information. However, the community reacts humorously and immediately finds a counter to the strategy.
What is this trick? Players use long usernames that exceed the name area. This obscures a strategically valuable piece of information in the match: the Ultimate Points, or Ult Points.
Why are Ult Points important? The display of Ult Points can help the opposing player to see through the strategy and actions of the enemy.
By looking at the Ult Points, one can see when the opponent can use their Ultimate. Accordingly, one might want to react with their own strategy.
On the other hand, the status of the Ult Points can help identify the position of the opponent. If their Ult Points rise without a kill or plant, one can infer that the agent is near an Ultimate Orb.
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The community reacts humorously
How does the community react to the name trick? In a reddit thread, the user BrowningPraenomen posted a screenshot with the title: “I present: tactical usernames.” In this screenshot, you can see a Valorant player whose name consists of 16 characters covering the Ult Point display.
Users take it quite casually. Some joke about the long username or say that they won’t even pay attention to the opponents’ Ult status. Occyfel2 writes: “Am I the only one who doesn’t look at the ultra status of the opposing team?”
Some believe that behind the long name there doesn’t necessarily have to be an attempt to cheat, but many give themselves creative usernames just for fun.
- User x412 writes: “I sincerely doubt they even thought about it. Breaking usernames has existed since the days of Quake. And why? Because it’s funny.”
- Upset-Swordfish-736: “My friend has a name like this and it also obscures his KDA. It’s incredibly funny because the character limit is around 18 or so, but he somehow managed to glitch the game and has a 56 character name.”
What can players do about it? Reddit user PawahD has already found a countermeasure for too long usernames:
“It’s even funnier that you can ‘counteract’ it. You can activate the streamer mode or whatever it is called, so you only see the names of the agents
It’s so trivial and funny that it wouldn’t even bother me.”
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