As popular a competitive title as VALORANT is, it’s no surprise players try to emulate the cool plays pros pull off. Even if those plays are genius because they’re so stupid.
That’s how we get plays like one today from Team Vitality’s Derke, one of the best Duelist players in the world over the past several VCT seasons. Playing in the upper bracket final of the EMEA kick-off event, Derke pulled out his Yoru for Haven against last year’s VALORANT Champions runners-up. After Vitality took the first two rounds on attack against Heretics, the team pulled up for their bonus round attacking the C site, and Derke made one of the more unexpected decisions of the game: He simply walked down the middle of C long and right onto site without any smokes or flashes for cover, directly in line of sight of Heretics’ benjyfishy and Boo. That should be a death sentence for a Gold player, let alone someone playing at the highest level.
Of course, there’s a bit more going on here. Derke correctly assumed that the defenders on the site would read a Yoru walking directly forward and running into a wall not as the actual player, but as the clone created by Yoru’s Fakeout ability. They could’ve shot at this “clone” and destroyed it, but opted not to, since shooting the clone activates a flash on them. And what harm can a Yoru clone do on point if you just leave it sitting there?
A lot, as it turns out, when it’s not actually a clone. Derke waited a beat after hitting the wall to sell the fake, then flicked to his right and took out benjyfishy and Boo without even taking any damage, gifting Vitality the site.
“What in the actual hell,” caster kaquka could only say before eventually recovering from the shock of such a brazen, so-stupid-it’s-brilliant fake. The casters also noted how the fake clone play was even more unexpected given Derke had his ultimate ready for the round, a powerful information-gathering and repositioning tool for Yoru that allows him to safely run around the map while invisible for a limited time. Given Heretics were likely expecting Derke to use the ultimate and help even the odds with Vitality on a slightly lesser buy for the bonus round, the fake clone was truly out of left field.
Not to let the play be all they got from today’s game, Vitality sealed the round and the map 13-10 before pulverizing Heretics 13-1 on Abyss, punching Derke and company’s ticket to the VCT EMEA Kick grand final.
Derke’s not the first one to come up with the fake clone play on Yoru by any means, but he’s probably the highest-profile player to succeed with it in such an important match. And you know what that means: copycats will abound in your VALORANT games this weekend.
Whether you’re trying to grind the Competitive ladder or just hoping for some chill games with your friends, it might be best to actually shoot those Yoru clones you see and flick away to avoid the flash as much as possible. Nothing feels worse than getting put on a poster by a Yoru.
And if you’ve got a Yoru on your squad that keeps dying because he’s walking slowly onto site in a straight line—well, it might be best to leave those fakes to the professionals.
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