Valorant Finally Fixes "Pay-To-Lose" Skin Pro Players Kept Quiet About

thegamer.com:

For professional esports players, the difference between victory and defeat can be measured in milliseconds. That’s why they’re all so concerned about things like input latency--when you’re in the zone, every advantage matters.

Which is why nobody used the Spectrum Phantom skin for Valorant’s Phantom rifle. Although the skin looks amazing and even gave the weapon its own unique visual and audio effects, it came with a significant flaw: the barrel was just a tiny bit longer than the standard Phantom rifle. This meant that players using the skin were at a disadvantage because they could be spotted just a tiny bit sooner than they otherwise would have while peeking around corners or appearing from smoke.

Related: Sinatraa Being Welcomed Back To Valorant Esports Sets A Dangerous Precedent

Pro players secretly called it a "pay-to-lose" skin--a secret that would stand until yesterday’s 5.08 patch (which also included the new character Harbour). Valorant associate producer Robin Silk revealed the secret only came out because of a conversation he had with Mistic at the Valorant Champions Tour event in Istanbul. When the conversation turned to skins, Mistic "casually mentioned" that the Spectrum Phantom skin was bugged to be a bit longer than its other skins. Alarmed, Silk confirmed the bug with several other pros at the event.

"So there is like, this cabal of pros that knows about this bug, so NO ONE is using the Phantom in pro play," recounted Silk (with thanks to PC Gamer). "I get back to LA and ask our premium content team if we can verify this. Sure enough, it's a real bug. So we fixed it. It was just funny to me that these guys all knew about this and didn't report it to any Rioters!! Madness."

Silk went on to "encourage