Serious or not, there’s a reason why many say grinding VALORANT ranked isn’t wise for your mental health.
Even if you’re someone who’s been playing the game since day one, mastering all the weapons, maps, common protocols, and more, it is still impossible to predict what will truly happen in a round at any given moment. After all, there are more than 20 different agents in the game whose abilities can absolutely be the difference between life and death.
On Oct. 9, this phenomenon was comically showcased in full by America’s own masterclass strategist, Pujan “FNS” Mehta.
It seemed to be just an ordinary day in the North American VALORANT servers as FNS approached a pivotal 12th round during a ranked game on Lotus. Beginning the half-ending round on an eco-buy, FNS silently walked up to B with the intent to simply place down his Lockdown ultimate—a standard play in that situation. Unfortunately, for FNS, everything that transpired from then on was far from standard.
Almost immediately, FNS is greeted with a Fade Haunt, then a Nightfall ultimate. Rather than taking Sam “s0m” Oh’s suggestion to pivot to C, FNS maintained that he still wants to put down his ult instead of giving up the space.
With him and his teammates marked, the enemy Fade then unleashes two Prowlers, while B Main is subsequently bombarded with an Omen Paranoia and a Raze Boom Bot. With the key choke cleared, soon enough, all hell broke loose.
Masked in one of the Prowlers was the enemy Gekko’s Thrash ultimate, which promptly detains FNS while his Reyna dismisses due to the opposing Raze’s Paint Shells. While inching away from the danger, FNS is then hit with Fade’s Seize, making him Deafened and Decayed once again, as well as tethered.
Once FNS is finally able to pull out his Sheriff again, he gets hit with Gekko’s Mosh Pit and Dizzy. Somehow, while Blinded, FNS manages to one-tap the enemy Raze in a split-second window right before being concussed by the Gekko’s Wingman while reloading and, at last, put down.
“A war!” FNS exclaimed in disbelief. “I fought a fucking the Battle of Thermopylae just now!”
Perhaps the funniest part of all of this is that FNS’ team ultimately ended up winning the round, further cementing it as one of the wackiest sequences you will find.
“Welcome to VALORANT,” one viewer typed in FNS’ Twitch chat.
“Most normal round in VALORANT,” another replied.
A day later, FNS quote tweeted a viral clip of the whole ordeal: “I’m taking the day off.”
