In a VALORANT match with massive qualifying implications, Vitality star Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev busted out the silliest play in the playbook. And somehow, the gamble worked, leaving his opponents embarrassed, and insuring a spot for his own team at the first Masters event of the year.
Derke Does The Unthinkable
In the upper bracket final of the VCT EMEA Kickoff, Vitality and Team Heretics went haed-to-head for one of two spots at Masters Bangkok. To beat Heretics, a two-time grand finalist at international events in 2024, Vitality would need to play with the utmost confidence.
Derke, the former star of Fnatic who switched to Vitality this past offseason, certainly didn’t lack confidence when he caught Heretics off guard with the fake Yoru clone. Typically, when a Yoru player uses their Fakeout ability, they send a clone forward that will hit enemies that shoot it with a blinding flash. So normally, enemy players just ignore the clone walking completely straight forward.
Unfortunately for Heretics, it wasn’t Derke’s clone that walked onto the site, it was Derke pretending to be his clone. To make matters worse, Heretics’ Ričardas “Boo” Lukaševičius teleported right next to Derke before he turned, gifting him an additional kill. It’s a play that VALORANT fans have sometimes seen during streams and maybe in their own ranked games, but never on a pro stage as big as this one. The play also gifted Vitality a bonus round win, taking a third straight round to start Haven despite not completely buying. Vitality ended up winning Haven, and then owned Heretics’ own map pick of Abyss to claim the series, and the Masters spot, in dominant fashion.
Have you ever fallen victim to the Yoru fake clone play? Let us know what you think down below or in the official Insider Gaming forums.
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