When a professional gamer competes in any video game, they possess an extraordinary ability to effortlessly execute high-level and challenging maneuvers consistently. This phenomenon is becoming increasingly apparent in VALORANT, to the point where even seemingly reckless moves appear brilliant.
Zachary “zekken” Patrone, a duelist and entry specialist for Sentinels, stands out as one of the game’s brightest talents. He is renowned for his exceptional mechanical skills, boasting remarkable precision in aiming, combined with a unique blend of confidence and expertise that enables him to secure entry kills regularly. Whether he’s wielding Raze or Jett, his capacity to create opportunities and eliminate opponents is highly valuable to his team. Remarkably, he is only 18 years old, leaving plenty of room for further improvement.
Zekken is also skilled at initiating plays, having demonstrated proficiency with Sova and KAY/O during his tenure with XSET. However, in a recent ranked match on Ascent, he found himself with only his ultimate ability in a pivotal attack round. In an unexpected turn, he adopted an unconventional approach.
Ascending Catwalk and traversing A Short, zekken encountered an enemy wielding a Vandal. In an audacious move, he started hopping through various locations, including Tree room, A Short Door, around Generator, and finally reaching the boxes leading to Heaven, all while brandishing his knife. Astonishingly, he evaded an opponent concealed in a smoke cloud who fired six shots from a Judge shotgun, missing every single one. Without sustaining any damage, he secured two headshot kills upon reaching the boxes. He then proceeded through Window and leaped into Garden to eliminate an unsuspecting Brimstone, ensuring a flawless round victory.
Even within the standards of professional players, zekken made this unconventional “play” appear deceptively simple. It’s worth noting that he received some assistance from an opponent (Fade) who failed to land any shots, neglected to communicate zekken’s presence to their Sage, and seemingly forgot about him, focusing on an angle blocked by a wall instead. At the conclusion of the clip, you can detect zekken trying to suppress a laugh at the improbable sequence of events.
Does this imply that entry fragging is genuinely this effortless? Not necessarily. However, if a tactic like this can succeed at the level of gameplay where one of the world’s premier players competes, it might be worth experimenting with in your Silver-ranked matches.