Shotgun-only Valorant pro defies all odds and reaches grand finals of major event
Riot GamesA Valorant player defied all the odds and reached the grand finals of Valorant Challengers Indonesia, being two maps away from qualifying to VCT Ascension, all while only using a shotgun and one tricking Raze.
As Pacific’s Valorant Challengers regional circuits come to an end this weekend, with teams booking their tickets to VCT Pacific Ascension, all eyes in the community seem to be focused on one particular region, and one very unique player.
Valorant pro player and streamer, Rayvaldo “ray4c” Chandra was not only one-tricking Raze throughout a tournament, but he is doing so while playing with shotguns only. Yet even with the odds stacked against him, he’s proving that it is a viable strategy even at the highest levels of play.
As he and his team, Dominatus, not only made it to the VCL Indonesia Grand Finals through the upper bracket, they came just two maps away from qualifying for VCT Ascension.
According to Spike.gg, ray4c in just the upper bracket finals against Boom Esports, 32 out of the 38 kills he amassed in the series were all made using only shotguns. All on Raze.
Shotguns are on record to have some of the lowest usage, according to Valorbuff. With the Bucky, Shorty, and Judge seeing very little use across higher ranks. As the guns have limited range and poor accuracy, forcing players to only stick to close angles.
However, ray4c somehow ignored the restrictions, and was able to not only serve as an excellent entry duelist, but even frag out in maps such as Pearl and Ascent, two maps that do not historically favor shotgun users.
In fact, he favored the Judge so much that its usage throughout the tournament was artificially increased in comparison to similar-sized tournaments, according to stats from Spike.gg.
His incredible performance led to many, even VCT trophy-winning players, like Jake “Boaster” Howlett taking notice. Jokingly tweeting in reaction to ray4c’s Raze Shotgun one-trick, “Maybe I’ll do the shotgun-only strat in our first game at Tokyo.”
Unfortunately for Dominatus, despite a dominating run through the upper bracket, would fall to Boom Esports, the very team they defeated to get to the Grand Finals in a 1-3 loss.
