Shroud explains why he prefers Valorant’s Phantom over the Vandal

Valorant players have started a great debate about what’s the best rifle, the Phantom or the Vandal – and finally Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek has shown his hand. 

The former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive professional player has been making his feelings known about much of the game since it released in beta form, chiming in with popular discussions among the community on the strongest Agents, and now weapons too.

There’s a total of 17 different firearms in Riot‘s first-person shooter, although not many are getting more attention than the Phantom and the Vandal rifles — both of which are fully automatic. Players seem to be split right down the middle on which is best, though.

On April 22, the Mixer streamer spotted some players talking about his preferred weapon of the two in a Twitter thread, with one claiming that he would rather use the Vandal. So, he decided to put the record straight.

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One user said: “shroud uses Vandal because he’s not a pea brain,” while another was insisting that the Phantom actually suits his style more. Following a back and forth with the two players, shroud was tagged and eventually responded.

“Phantom for spraying through smoke / Vandal for the tap bursts. Pretty simple really. I think the Phantom is better IMO,” he said, putting the brief debate to rest.

The streamer didn’t leave it there, either, adding two further tweets to explain why he chooses particular guns. Clearly, position seems to be play a big part, just like it would in CS:GO.

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After being asked about what he considers when picking an ideal gun, he said: “What position you’re playing, character, strat and the enemy’s economy,” adding: “I mean at the end of the day, you should be familiar with both. You never know which one you may pick-up from the enemy” in a later tweet.

The game is still in its very early stages, so his verdict may change as time goes on and weapon tweaks are made in updates.

With that being said, where this debate is concerned right now, there’s only one shroud would go for when having to pick from the two — and that’s the Phantom.