VALORANT players have discovered what appears to be an unintentional Viper buff that gives the agent peeker’s advantage while standing in her smoke. Players inside of Viper’s smoke can see opponents outside of the smoke first as the smoke disappears on their screen.
The bug was highlighted by YouTuber Swoopy, which is where the “Swoop peek” name originates. Other players confirmed the existence of the bug and that players standing within the smoke have an advantage.
Another player tested the peek tactic with every smoke in VALORANT. Every other smoke besides Viper’s did not provide the peeker’s advantage from within the smoke. Swoop has shown the peeking technique in action and how it can change the outcome of gunfights.
The delay in the smoke disappearing appears to be roughly 350 milliseconds, which is a minuscule amount of time. But at higher ranks and skill levels, this small advantage can make a difference between life and death.
Swoopy uploaded a video showing how the bug might have helped Ascend defeat Team Heretics in the VALORANT Champions Tour EU Masters One event.
Viper has been overlooked by controller players as Omen is traditionally the better choice in competitive matches. But this exploit does provide some advantage in certain situations, although it was likely an unintentional change.
Some players believe this was a shadow buff added for Viper in Patch 2.05, but it’s unlikely the developer would add an intentional change without including it in the patch notes. Riot Games has not commented on Viper’s peek advantage, but it will likely be addressed in a future update.
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