VALORANT streamer and player for Sentinels Tyson “TenZ” Ngo rekindled the never-ending debate regarding the strengths of Vandal vs. Phantom weapons during a livestream where he discussed meta changes earlier today.
Both rifles are the most popular weapons in the game due to their well-rounded nature. They’re also pretty similar and cost the same amount of credits, which make the choice between them relatively hard not only for beginners, but also for competitive and high-level players too. In this meta, the Phantom is seemingly edging out the Vandal’s strength though, according to TenZ.
Tyson “TenZ” Ngo is a retired CS:GO player who currently plays VALORANT for the Sentinels. See the gear TenZ used to compete at the highest level.
“Phantom is so much better than the Vandal. Why does every player have the Vandal?… It’s so much better in every way,” he said.
“The Phantom: bigger clip, easier spray pattern, one-hits the head, close range anyways, one-hits medium armor at basically all ranges,” TenZ mentioned to explain his opinion. “I also think that it has a faster recoil reset.”
Related: TenZ’s VALORANT streaming setup: Headset, mouse, keyboard, and more
Even in a map with long hallways causing more long-range encounters, such as Breeze, TenZ said he would rather take the Phantom than the Vandal because it had a better feeling.
All those pros aside, he did mention that the Vandal was better to one-tap enemies. “It’s way more satisfying to get one-taps than just get easy burst kills,” he added.
Comparing it to the actual stats of both weapons, the Phantom does have a more controllable spray pattern. The weapon also deals comparable damage to the Vandal from 0 to 30 meters, but it decreases over ten percent in encounters 30 meters away, which make the weapon weaker in long-range encounters.
According to what TenZ said about the Phantom, since it’s better than the Vandal for burst kills, it’s very good for players who aren’t confident in landing headshots and won’t likely engage in long-distance trades, which is possible in most situations.
TenZ will face off against Evil Geniuses with Sentinels to kick off the open qualifier of VCT: North America Stage 3 Challengers 1 later today, at 4pm CT.
Make sure to follow us on YouTube for more esports news and analysis.
