Zekken slams Valorant analyst who called G2’s Abyss strat “disrespectful”

Sentinels Valorant player Zachary ‘zekken’ Patrone blasted VCT EMEA analyst Jakub ‘Lothar’ Szygulski on social media for calling G2’s Abyss strategy “incredibly disrespectful to the sport.”

G2 Esports faced off against Leviatán at Valorant Champions 2024, choosing a surprising strategy on Abyss. The team jumped off the side of the map to deny their opponent money and points toward their ultimates at the start of Round 14.

The strategy makes tactical sense, as it benefits G2 economically, but Lothar found the idea disrespectful and a little half-baked.

“This is incredibly disrespectful to the sport, to the viewers, to the opponents, and the tournament organizers and should not be allowed by RIOT in the first place to jump off like that to deny a round,” he said on social media.

“If you wanted to troll this round, G2, at least do it properly and jump off after your opponents planted, so you would waste more time and make them use util.”

Zekken, among the many people calling the take wrong, clapped back at the analyst and asked if it was “disrespectful to the sport” to die to the spike.

Intentionally dying to the spike explosion is a common economic strategy. If players are eliminated, they earn money in the next round, and the enemy is also denied money for not earning a kill.

Lothar said that scenario wasn’t a “good comparison” to what G2 did because if the spike is planted, a round has played out as intended.

Zekken countered by pointing out that G2’s actions denied Leviatán more money, as they did not get anything for planting the spike, and Leviatán could not pick up ultimate orbs around the map during the round.

“I get that it’s lame but jumping off the map accomplishes that with 0 orb potential for the other team and only takes like 5 seconds,” zekken said.

“I don’t see the problem.”

Social media users seem to favor the G2 Esports strategy, disagreeing with the hot take, even though the North American squad lost that map and the series.

Tactical deaths and whether the strategy should be allowed have been debated for years in FPS esports. It started in Counter-Strike when NAVI intentionally died to their own Molotov cocktail in a match against Team Liquid in 2017.

ESL famously banned the strategy in 2019 to stop players from intentionally falling off the map Vertigo.

Riot Games has not released a statement on whether G2 broke any rules with the strategy, and G2’s players have not revealed if they have been fined for intentionally throwing a round at the world championships.