Shroud Actually Has A Rare Meltdown

The often-unflappable Shroud briefly lost his composure during a recent "Valorant" stream, demanding that Riot Games delete one of the game's most controversial weapons, the Judge.

The incident occurred during a match set on Bind shortly after Shroud had secured a location to plant the spike, as recorded in a YouTube clip from Shroud's Twitch channel. Once Shroud had the spike set, he and his teammates took up position to defend it, taking some shots at faraway enemies that didn't seem to pose much of a threat. All of a sudden, however, a player using Reyna jumped in from the right side of the frame and fires a single shot from the Judge that tears through Shroud's full 100 health and 50 armor to knock him out of the game.

Shroud was not happy, sharing his feelings on the shotgun for the benefit of both viewers and Riot Games. "F****** Judges! Delete them from the game!" Shroud shouted, "Literally, Riot, click the button. Delete. That's it. Just get rid of them. Just get rid of them! It's that simple!"

As a former professional "CS: GO" player whose FPS skills were once compared to Michael Jordan's basketball talents by PC Gamer, Shroud has earned a reputation for not only dominating games like "Valorant," but doing so with cool confidence. That reputation makes his outburst all the more surprising but also reveals just how divisive powerful weapons like the Judge can be in competitive games such as "Valorant."

Discussions about whether or not the Judge is overpowered are nothing new, as gamers have debated the issue extensively on Reddit and YouTube. The core issue is the weapon's sheer power at close range. As seen in Shroud's stream, the Judge can one-shot an opponent with full health and armor, meaning that players who are looking the wrong way, as Shroud was, don't have a chance if an opponent catches them off guard. Despite being the game's most expensive shotgun, it is still reasonably affordable at 1,600 credits, as opposed to other high-powered weapons like the Operator sniper rifle, which costs 5,000 credits.

As a shotgun, the Judge does suffer from massive damage drop-offs at a distance, meaning that if Shroud hadn't been surprised by his opponent, he likely would have survived the encounter. However, at this point, Shroud seems to support calls on Reddit and elsewhere to nerf or delete one of the game's most deadly weapons.