Riot Games’ official account for Valorant updates just shared a meme, and the gamers, as usual, had a lot to comment on their setups. The twit was without any ambiguity: a picture depicting two opposing sides. One side shows a fantastic gaming rig that can get ‘400 FPS, 5 Ping.’ The other side presents a very bad, maybe even a suffering, setup with ’40 FPS, 150 Ping.’ The only message the photo sent was ‘Which one are you?’
The whole truth is that the feedbacks are a really mixed bag of showing off the PC master race and telling horror stories of internet connections. Actually, it’s like the digital class division is happening right there and then in the quote tweets.
For those who are just scanning through: The official Riot Games Valorant Twitter account put up a meme that compared high-end gaming setups to low-end ones and asked the players to pick one. The post quickly gathered thousands of comments from players sharing their fps and ping numbers, thus bringing to light one of the most popular subjects of discussion and frustration among gamers: performance and server stability. Some even used the opportunity to ask for help with packet loss and high ping problems.
Let’s return to the tumultuous scene again. It is nothing short of miraculous how a harmless meme suddenly turns into a grand comme d’usage issue for hardware and internet rates. The numbers in some cases turn out to be just incredibly huge. For instance, one user asserts to have ‘1100 FPS’ and ‘5-7 ms’ ping at the same time. That’s my question; are you executing the game on a NASA Supercomputer that is cooled with liquid nitrogen? That is sheer provocation. Another user also mentioned ‘800 fps’ but his ping was rather erratic: ’27…45…29…800…27…1846…27 ping.’ And he piled on, ‘(Please fix the fuckin servers).’ Yep, that pretty much sums it up for many people.
There are however those on the other side who are in the thick of it. One user lamented, ’40 fps on a good day and 40 ping😒 with the crying emoji really expressing the sentiment. Another player simply indicated, ’15 fps 15 ping 🔥🔥,’ which is… quite a peculiar mix. While low ping is a plus, who can play at 15 frames per second? One could say it is a slideshow. But then respect to that player for his/her will to try.
Geographical suffering is on the other hand. An Iranian player said: ‘In Iran: Ok I have a good PC, 240hz monitor. Meanwhile my ping 150…. Wow that’s literally me.’ It is an unyielding reminder that regardless of the power of your rig, if you are way off the servers, you are sure to have a bad time. Another player remarked that their ‘lowest ping is 70🤙due to region.’ That pretty much sums up the situation for a large chunk of the global player base and it is a constant complaint.
In terms of the meme itself, the quality it received in terms of mixed reviews was not too favorable. Some replies directly called it out. One user commented ‘chatgpt generates the most boring meme in history’. Another user responded to that in Spanish, which roughly equates to ‘Chatgpt how do you say “chatgpt generate me the most boring meme in history” in English’. Burn. It appears the community is even roasting Riot’s meme game now. Besides, one user just labeled it as a ‘goofy ass post for 30+ yos.’ So I guess I am also among those who feel it.
Nevertheless, the humor and the show-off aside, the undercurrent of irritation is gradually coming to the surface. Several replies were directed back to Riot. For example, one user said, ‘fix packet loss.’ Another asked, ‘how about we do something about the high ping riot.’ One user even went into detail about a specific tech problem: their old laptop gives high FPS in Valorant, but Riot’s anti-cheat software, Vanguard, is causing stutter in other games like Red Dead Redemption 2. They ended by saying, ‘Can you fix it? I don’t think so.’ That’s very relatable.
The most poignant comments were those which spoke of the impact on gameplay. One player clearly stated, ‘game is impossible to play with bad ping. might as well find something else to play’. Someone else replied, ‘Fr it’s what made me stop.’ That is the real consequence. When the netcode is bad, people leave. It’s that simple.
So what is the moral of the story? Riot’s meme unintentionally reflected the Valorant experience, and it outlined two totally different worlds. One is the ultra-competitive, low-latency dream realm that the game is meant for. The other is the messy, laggy, and packet-loss-filled world many face. The community also discusses platforms like PlayStation and Xbox in other gaming contexts.
