If you’ve ever played so much as a match of VALORANT, you’ve surely met that player. Just like it said: Instalock Phoenix, poor player, and yet all sassy in chat. That recent tweet by ValorantUpdated finally brought the whole experience open for everyone, leading to an outpouring of hilariously relatable reactions from the community.
The tweet staged a very simple statement: “Happens every single game #VALORANT,” accompanied by a meme-worthy image that rubbed many users the wrong way. The horrifying experiences poured right into the comments, suggesting that this is no isolated case but rather an accepted rite of passage these days.
One such player, Wild, sat one step above this epic level hellscape, calling it a “bad game” and suggesting that pros should “stick with CS:GO.” There sure are such archetypes in any competitive shooter; Oxide in VALORANT, however, is going around slinging Odin accompanied with Phoenix badges.
Multiple replies came to support him, with DracsartArcont declaring, “OMG that’s me .. the instalock bottomfrag phnx,” while Salatgurke Skyz self-branded, “Hello, I’m Phoenix.” Such a level of self-awareness would be commendable, had it not been so disturbing.
The conversation shifted gear when Nervationz went deep in the whole thing, stating that, in their perspective, this “isn’t” “specific” to Valorant because it crops up “in every competitive game with an all chat.” Every single game, without fail, it is the person actually getting carried who turns toxic, probably because that’s their only way to actually feel something while playing. Oh-q deep stuff for a Twitter thread about video-game rage.
Other players chimed in on the meme claiming it should be Jett or Reyna instead of Phoenix, going the toxicity route. We then progressed to rage-bait and boosted players hyping up to some classic banter every competitor has faced with you and me.
What is funny (and frustrating) about the whole affair is how punched in the gut it is. Ranked or unrated (thanks, vyx), there will always be one player that falls under that Insta-lock category: go in first before anyone else were able to sit down, hit bottom rank, and then type “ez” at the end of their matches.
It’s not like Riot Games hasn’t come up with enough systems to keep toxicity at bay in VALORANT; it’s just that some things just seem to glue this whole culture of competitive gaming. Maybe some of it stems from the anonymity; maybe it stems from actual frustrations of losing; maybe there are just a handful of people who really love being That Guy™ every single match.
At the end of the day, this player type has become so synonymous with VALORANT that outright memes and viral tweets have been created because of them. And when you’re absolutely certain they’ve just cost you the win, you can laugh with the masses- at least the Phoenix instalock in real life.
Seriously, this account would like to reach out and offer solace for those down in the dumps with that instalocker. Because when you see that Phoenix instalock, you’ll never be in pain alone. The entire VALORANT community is going to feel it.
