The occasion for the real-life Tactifriend rubber duck release by VALORANT just had people go berserk online. Really, who thought a little yellow duck could bring about so much chaos? The official VALORANT account on Twitter had put up a picture of the merch with the buying link, and a riot broke loose in the replies: hype, complains about server issues, you name it. Classic.
Let’s talk about the actual duck first. Is it a rubber duck? Not just an ordinary one; it’s a Tactifriend, so the cutest little pal one can have to keep company through hours of solo grinding in ranked matches. The tweet shows the duck looking all big and proud with that little VALORANT branding, honestly? Just the thought of it being there would guilt one into buying it. The link goes straight to the merch store where one may snatch it up, but the price at $20 seems to be a little bit much for many of the interested players. I mean, BadDog_67 just dropped his two cents, “Almost $20 for a duck.. I could buy a cool skin from your game with that money.” Valid argument, but also… look at it. It’s a duck.
Of course, some of the replies had nothing to do with glorious sunshine and rubber ducks. Perhaps the players took this chance to really voice their opinions about the current state of affairs within the game. Lukelebed70 reported “Thanks for doing the scheduled maintenance right as I get home from work and take 2 hours to do it so I barely get to play at all tonight” with obvious sarcasm and well, felt that. Following that, sievvers confirmed skin bugs within the latest update for the Xerofang knife while Kazuto_Wildcat went on a rampage: “Found the anti-smurf update… oh wait it’s just the engine update.” Savage.
On to the duck. Some players are already brainstorming new merch ideas. Percyies pleaded with VALORANT to sell stress balls of Beary (another in-game buddy) saying, “please sell stress balls of beary i will give you all my money.” Riot Games, take note-free money right there. Meanwhile, nandoshowww tagged people to show them the new duck, proving the hype is real. International folks are having a lot of fun as well, with pereirawesley_ tweeting in Portuguese, “aí mais um pra coleção” (“another one for the collection”).
And then the usual random chaos that comes about with gaming Twitter replies. Drrreez linked a video accusing someone of cheating; SwifterMeister replied with a cryptic French comment (“t’as changé depuis samedi 🤔” — “you’ve changed since Saturday”), and yumixvt and lay111164 exchanged banter in German about something involving aura? Perfect Twitter!
The real question, though: Will this duck actually better your gameplay? Probably not. But will it make your gaming rig 10 times cuter? Oh, for sure! And let’s face it, VALORANT has the timing for adorable merch launches down pat, releasing when updates and server issues have players’ backs against the wall. Why? To distract them with ducks, of course. Genius.
So yeah, if you have 20 dollars sitting there doing nothing and you feel that infinite love for little rubber friends, the Tactifriend duck is waiting. Just maybe don?t check your bank account immediately after. And if maintenance has got you at the back of the queue… well, at least there’ll be a duck for company.
