Vandal vs Phantom: does the rifle actually matter?
The oldest argument in the game. We compared the two rifles on equal footing — full-buy rounds, heavy shields — across attack and defense, counted who wins when a Vandal meets a Phantom, and followed Vandal-mains and Phantom-mains across whole games.
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Who buys what
Round outcomes on attack and defense
To compare the rifles fairly we only count rounds where the player had heavy shields and their team was on a full buy, so neither rifle is the "I was poor" pick. The dot is the player's round win rate; the whiskers a 95% confidence interval.
What the player did in those rounds
When a Vandal meets a Phantom
Every kill where the killer held one rifle and the victim held the other. If the two rifles were equal, the Vandal would take exactly half of these kills. The side split compares the Vandal user attacking against Phantom defenders with the reverse encounter.
Vandal mains vs Phantom mains
Players are classified over all their rifle rounds in the sample: Vandal main = at least 75% Vandal, Phantom main = at least 75% Phantom, otherwise mixed. Only players with at least three games and twenty rifle rounds count.
Across ranks
Caveats
- Players pick their rifle. Better aimers may gravitate to the Vandal, sprayers to the Phantom. Round-level numbers compare situations, not a controlled swap of weapons; the player-level comparison is even more exposed to that selection.
- Duel counts are not 1v1s. They count every cross-rifle kill, including kills with help or from behind; they answer "who ends up with the kill", not "who wins a fair fight".
- Headshot rate is computed from all hits in the round, so a Phantom spray with one headshot and four body shots counts as 20% — expect the Phantom to trail even when its one-taps land.
- Sample window. Recent matches only (a few days across all regions), so current patch balance applies.