What is an illegal molly in Valorant?

Valorant has its fair share of bugs and glitches that players love exploiting in ranked games. But what exactly makes a molly illegal in Valorant?

Ranked players get away with many things, like toying with illegal mechanics, bugs, and glitches. But that’s not the case in the official Valorant tournament. Instead, pro players can be slapped with severe punishments and sometimes even get disqualified for using banned lineups. 

Recently, an illegal molly used by team Shift X during VCT Game Changers has led players to raise a question: What exactly makes a molly illegal?

When is a Valorant molly considered illegal?

A molly lineup that exploits a bugged area or slips into an unplayable map can be considered a bug molly. Utility in Valorant may act out of the ordinary for many reasons, but the primary reason is that certain map areas are bugged, allowing overpowered lineups. 

The most popular agent with bugged molly is Killjoy, but she’s not the only one. The jolly sentinel mostly finds herself in an odd spot due to the breakable nature of her Nanoswarms. Killjoy’s utility can be countered easily, so any instance that makes it impossible for players to destroy her Nanoswarms despite knowing exactly where it is can be labeled illegal. 

An excellent example is Killjoy’s molly during a game between Disguised and Shift X, where Jas tossed Killjoy’s utility in the space between two containers. Now, no matter what DSG did, they couldn’t destroy molly. It kept sending the attackers away from the easiest Spike plant spot, putting them at a massive disadvantage.

Similar Killjoy setups were discovered on Split and Fracture, but Riot quickly patched those up. But, Killjoy isn’t alone in this funny business. Phoenix’s molly has also been acting up on Pearl’s automatic doors. Kay/O’s molotov will also sometimes overthrow Valorant’s physics and deal damage through solid objects. In such instances, the molotov is deemed to be illegal.

However, Killjoy just happens to be at the center of an illegal molly fiasco. Typically, teams get disqualified for using such lineups but ranked players use them generously to win their games.