20 Sniper Fails

sniper fails

Sniping has been a core component of multiplayer games since the advent of shooters like Quake. This element of the game persists with the likes of first and third person shooters like Call of Duty, Halo, and Gears of War.

Generally speaking, snipers are hated—and with good reason: no one likes campers, especially those who pick you off from the safety of distance. Still, the role of a sniper takes a lot of skill despite its infamy in videogames.

The reason most people take to the sniper rifle is simply because the weapon is the longest reaching, and typically most damaging weapon in the game. The sniper rifle is the ideal weapon for taking out enemies at any distance—even in close range, if you've mastered the art of 'quickscoping'. In spite of its slow reload and how vulnerable it makes snipers, the damage potential is worth the trade.

That said, if you're not very good at sniping, you're gonna have a bad time. This article takes a look at the top 20 worst sniper fails.

#20

Testing his explosive sniper rounds for a sniper rifle on ants, a Fallout: New Vegas player gets ambushed after a few shots; one creature was refusing to die so he kept a distance while continuing to shoot, but ultimately fell short of killing it and got himself killed instead.

#19

When you're the target of a sniper, most players would naturally run and find safety. This target in Uncharted 3, though, does the complete opposite. While climbing a building, a sniper misses him, followed by additional missed attempts when the opponent is on the building itself. To further add to the fail factor of the sniper, the target toys around with him by rolling continuously and then, while he's reloading, kills the sniper with a spray of bullets.

#18

After shooting a player twice while scoping and failing, this Modern Warfare 2 player turns to another nearby opponent who he shoots five times and misses on every shot. Ultimately, he gets stabbed for his efforts.

#17

How unlucky must this player have been to deserve this? Standing on a moving shooting target to gain leverage for potential opponents, a Call of Duty: Black Ops player shoots his sniper at the exact moment when the dummy target revolves briefly, which is followed by him being killed.

#16

It's always humorous to see sniper mistakes, but there's more hilarity pertaining to self-inflicting sniping mishaps. This Halo 3 player saw an opponent approaching and released his sniper's trigger as he was descending to the level below. However, as he was descending, his sniper shot was synchronized with his fall, consequently resulting in releasing the shot against the wall, which reflected back on the player and killed him. How tragic.

#15

Walls in particular aren't kind to snipers. Once in a while, they'll eventually hit a wall; naturally, though, no danger will come about by doing just that. In this case, however, the player shot his sniper rifle into the wall, to which the bullet then rebounded into the player itself, leading to an inevitable suicide.

#14

When Call of Duty snipers try to bring their game to another shooter, the result is always negative for the player, and hilarious for the game's proper snipers/players. A player is seen trying to snipe targets through the window; despite several failed attempts, he continues to do so, oblivious to the fact that players can't shoot through windows. Granted, his targets were doing the exact same thing but at least they're not snipers. Oh, and his username's "prosniper 546".

#13

This Halo: Reach player has his sight set on an opponent with his sniper at the ready. Upon pulling the trigger, his team member driving the vehicle intrudes his shot and the player on his team gets shot instead, leading to one of the most unintended "betrayals" I've ever witnessed.

#12

A Counter-Strike: Source player decides to toy around with his opponent, who is equipped with a sniper rifle. He confronts him with a knife, moves around to avoid the two shots fired from the sniper, and kills him with a stab to win the round.

#11

This is a bit of a weird one: the player's left arm can't be lowered to hold the sniper rifle with two hands. That said, he still did manage to get a few kills.

#10

Shooting his targets on several occasions, a Battlefield Bad Company 2 player still can't seem to kill any of his targets. Eventually, another sniper sees his location and plants a bullet into his head.

#9

This Modern Warfare 2 player didn't have much luck on his side for what would have been the easiest kill possible in the game. With the intention to kill an opponent laying on the ground oblivious to the fact that someone is behind him, his clip misses the target four times before getting stabbed. What adds to the hilarity is that he wasn't trying to fail; his sniper clip was actually extremely bent and evidently off-target. Let's not kid ourselves and say this hasn't happened to us every once in a while.

#8

In an effort to kill his opponent in Modern Warfare 2 without scoping, this player, despite his opponent being dangerously close (although he was jumping to avoid getting shot), fails to kill his target following several shots. He then threw a flash grenade but to no avail, which was followed by numerous sniper shots. The round then came to an end — we'll chalk this one up to sheer luck or an extremely bad case of lag or both.

#7

Following a variety of failed sniper shots aimed at his target's head, his opponent gained the upper hand and sniped him instead. What a cruel (read: frustrating) way to die.

#6

Sometimes, your target is going to get killed by another player. Sometimes it'll be by a whole 30 milliseconds, which is what happened to this Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare player.

#5

If you've seen Pulp Fiction, then you'd have seen an example of what some believe to be divine intervention. This player is confronted by sniper within Modern Warfare 2 where the latter keeps shooting but fails. Ultimately, he gets killed, which wins the other player the match.

#4

Standing completely still, a Call of Duty: Black Ops player waits for his opponent to kill him with the sniper. Despite firing at him multiple times, he still can't manage to snipe a player right in front of him. He eventually diverts to throwing a tomahawk but that also misses. After a few more sniper shots following the long period of pure fail, he finally kills the target with a head shot.

#3

During single player in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, a player is in pole position to snipe his target. However, upon pulling the trigger, his team mate stands up at the exact time and gets shot instead. Thus, the player had to restart due to friendly fire not being tolerated.

#2

In what's sure to be one of the worst betrayals in Halo 3, a player's sniper bullet bounced off an object and hit a team mate who was subsequently killed. The bullet itself, though, bounced off a grenade of all things.

#1

It's already a frustrating feeling when you're killed with a sniper. What's even more frustrating is snipers who kill you with quick scope. But how about carrying out the latter in style? Well, this player experienced exactly that. An opponent jumped near an escalator and carried out a 360 spin while shooting the player mid-air.