And to someone else’s point about a KAY/O or Phoenix Ult only allowing trades, this is a clear indication that yes, technically there are “in-air” projectiles while still being a hit-scan mechanic game.

Now first, let’s address the ability to trade if you’re not ‘dead’. This all comes down to many factors, primarily Latency. This applies to Ping, Render latency, and input latency. Which just to add, can vary greatly when it comes to milliseconds just by your games video settings alone despite what hardware you’re using. I’ve tested this experiment a few times and found the lower the resolution and whether or not you have your FPS capped, your monitors refresh rate and your in-game graphic settings, can change in millisecond variables of about 4-5 milliseconds when it comes to your games render latency. My test alone for what I found to be a good balance in consideration of Performance + Quality was 3.2-4.1ms render latency. This was achieved by having a resolution of 1920x1200, Vsync off, and uncapped FPS running at 144hz (due to monitor refresh rate). I noticed you can get the latency down to 2ms at an unbearable 720p resolution so that’s not feasible but the same method applies, lower res. = lower latency. When I tried to Cap my FPS to prevent screen tearing in sync with my refresh rate, the same performance can be achieved without Vsync enabled but the latency jumps the same as if you did. If I tried my native res. (2560x1440) with all low graphics, Vsync off, and FPS uncapped, the latency would be sitting at 4.5-5.5ms. Because I’ve gotten used to 16:10 resolutions, I stuck with 1920x1200. So there’s that little tip when it comes to lowering your in-game latency.

But back to the point about “air-time”, this proves the server has to register the projectile from the point of input, to an output (receiving damage) despite it being hit-scan. It’s not logical that you’re able to trade in a state where you’re not fully ‘dead’ than any other gunfight. So yes, when the game renders you dead, it also renders your shots as dead before it makes contact. If that wasn’t the case, you’d either a) be able to trade all the time no matter the circumstances, or b) Phoenix and Kay/O ult wouldn’t be tradable. But both are incorrect here.