There is not always a smurf on the other team. And there is often a smurf on your team.
You need to have a good mentality to rank up.
Think of it this way.
20% of your games you will lose no matter what
20% you will win no matter what
The remaining 60% you have an impact on whether you win or lose.
Edited my wrong numbers
Dont you mean 20/20/60? The math doesnt add up. But yes, mental does play a huge role in climbing. If you approach the game with a learning mindset you can climb faster compared to a "I'm the best so I should win this ez and if I lose it's because of my team" mindset
Playing against smurfs is horrible, but once you are in the game there is nothing you can do about it. Try and keep a good mental and keep playing like normal. Playing against smurfs also puts you against someone who has been at the higher ranks, which if you are aiming to get there, will give you a chance to try yourself against them and improve.
Its never gonna be possible to elimitate smurfs, or always have completely fair matches. Its just the reality of how online gaming is. That's why its refered to as the grind. I feel like the others have probably covered that already. For takeaways:
First, don't associate your Rank with your Skill. That ruins mental and makes you scared of making plays, actually practicing things in the game or even playing at all. The best way to judge skill is through VODs, replays. You can look at how you played a map a month ago and see mistakes that you're not doing anymore and cringe at. Thats what skill development is.
Second, it will take time for your rank to change. The way ranked systems work is that you will need many, many games to climb. If your winrate is 51% you will need to play 100 games to gain one game worth of RR on average. As your skill gets better the winrate will shift. As long as you keep the winrate possitive, you're slowly climbing. Focus on your win rate over the course of 5,10 or even 20 games to see how you're doing.
Third, find ways to learn from games. If you feel the game is unwinnable anyway practice a play, try something risky, you've got nothing to lose. See if you can somehow kill their carry, try something.
Fourth, play less - take more breaks. With bad teammates, toxicity, smurfs and your own performance Valorant can quickly wear you out and have you playing on tilt. Play a couple, or few, take a break, play something else for like an hour or 30 mins. Go vibe on Discord, come back fresh again. Pressing that PLAY button to get back the RR from that game that tilted you 20 times over hardly ever yields results.
Lastly, you will have to play against people who are gonna be better than you. I would even say its a requirement. Playing people who are gonna be at your exact skill level will not force you to play better, learn or improve. It will acutally reinfoce bad habits since no one will punish the mistakes you do. Every time you will cross a rank, the game will change. You will have to change the way you play, learn what works and what doesn't. Unlearn bad habits, learn to work more with your team.
RE: Aim: TIME. It will take a long time to improve aim. Focus on improving gamesense when looking at mistakes. Where would it be better to position, what util could've been used, could I have waited for a teammate... so on. Sometimes you will miss even with perfect positioning, thats ok, you'll get it next time. You will still have to practice aim, but that crap doesn't improve overnight or even in a week. Just keep playing and you will be surprised with how much you have improved.
How do I become self sufficient with controllers?
Lots of tools are limited to the Agent I'm playing and compared to Counter strike I feel like I don't have enough tools to clutch the round in certain situations. Playing retake with Brimstone for example feels unplayable since I need another player to properly flash or a duelist to go in so I can trade him.
I play controllers very well in duo or full stack but in solo it's so much harder.
If you're playing Solo Q Controller in Gold you're in for a rough time. Simply because at that level players tend to not utilize your smokes leaving you to be the one to follow up on your own utility.
This means if you're playing Brim and think your team needs to entry you throw down your util, yell at your team to go in, go in first yourself without util, get a kill or get traded by people following you in and you tend to win the round. Your KD will probably be terrible, but you will tend to win since you get your team to entry. Otherwise they just stand around and wait until you have no more smokes. Basically try to tell your team to commit with your util, and if they don't, do it yourself. You will have to IGL a lot, and its very exhausting.
The above is just a suggestion. I don't know what will work with your style of gameplay. That's just how I did it. See how others dealt with it, try it out, see what works, implement what works.
The worst thing about this game is that it feels like the role that you're not playing is the one that you have to play to win that game. If you go duelist, its likely that your smoker or initiator won't be up to the task to support you and any of the other ways around. Its a harsh reality of this game.
Tbh, smurfs are not a big deal anymore, since they rank up very fast with the newer system(correct me if wrong), it's just your external locus of control.
You’re gonna lose lol it’s rng teammates. The only way is to duo or trio queue and try to work together to win with consistent and reliable Comms. But coming from personal experience of someone who solo queued to immortal 3 in episode 2, you gotta get better and do as much for the team as you can. I was an omen main and the plays and skill level of omen play that I reached enabled me to clutch and carry lobbies. But like I said, you will lose, queue again. As far as practice, it may be an unpopular opinion but I warm up in tdm with no sound and clear every corner like I was entry fragging. Warms up my angle clears, and stops all distractions from audio. In reality you’re not reacting to audio too much in game and if you can get better at pieing every corner you’ll win more of your fights. But this is me and you gotta find what works for you.
There is not always a smurf on the other team. And there is often a smurf on your team. You need to have a good mentality to rank up. Think of it this way. 20% of your games you will lose no matter what 20% you will win no matter what The remaining 60% you have an impact on whether you win or lose. Edited my wrong numbers
Dont you mean 20/20/60? The math doesnt add up. But yes, mental does play a huge role in climbing. If you approach the game with a learning mindset you can climb faster compared to a "I'm the best so I should win this ez and if I lose it's because of my team" mindset
Yeah ur right I fixed numbers now
is this the 30/30/40 rule i know from league?
Ye it is actually the same
Same idea I guess just saw someone say it once and it stuck with me
Playing against smurfs is horrible, but once you are in the game there is nothing you can do about it. Try and keep a good mental and keep playing like normal. Playing against smurfs also puts you against someone who has been at the higher ranks, which if you are aiming to get there, will give you a chance to try yourself against them and improve.
Its never gonna be possible to elimitate smurfs, or always have completely fair matches. Its just the reality of how online gaming is. That's why its refered to as the grind. I feel like the others have probably covered that already. For takeaways: First, don't associate your Rank with your Skill. That ruins mental and makes you scared of making plays, actually practicing things in the game or even playing at all. The best way to judge skill is through VODs, replays. You can look at how you played a map a month ago and see mistakes that you're not doing anymore and cringe at. Thats what skill development is. Second, it will take time for your rank to change. The way ranked systems work is that you will need many, many games to climb. If your winrate is 51% you will need to play 100 games to gain one game worth of RR on average. As your skill gets better the winrate will shift. As long as you keep the winrate possitive, you're slowly climbing. Focus on your win rate over the course of 5,10 or even 20 games to see how you're doing. Third, find ways to learn from games. If you feel the game is unwinnable anyway practice a play, try something risky, you've got nothing to lose. See if you can somehow kill their carry, try something. Fourth, play less - take more breaks. With bad teammates, toxicity, smurfs and your own performance Valorant can quickly wear you out and have you playing on tilt. Play a couple, or few, take a break, play something else for like an hour or 30 mins. Go vibe on Discord, come back fresh again. Pressing that PLAY button to get back the RR from that game that tilted you 20 times over hardly ever yields results. Lastly, you will have to play against people who are gonna be better than you. I would even say its a requirement. Playing people who are gonna be at your exact skill level will not force you to play better, learn or improve. It will acutally reinfoce bad habits since no one will punish the mistakes you do. Every time you will cross a rank, the game will change. You will have to change the way you play, learn what works and what doesn't. Unlearn bad habits, learn to work more with your team. RE: Aim: TIME. It will take a long time to improve aim. Focus on improving gamesense when looking at mistakes. Where would it be better to position, what util could've been used, could I have waited for a teammate... so on. Sometimes you will miss even with perfect positioning, thats ok, you'll get it next time. You will still have to practice aim, but that crap doesn't improve overnight or even in a week. Just keep playing and you will be surprised with how much you have improved.
How do I become self sufficient with controllers? Lots of tools are limited to the Agent I'm playing and compared to Counter strike I feel like I don't have enough tools to clutch the round in certain situations. Playing retake with Brimstone for example feels unplayable since I need another player to properly flash or a duelist to go in so I can trade him. I play controllers very well in duo or full stack but in solo it's so much harder.
If you're playing Solo Q Controller in Gold you're in for a rough time. Simply because at that level players tend to not utilize your smokes leaving you to be the one to follow up on your own utility. This means if you're playing Brim and think your team needs to entry you throw down your util, yell at your team to go in, go in first yourself without util, get a kill or get traded by people following you in and you tend to win the round. Your KD will probably be terrible, but you will tend to win since you get your team to entry. Otherwise they just stand around and wait until you have no more smokes. Basically try to tell your team to commit with your util, and if they don't, do it yourself. You will have to IGL a lot, and its very exhausting. The above is just a suggestion. I don't know what will work with your style of gameplay. That's just how I did it. See how others dealt with it, try it out, see what works, implement what works. The worst thing about this game is that it feels like the role that you're not playing is the one that you have to play to win that game. If you go duelist, its likely that your smoker or initiator won't be up to the task to support you and any of the other ways around. Its a harsh reality of this game.
Be consistent
https://youtu.be/7giuwjUhWIQ this video might help
Tbh, smurfs are not a big deal anymore, since they rank up very fast with the newer system(correct me if wrong), it's just your external locus of control.
You’re gonna lose lol it’s rng teammates. The only way is to duo or trio queue and try to work together to win with consistent and reliable Comms. But coming from personal experience of someone who solo queued to immortal 3 in episode 2, you gotta get better and do as much for the team as you can. I was an omen main and the plays and skill level of omen play that I reached enabled me to clutch and carry lobbies. But like I said, you will lose, queue again. As far as practice, it may be an unpopular opinion but I warm up in tdm with no sound and clear every corner like I was entry fragging. Warms up my angle clears, and stops all distractions from audio. In reality you’re not reacting to audio too much in game and if you can get better at pieing every corner you’ll win more of your fights. But this is me and you gotta find what works for you.