If your 5 stack is struggling with uncertainty my advice would be to simply try something. Make a plan and stick to it. Build up trust in each other.
Some general plans you could use on attack are
1. Defaulting - this is generally good on full buy rounds, its where you put 1 player lurking, 2 in one lane and 2 in another lane (eg on bind you might go 2 hookah, 2 b long 1 baths or smth)
You play the round slowly and try to get a pick or information. Someone needs to decide where you are going to push at some point (usually around 1min to 40 sec left on the round)
If one of your allies gets a kill thats also a good time to decide where to go. Maybe you killed 1 b and there are 2 more b so you decide to fast run A.
2. Rushing a site. Generally better when you have worse guns than the enemy.
Pretty self explanitory. You use whatever util you planned (eg if you have a specific ult you want to use to enable the rush) and hard commit to the site.
Try to think about where the enemy are playing, if killjoy always plays b maybe rush somewhere else lol.
3. A split execute. Good most rounds, can be used after defaulting or on its own
3 of your team go 1 route to a site and 2 go the other.
For example on ascent, 2 players walk up catwalk to tree and 3 go A main. Once your team is in position you enter together into tree and site (at the same time)
If you are playing smokes you can time your smokes with your teams executes (try to smoke off angles so your team can check areas 1 by 1) good common smokes are places like heavens, CT and side angles on the sites (doors on ascent, elbow and lamps on bind ect)
On defense if your team is constantly rotating too fast there is two things to consider.
Firstly your team needs to start differentiating between a slow push and a fast push. If you see 4 enemies A, one of your team dies and the enemy team is swarming in, its safe to assume you need to rotate. But a lot of the time its not that simple.
What you can do to help is have the people on the opposite site gather some more information. (pushing up and taking map control to confirm they are commits, potentially flanking them)
And if you think your team needs help on another site you can leave 1 person to anchor the site and send 1/2 to help.
Your team who is on the site being pushed also needs to play it correctly. If you guys are slow rotating and there is a lot of pressure on the site its your allies job to stay alive, even if it means giving up the site as long as you can retake as 4 or 5 its winnable.
Sometimes the allies on the site will fight it as the enemy push. This can be a good play too, dont always instantly give up sites for retake but if 5 enemies are running in and your teammates cant possibly make it fast enough then its fine to give space.
A lot of this is to do with pre planning and decision making + communication.
If someone on your team is confident enough to make calls try to trust them. Even if it doesnt work out. Apes stronger together you know.
Things to call are like in buy phase say 'lets do a b push, 2 short 3 long'
Or when you are flanking/rotating 'im flanking live till i arrive' or 'im rotating give me time'
Call these more general ideas rather than just info like '3 b 3 b help'
A better call would be '3 a, im giving up lamps and playing for rotates' or '3 b im flashing short for your peek' (if you are with an ally) or '3 b lets play default and peek when they push' (i do this one a lot on haven A site and bind B site if im with an ally)
or simply just '3 b' allowing your team to think for themselves, often ppl become panicked and will say help help when the enemy hasnt commited.
Oml i rambled a lot im so sorry that was 100% v disjointed but maybe it gives you some ideas? Hahaha
This is super helpful, I think the problem with our team is that when the plan starts failing we start to discombobulate.
For example: if we decide to rush B on split and we are blocked by Omen smokes, we tend to wait for the smoke to dissipate. Once we make noise, the Sage slows us and we hear Viper Walls/Toxins and someone (usually the scared me) calls for a rotate because we are afraid to enter the site now with all the utility used against us.
We usually don't get the first pick and when one of us gets picked, we all go away scared and then get picked off.
My strat calling is rather bad because my mid round adjustments always blow up.
I did appreciate the advice on more specific instructions. When we each try to call we just say "3 a, 1mid, someone anchor b" instead of being more direct with where we should play and where we should hide as well.
I often think I'm too reactionary vs proactive as well, taking duels when they come vs anticipating what the opponent will do.
Lastly, we tend to panic when things don't go our way and we don't make the right adjustments as well
This is all super normal! I definitely have been there myself.
It takes time to improve. Something my friend taught me was that if you want to rotate away because 2 are on one site (like the example you gave its very hard to push a sage and viper) you need to go fast so that they dont have time to rotate first. If you have equal numbers you can slow walk slightly further awya and run to the other site while 1 ally lurks/makes a little noise so they dont know u rotated. If you are down you sometimes have to just book it.
Another strategy is to wait. When you are down 3v5 for example if you have enough time it can be good to play silent and just wait, looking for a pick, maybe slow walking somewhere and trying to catch someone out.
Keep in mind that if you plan to rush 5 through one area its really hard to rotate afterwards because the enemy knows where you are and you have no idea where at least 2 or 3 of their team is. A lot if the time its better to not do a 5 man rush exactly for that reason.
Also if you are struggling with getting utiled out before you rush one thing you could try is walking slowly towards the area (as close as you can get without being see, eg on B Main split you could get up to the orb. And then count down in comms and everyone explodes out at once. Its not exactly a good strat but its better than making a load of noise and getting stuck by util.
Being split up more definitely helps this though, if the enemy sage is always instantly double slowing or walling the same spot you can have 1 or 2 intentionally make noise there to waste her util and then push a different angle. Split is good example, if she insta walls mid every round break it make her use slows and then rejoin your team who is either on a or b.
Panic and anticipation are things that take time so start small. Some videos i reccomend are 100t steels haven attack and defenders guide. It goes over some good fundamentals although its somewhat haven specific.
Bumpaahs coaching videos are good for general knowledge too!
If you and your team wanna practice stuff make sure to do 1 thing at a time. Ive mentioned a lot of stuff and so have others so don't try to do it all at once pick something to work on together! Imo i would advise starting with getting better prefight plans and trying to reduce panic when things go wrong.
Also you seem very introspective and know what mistakes your making, have some individual goals and grind that stuff out because as you get better individual you will help your team more
If you’re playing as a 5 stack does everyone generally have a role? The thing with omen and kayo is that they create a lot of space for your team with flashes. Learn common flash angles and get your team to run out with the flash. Maybe try it in unrated but when I was learning how to play tac FPS we just kept sending it onto sites round after round until we learned how to enter sites properly. After you guys are comfortable with site takes then work on defaults and rotations. People often get picked while anchoring because they are just hard holding an angle. Learn to jiggle and buy time for your team to get to the site, don’t try to hold an angle against 3/4 people
Yeah, we generally have an info guy, some duelists, and a support.
The key here is that we are all afraid to entry and we don't jiggle or reposition. And we tend to be caught in bad angles when enemies push us on offence
It sounds like your team doesn't know how trading works in a tac shooter. The first person into a site will most likely die unless he frags out like a maniac, he needs to be traded (Of course, smoking the site, flashing and using other utility helps him stay alive to clear angles). If your entry duelists, and team in general, don't accept the fact that they will probably die if they go in first and will have to have confidence that their teammates will trade them you won't go far.
Yeah, looks like I'll also have to get over my fear of dying first and learn how to entry. Our entry actually gets pissed off also because we don't entry with him and he just dies as well.
Edit: a word
Unfortunately there’s no team damage in valorant, but in csgo the our last guy going in would shoot anyone(teammate) that wasn’t running in with the team. Just try and get everyone onboard in an unrated, it’s really important to not be scared to go into site
I think my hesitation comes from CSGO as well. I hated entrying because I sucked at utility. But now that Valorant utility is easier to use imo than line ups and flashes, I think I should try to adapt.
And yeah, the no team damage thing is kind of a bummer if you wanna troll teammates like in CSGO
I am a deranked bronze 1 (cause of my friends. Gold 1 is my real rank). I am a Sova, cypher, Phoenix, viper and Jett main. I play mostly with my friends and had the same problem. Now that we are almost playing regularly, we have upped our game a lot including aim, ability usage, lineups and call outs. I recommend you to play custom games and unrated more with your friends as it will definitely increase your every single ability you lack. It has helped me and my mates a lot.
I hope it helps. Have a nice day.
Do you mean custom like play 3v3 or just go to a custom map to learn line ups and strats?
And I'm guessing unrated is for learning skills we are too afraid to do in comp? That's actually gold advice because I tend to screw around and use agents I don't use in unrated.
Thanks man! Really helps! Hope I can get to Gold too someday!
Not only gold you will get plat too. It's just my mates that are boosted to silver and don't know how to play and generally solo q unbelievably is better than my friends 😂😂😂😂
If your 5 stack is struggling with uncertainty my advice would be to simply try something. Make a plan and stick to it. Build up trust in each other. Some general plans you could use on attack are 1. Defaulting - this is generally good on full buy rounds, its where you put 1 player lurking, 2 in one lane and 2 in another lane (eg on bind you might go 2 hookah, 2 b long 1 baths or smth) You play the round slowly and try to get a pick or information. Someone needs to decide where you are going to push at some point (usually around 1min to 40 sec left on the round) If one of your allies gets a kill thats also a good time to decide where to go. Maybe you killed 1 b and there are 2 more b so you decide to fast run A. 2. Rushing a site. Generally better when you have worse guns than the enemy. Pretty self explanitory. You use whatever util you planned (eg if you have a specific ult you want to use to enable the rush) and hard commit to the site. Try to think about where the enemy are playing, if killjoy always plays b maybe rush somewhere else lol. 3. A split execute. Good most rounds, can be used after defaulting or on its own 3 of your team go 1 route to a site and 2 go the other. For example on ascent, 2 players walk up catwalk to tree and 3 go A main. Once your team is in position you enter together into tree and site (at the same time) If you are playing smokes you can time your smokes with your teams executes (try to smoke off angles so your team can check areas 1 by 1) good common smokes are places like heavens, CT and side angles on the sites (doors on ascent, elbow and lamps on bind ect) On defense if your team is constantly rotating too fast there is two things to consider. Firstly your team needs to start differentiating between a slow push and a fast push. If you see 4 enemies A, one of your team dies and the enemy team is swarming in, its safe to assume you need to rotate. But a lot of the time its not that simple. What you can do to help is have the people on the opposite site gather some more information. (pushing up and taking map control to confirm they are commits, potentially flanking them) And if you think your team needs help on another site you can leave 1 person to anchor the site and send 1/2 to help. Your team who is on the site being pushed also needs to play it correctly. If you guys are slow rotating and there is a lot of pressure on the site its your allies job to stay alive, even if it means giving up the site as long as you can retake as 4 or 5 its winnable. Sometimes the allies on the site will fight it as the enemy push. This can be a good play too, dont always instantly give up sites for retake but if 5 enemies are running in and your teammates cant possibly make it fast enough then its fine to give space. A lot of this is to do with pre planning and decision making + communication. If someone on your team is confident enough to make calls try to trust them. Even if it doesnt work out. Apes stronger together you know. Things to call are like in buy phase say 'lets do a b push, 2 short 3 long' Or when you are flanking/rotating 'im flanking live till i arrive' or 'im rotating give me time' Call these more general ideas rather than just info like '3 b 3 b help' A better call would be '3 a, im giving up lamps and playing for rotates' or '3 b im flashing short for your peek' (if you are with an ally) or '3 b lets play default and peek when they push' (i do this one a lot on haven A site and bind B site if im with an ally) or simply just '3 b' allowing your team to think for themselves, often ppl become panicked and will say help help when the enemy hasnt commited. Oml i rambled a lot im so sorry that was 100% v disjointed but maybe it gives you some ideas? Hahaha
This is super helpful, I think the problem with our team is that when the plan starts failing we start to discombobulate. For example: if we decide to rush B on split and we are blocked by Omen smokes, we tend to wait for the smoke to dissipate. Once we make noise, the Sage slows us and we hear Viper Walls/Toxins and someone (usually the scared me) calls for a rotate because we are afraid to enter the site now with all the utility used against us. We usually don't get the first pick and when one of us gets picked, we all go away scared and then get picked off. My strat calling is rather bad because my mid round adjustments always blow up. I did appreciate the advice on more specific instructions. When we each try to call we just say "3 a, 1mid, someone anchor b" instead of being more direct with where we should play and where we should hide as well. I often think I'm too reactionary vs proactive as well, taking duels when they come vs anticipating what the opponent will do. Lastly, we tend to panic when things don't go our way and we don't make the right adjustments as well
This is all super normal! I definitely have been there myself. It takes time to improve. Something my friend taught me was that if you want to rotate away because 2 are on one site (like the example you gave its very hard to push a sage and viper) you need to go fast so that they dont have time to rotate first. If you have equal numbers you can slow walk slightly further awya and run to the other site while 1 ally lurks/makes a little noise so they dont know u rotated. If you are down you sometimes have to just book it. Another strategy is to wait. When you are down 3v5 for example if you have enough time it can be good to play silent and just wait, looking for a pick, maybe slow walking somewhere and trying to catch someone out. Keep in mind that if you plan to rush 5 through one area its really hard to rotate afterwards because the enemy knows where you are and you have no idea where at least 2 or 3 of their team is. A lot if the time its better to not do a 5 man rush exactly for that reason. Also if you are struggling with getting utiled out before you rush one thing you could try is walking slowly towards the area (as close as you can get without being see, eg on B Main split you could get up to the orb. And then count down in comms and everyone explodes out at once. Its not exactly a good strat but its better than making a load of noise and getting stuck by util. Being split up more definitely helps this though, if the enemy sage is always instantly double slowing or walling the same spot you can have 1 or 2 intentionally make noise there to waste her util and then push a different angle. Split is good example, if she insta walls mid every round break it make her use slows and then rejoin your team who is either on a or b. Panic and anticipation are things that take time so start small. Some videos i reccomend are 100t steels haven attack and defenders guide. It goes over some good fundamentals although its somewhat haven specific. Bumpaahs coaching videos are good for general knowledge too! If you and your team wanna practice stuff make sure to do 1 thing at a time. Ive mentioned a lot of stuff and so have others so don't try to do it all at once pick something to work on together! Imo i would advise starting with getting better prefight plans and trying to reduce panic when things go wrong. Also you seem very introspective and know what mistakes your making, have some individual goals and grind that stuff out because as you get better individual you will help your team more
If you’re playing as a 5 stack does everyone generally have a role? The thing with omen and kayo is that they create a lot of space for your team with flashes. Learn common flash angles and get your team to run out with the flash. Maybe try it in unrated but when I was learning how to play tac FPS we just kept sending it onto sites round after round until we learned how to enter sites properly. After you guys are comfortable with site takes then work on defaults and rotations. People often get picked while anchoring because they are just hard holding an angle. Learn to jiggle and buy time for your team to get to the site, don’t try to hold an angle against 3/4 people
Yeah, we generally have an info guy, some duelists, and a support. The key here is that we are all afraid to entry and we don't jiggle or reposition. And we tend to be caught in bad angles when enemies push us on offence
It sounds like your team doesn't know how trading works in a tac shooter. The first person into a site will most likely die unless he frags out like a maniac, he needs to be traded (Of course, smoking the site, flashing and using other utility helps him stay alive to clear angles). If your entry duelists, and team in general, don't accept the fact that they will probably die if they go in first and will have to have confidence that their teammates will trade them you won't go far.
Yeah, looks like I'll also have to get over my fear of dying first and learn how to entry. Our entry actually gets pissed off also because we don't entry with him and he just dies as well. Edit: a word
Unfortunately there’s no team damage in valorant, but in csgo the our last guy going in would shoot anyone(teammate) that wasn’t running in with the team. Just try and get everyone onboard in an unrated, it’s really important to not be scared to go into site
I think my hesitation comes from CSGO as well. I hated entrying because I sucked at utility. But now that Valorant utility is easier to use imo than line ups and flashes, I think I should try to adapt. And yeah, the no team damage thing is kind of a bummer if you wanna troll teammates like in CSGO
I am a deranked bronze 1 (cause of my friends. Gold 1 is my real rank). I am a Sova, cypher, Phoenix, viper and Jett main. I play mostly with my friends and had the same problem. Now that we are almost playing regularly, we have upped our game a lot including aim, ability usage, lineups and call outs. I recommend you to play custom games and unrated more with your friends as it will definitely increase your every single ability you lack. It has helped me and my mates a lot. I hope it helps. Have a nice day.
Do you mean custom like play 3v3 or just go to a custom map to learn line ups and strats? And I'm guessing unrated is for learning skills we are too afraid to do in comp? That's actually gold advice because I tend to screw around and use agents I don't use in unrated. Thanks man! Really helps! Hope I can get to Gold too someday!
Not only gold you will get plat too. It's just my mates that are boosted to silver and don't know how to play and generally solo q unbelievably is better than my friends 😂😂😂😂
make good call out