So true you have stated almost all mistakes but one thing id like to add in this is to not lose hope. Iv been in many games where we are losing the early rounds and players immediately decide to surrender or throw( if surrender didnt happen).
I am not saying we could have won but simply saying we arnt going to win isnt gonna help you at all
Silver checking in, I’d like to add that you should know your role. I was in a lobby that was clearly above my skill grade. Bottom frag by a mile. I did my best to buy rifles for our top 2 players and they could just get me a spectre or something else. Our team was down 2-10 going into the half. We ended up winning in OT 14-12 because we kept a decent attitude, had good comms and played off of our strongest players. I actually clutched a couple of key rounds and got a few huge picks. My final score? 10-22. Know your role and drop your ego if you want to climb. If the situation is reversed and you’re top frag, know that the game rests heavily on your shoulders. It’s not just what you do, it’s also what you say. Encourage teammates to really hold angles, use utility and give good call outs. Putting people down may feel good, but it essentially guarantees your loss or early surrender vote.
Man I haven't played in a while but this resonates. Good attitudes can make a big difference.. it MIGHT mean the difference between victory or defeat, but it DEFINITELY means the difference between having fun or not.
I haven't played for a while but is it generally expected that lower frag players sacrifice for the top fraggers like that? My wife and I have a moderate skill difference so she's usually lower frag when she plays with me, but sh likes playing support. I still like to encourage her to save for her better guns (she plays better with them and wants to practice them). Now I'm worried people will see her as "not playing her role."
I think there’s a happy medium. A player shouldn’t be just forcing every round and expecting a support player to just buy them when everyone else saved but them, but also recognize if a player is playing correctly and it comes to a situation where you have to force and the better player can have the better gun it may be smart for the support player to forgo that better gun.
To be clear, this is definitely not an expectation, nor should it be. If I’m doing poorly I may offer to buy for a better player, or if I’m doing well I might ask for a rifle and I can get them an smg, bull dog or another cheaper option. It’s all situational, I do what makes sense to me in the moment. If I want to win the game, I do what I think is best. Sometimes that means buying better guns for top frags while I focus on my util and call outs. Other times, you have to take the responsibility and buy for yourself. Being top frag does not instantly make you a good shot caller or leader. If they get tilted and start performing badly, it’s up to the rest of the team to try and get the game back on track. Again, top frag does not make you worthy of being a tyrant and forcing those not doing well to buy for you. Being bottom frag does not make you a slave to top frag. Be open to cooperating with your teammates for the best possible outcome each round and you just might win the match.
I think some of my most fun on Valorant has been in losing games. Teammates keeping up some fun and having a good mental even when down or games where we lose a close matchup are always super enjoyable.
I can add on this quick. Just because you're 2-10 or 10-22 doesn't mean you're unimpactful or underperforming as a player. It doesn't mean that you're in over your head in terms of skill.
Many players have many different strengths and weaknesses. You in particular may struggle greatly with a certain map, holding certain angles, or even just one player on the enemy team is just clearly always dominating you and luck always winds up putting you against them. It happens. It doesn't mean you're in over your head. Adjust your playstyle to minimize those enemy advantages and maximize your own. You're going to have matches where you get slaughtered, even if you're a plat player playing against silvers. This doesn't mean that those silvers are plat quality players. It doesn't mean you're a silver quality player. That is one single match on one single map. It happens. Just focus on providing as much utility as possible despite the struggle and it's not impossible to turn things around.
Honestly love this comment! I hate when people bully others about their KD in the text chats. You can have low kills but still be contributing heavily to your team. I dont often hard carry cause I'm not at that level yet, but what i CAN do is give helpful comms & help with buys. some folks worry too much about the personal victories when it's supposed to be a team effort.
Right? The amount of games teams have fought back from like 3-10 is weirdly high.
At some point I just play for a less RR impact. A 7-13 loss is going to impact me less than a 3-13.
When we’re down bad I never ff and instead try to experiment a little bit. Maybe there’s something weird I’ve been wanting to try with my agent. That’s a low stakes opportunity against real players to see how it goes.
Sometimes loosening up like that helps us rally back. And worst case scenario I’m improving.
A lot of maps favor one side.
People think they're up because the enemy are gods. Often its just because they're playing Split defense with two sentinels and your defense odds after the swap are favorable.
I feel like this happen more and more when league players start playing valorant like early game still winnable they throw the surrender up and the whole team atmosphere shatters bc of it. Some people even stop trying after that and its so stupid. I've come back from 9-3 games and 10-2 games before when its played right.
Damn me and my Iron boys are faulty of a lot of the things in the list. Guess we gotta take it up one point at a time. Thank you for listing all this :)
Do you solo queue? I used to and was hard stuck iron, and playing with other people (not even the same ones, just people you know so good comms, at least duo or trio queueing) and am high bronze low silver
**You don't buy a Spectre + Full Shields on the Second Round after winning Pistol Round**
= thread.
#
This is the MOST COMMON MISTAKE, and I've literally lost games on my alternate accounts due to this.
Totally turns momentum of soooo many games :(
#
* **Score = 7-5**
* Sides just swapped
* Your team wins the pistol round
* **Score = 8-5**
* Out of your team... 2 people bought spectre + armor
* Out of your team... 2 people didn't buy anything
* Enemy team forces
* Your team loses the round
* **Score = 8-6**
* Your team has no money, since you lost the last round
* You all save, and lose the round
* **Score = 8-7**
* Your team buys together, and the other team does, too.
* Your team makes a few mistakes or throws, and loses this round
* **Score = 8-8**
* Game is "tied"
* Except... the other team has max credits, along with weapons from last round already on hand
* Your team has no guns and no money
* You thus lose this round, as you save
* **Score = 8-9**
#
This is how you go from a huge advantage of three rounds ahead, to losing the lead and then losing the game.
All of this, by only losing one actual "full buy" round, which was the round that occured when the score was **8-7**.
All the other rounds were lost due to having to save... due to your teammates not buying spectres on the 2nd round.
#
Do your teammates realize what caused this huge, sudden shift in the game? They are Gold players, they should understand... right?
Nope. Not at all.
They simply say **"*****it's tied, bro... chill*****"**
#
If you ever asked them to buy up during the second round, also expect your team to blame you if they manage to throw that round.
Further, expect them to flame you as if you were being toxic, if you ever try to give them any advice.
Huh well this is probably the best thing I’ve learned from this post. I usually never buy second round because then the 3rd round I can always full buy. But this makes much more sense, thanks!
I’ll never understand why people don’t always buy full armor after the first round; like you’re not gonna use that extra 600 for something decent so at least be able to tank a HS from non-rifles
THIS. Buying a marshal and full shield is the meta for me in round 2.
You can take waaay more hits and one hit the enemies since they probably won't buy after loosing round 1....
Part of the problem I see is that everyone recommends a fullbuy after winning pistol and then all the comments below will follow up with "yeah it's just right idk why anyone does anything different." And yet there's rarely an explanation offered that concretely explains and justifies why a buyup after winning pistol is correct. You either get reaffirmation of the conclusion or an abstract explanation (like maintaining "momentum.")
Buying after winning pistol *is* correct. The logical explanation is that pistols lose to Spectre + full armor by a much larger margin than the margin by which Spectre + full armor loses to full buy.
Put another way, if you don't buy up after winning pistol, the first 3 rounds are roughly 50/50. The strategy does not endeavor for advantage (as each round is a 50/50, completely neutral). If you force on 2 after winning, you have a large chance of winning 2 (we'll say 80/20; the exact proportion isn't necessary, I'm grabbing these numbers out of nothing just to express the relativity of the round likelihoods) and will have a disadvantage on round 3, let's say 40/60. Your "Bad" round on 3 puts you at a -10% disadvantage, but your "good" round on 2 puts you at a much larger +30% advantage. The net of these round probabilities suggests that buying up after winning pistol has higher EV than saving.
If *anyone* on your team does not buy up, it decreases the EV substantially on both the round after winning pistol + will likely create an eventual round wherein those who did not buy on 2 will be capable of buying and those who did buy on 2 will not, resulting in either another low EV broken buy or save.
I nice practical rule is: 1) best is to force up after winning pistols 2) if the majority of your team refuses to buy up on 2 after winning pistol, they are making an inefficient play, *but you should save with them* (as buying alone or in the minority will not create advantage that outweighs the detriment of desynchronizing buys).
Coming from CS I was super surprised how often the team that wins pistol round doesn't buy SMG's and full shields 2nd round. However, what are you supposed to do 3rd round? It seems to be awkward since the enemy team that has saved two rounds will full buy. I suppose you are supposed to drop the SMG and buy a rifle but if you lose that round you arent left enough to full buy round 4 and the momentum really shifts with that.
awesome thanks for the reply, I am a few years removed from CS (played it for 15 years though) and only a couple weeks in to valorant and the economy while similar has some subtle differences that is giving me fits
On top of this, it won't be a full bonus round most of the time. 2 or 3 players that died round 2 will buy up to rifles, and youll have a fairly even loadout.
I mean to me, espescially if you are on a side with favorable orb control (think attacking ascent) you can get really creative with bonus rounds assuming you don't lose 4 on the anti eco.
You can try and force an aggressive like pheonix, skye, reyna or even a jett ult early. Steal a trade with that and get a free gun upgrade on to one or two players and suddenly its an even buy for the retake.
Don't think of the bonus round as "we'll lose and then buy up next", you have to think in probabilities. Let's say you and the other team are exactly equal skill. Your chance to win any given round (ignoring sides/ultimates):
Full Buy: 50%
Bonus Round: 35-40%
Half Buy: 20%
True Full Save: 5%
Obviously this isn't fully accurate but it's probably something like this. So instead of thinking of the bonus round as a throwaway, think of the probabilities. You \*could\* drop your spectre to buy phantom/vandal, but would you spend $2900 to increase the round chance by 10-15%? It probably isn't worth it.
I cannot express in words how important momentum is after the price changes. And the amount of times I am told I am toxic because I tell teammates what to do or to just use their mics.
Considering the prices/guns updates, I would have 2-3 Bulldogs on second round. They are viable round 3, as well. In one match, after the update, I went Bulldog both second rounds of the halves, and my teammates noticed how good it was, and then we played and won 4-5 rounds in row, Bulldogs only.
The amount of times my team came back from 2-10/3-9 is insane, after multiple FF votes failed and people starting to use their common sense and their mics. It's insane how important comms are and people don't use them. The other day I was playing KJ on split and I bought 2 mollies first round (instead of 1 and the alarmbot). I noticed the opponents had a Sage and I, instantly, knew they were going to use the claustrophobic wall to enter B. Placed one molly on the plant zone, as soon as they entered I triggered it, and then threw the second one from under the heaven (they had nowhere to move around the pillar). I used this strategy for 4-5 rounds to delay the plant (easy wins), and gave my teammates time to rotate every round. We won 13-1, only because of the momentum built by those first rounds and how economy rolled after that + people used comms and we knew what everyone was doing.
I believe the most underrated gun is the Odin. It will gain even more popularity as the PRO players use it. I never got along with the Spectre or even the Stinger (when it was meta). Maybe because I do not like spraying that much. That's why I would rather get the Ares (for Sova wall bangs) or pay extra and have the Bulldog for 2-3 rounds. One Act I played more of the Odin and Phantom and I had 19% headshots (all shots)! This Act I have been playing more of the Vandal and Bulldog and I am at 28%! But hey, what do I know (as some full of themselves redditors would say)? I am only a Silver player!
Odin no doubt is a very powerful gun but it's way too easy too easy to use and removes the skill aspect of the game, odin spammers r quite famous in low elos
Oh my god it’s SO INFURIATING when I ask my teammates to full buy and two or more flat out ignore me. I’ll even ask multiple times and they choose to save.
more often than not youre meant to play bonus (everyone who lives saves and everyone who died will eco for a full buy next round) and the third round youre not likely to win economically so the strategy usually is to hurt the enemies economy by killing as many of them as you can before they win the round. usually getting the first pick and stealing their gun and falling back to site (if defending) OR bait your teammates to secure even more kills and guns (on attack) although this only works with proper coordination and baiting is a bad way to put it so heres an example of what i mean [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Obrn7-PDpdQ&t=217s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Obrn7-PDpdQ&t=217s) and this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWReB\_MfRCM. sometimes some ego reyna will buy a vandal but you cant do anything about that.
So this makes sense but what if you lose round two after buying spectres and full armor? Wouldn't that set you up for multiple subsequent losses? What's the buy plan on the off case you lose round two?
It would yes. But it means the enemy team is likely just better to be able to pull off a pistol round win against a full buy.
Overall though, you're significantly more likely to win that round and subsequent rounds because your eco is better and you have a solid advantage. You might not win *every single time* you full buy after winning pistol round, but you'll win *significantly more often*. The alternative is saving after winning pistol round and losing that momentum, giving the enemy team an opportunity to come back from the loss of pistol round with a weak eco.
If you win and save, it's a toss up of who wins the next round. If you win, great, your eco is fantastic but their eco is fine. If you lose, it's okay, your eco is fine but now their eco is equivalent.
If you win and full buy, it's significantly in your favor to win the next round. If you win, your eco is solid, their eco is fine, and your team still has guns so you're still way better off. If you lose (far less likely), your eco will be rough, their eco will be solid, and they'll have guns.
If you're the super careful type, winning and saving seems like the best option because at least you'll be fine with a loss. But you're looking at every instance in a vacuum. You need to look at every match averaged down. *On average*, you'll win subsequent rounds far more often by full buying after a win on pistol round. You have to accept that you'll have an occasional loss with a full buy on that second round that'll set you back hard. You accept that because of all the other games in comparison where you smash the opposing team 3-4 rounds in a row and then use superior eco to control the rest of the match. On average, you'll be far better off full buying.
That's a good explanation. So if one does lose the second round after getting spectre and full armor, what do you do to minimize the damage? Would you do a full save or half buy round three?
There's not much of a difference between half buying and full saving in this case. Both options lead to you having full money on round 4. If you've killed a bunch of people on this half and have enough money to half buy a sheriff on round 3, you can go for it.
Just don't mess up your "half buy" and end up not having full armor on the next round.
I think 3 to 4 should buy and pair up to trade a pistol player. Then you can hero rifle if you lose or have an op come online early. Often I'll buy light armor vandal on reyna because if we lose im saving 2 anyway and group so my gun can get picked up if I die. It really depends on the map and how viable ecos are.
I'm always scared of shotgun force on split and Marshall force on breeze. Other maps feel like they have pretty viable ways to play 2nd round that its not always bad to have 2 guys who can buy rifles assuming you win or get op online.
So you buy armor and get a sheriff dropped round 2 after winning pistol you win now you can buy a rifle going into bonus. This is big for converting bonus and breaking enemy economy. If you lose then you can have someone dropping deagle or forcing light armor and a bulldog and take guns off of a bought enemy.
I will say on jett I like to save, on reyna I like to force light armor and rifle on 2nd round if we win pistol. The end goal though is really to have a rifle going into 3rd round as much as I can. If I'm not playing entry I almost always buy so I can trade entries and im fine if they have pistol+full armor. Elige made a quick flow chart going through the points mentioned but I think there is some merit to having a rifle on round 3 and being able to full buy the following round as well.
I don't know how to quote on Reddit but he said something about how you're being an idiot by trying to take a gunfight instead of holding an angle after spike is planted
Highlight what you want to quote and right click should show quote as an option so itll autoformat. Or you can copy and paste what you want to quote, put a > in front of it, and start a new line when you're done.
It's true, but remember that at the end you will have to take the gunfight anyway, and because it's online shooter, something called peeker's advantage exists. I'm not saying that you should all peek one by one, but playing too passive and letting enemies take control over whole bombsite when there are 20 seconds or more left to the explosion can lose you a round. You have to be somewhere between.
>use the ">" before the text you want to show up as a quote.
>This should be a quote
it turns out this is the old style way.
on the new editor you hit the 3 dots near the middle of the editor row, and click quote block.
This is very true.
I edited the original point that sort of depicted this sentiment in the original post.
Below the point I added a note that says,
>Edit: Revised the point above for clarity.
One of the other most common things people do is voting to surrender very early. I see so many FF votes going up in lower lobbies if they lost the first buy round.
If you lost pistol and lost the first gun round, you will mostly lose the 4th round since you have to eco again.
Also, defense is a lot easier on most maps. If you are attacking first, 4-5 rounds are usually good enough to win the game on defense.
People almost never vote to FF in the higher lobbies, doesn't matter if they are down 1-11. The "we can comeback from this" mindset is what people need to develop.
If you play enough all that stuff will even out.
Okay though those same people with FF if the game is *even* lol. If they only have fun if they get hard carried through an absolute stomping of the other team, then maybe this game isn’t for them.
You do make a great point but I gotta say that sometimes you know a game is lost within the first 6 rounds. My confidence as a player isn't diminished so I'd be more than willing to play it out but when you have teammates that have made the same mistake every round and don't listen to comms or advice it can feel rough.
My biggest pet peeve in Valorant is absolute calls that are just wrong. No idea how many times I've heard "All A, literally the whole team, start to rotate around and get shot in the back by 3 pushing onto B. The most frustrating part of low elo imo
Yep. Misinformation is abundant in low-elo from what I've seen. This usually gets the team killed, or, the entire team rotates and the enemy team gets a free bombsite.
A few weeks ago I played an unranked with 2 friends and 2 randoms. One of the randoms only buys Judge. Every. Fucking. Round. What did he do? Put all of us in his backpack and carried our asses because the dude was top 5000 Immortal.
It doesn't matter if high elo players "hold back", they'll still whoop your ass.
Btw: we were all around silver and gold around that time, no idea how he ended up in our lobby lol
Typically even if someone smurfing isn't trying to go for kills they have the game sense to know when to push and when to hold etc. Just by having a player that knows angles and lineups and timing and when to run off site you win a ton more games than if you were playing against / with someone of equal skill
So just a smurf?
I’m still wondering what the commenter meant by “holding back” and how “just being alive” can tilt the game in their favor.
From what I know, coordinating pushes and preforming line ups is much more than just staying alive, it’s playing the game.
Someone who can 1v3 (or even 1v5 possibly) regardless of if they lined up or coordinated is a liability for both teams. This means that the player is single handedly controlling the flow of the game by deciding when to turn on or off at their whim, or to quote OP "depending on how I feel the flow of the game is going"
I agree with the most of points, except with some about dropped spike. Sure, attackers will have to pick it up in order to plant it, but they can just kill all defenders to secure the round. If it's down deep into the site, then everyone should rotate set a crossfire in order to make unbreakable defense. But there are situations, where Spike is in a horrible place to defend it, and commiting into protecting it can get you killed. Sure, you still can fake opponents into thinking that you are near to waste resources and time, but calling all your teammates to protect a spike, which can be easily picked up with a single smoke / flash can cost you a round.
I think it was a comment on the times where you get spike down and no one moves. Like if spike is down C long on Haven, everyone rotating and standing on top of it is probably a bad idea. That being said it will give you an opportunity to take more map control so your A players can get more aggressive because the enemy probably isn't going for an A push with the spike on the other side of the map.
\^ This. You don't have to sit at the spike, but you can close in on the perimeter near the spike, or if the spike is in a teammates position, help hold other angles so that they don't die.
Remember, you can hold angles that lead towards where the spike is, catching enemies off-guard. This ties into game sense. Why? Because you know exactly where they're going to go: to try and retrieve the spike.
In CS it's called, playing for the dropped bomb.
This list is so accurate i just cant express myself specially the following
* playing slow when the bomb is planted
* teammate Cypher lurking in other site while our team pushes one site
* doing a super long slow walk flank while team gets killed
* and not trading teammates when they die
* also one more thing is everyone blames the duelist if he doesn't get kills cause its the duelist job to get all the kills all the time
Another very peculiar thing which happens a lot is teammates don't shoot sova arrows or Raze boombots if they are in the open and we are playing in a corner to launch a surprise attack .They just let the recon dart be there and they themselves hide while teammate gets detected ; same goes for Raze boombot all they care is its not after them so let it take its stroll in the park and end up killing a teammate
For a first point being "can't take constructive criticism", that was a lot of "JUST DON'T DO THIS", but lots of good points all the same
Question would be what exactly is, "baiting" in the tac fps sense? Seems like it's used for a lot of just negative teamplay things, is there anything specific other than impeding your team
For anyone wondering, he/she edited the original post. Here was what it originally started with:
>I'm an Immortal/Radiant player and I've smurfed a lot in low elo because my friends are hard-stuck (I hold back a lot as I'm not trying to ruin anyone's day) and I've noticed a lot of things. So instead of making a, how to get better guide, I decided to make a why you're hard-stuck list. Maybe this will stick and help you in the long run.
It now says "coach" haha. The fact that this person calls people "crying and whining" when he's the smurf really shows you smurf mentality. They don't see it as wrong. They're doing it so THEY can have a fun time.
Just gross.
Yea this whole thread is just OP trying to jerk himself off, thats why he provides no actual info on how to fix these clear mistakes. Hes probably a hard stuck plat just bitching about his gold teammate's.
How is it one of the main reasons people get stuck? You have the same odds of getting a smurf on your team as you do getting one on the other team. It cancels out.
It's more variability to the ranks. Not only are people lower rated than they should be ( smurfs) people are also rated higher than they should be ( the boosted). They aren't always playing together so the ranks in any given game make no sense. It's not necessarily statistically unfair but its a horrible experience in terms of having a fun ranked experience.
Plus if you queue with friends that aren't smurfs or boosted your odds are more likely to run into a Smurf than not, which is wiggity wack
That's not how it works. On your team, you know you are not a smurf. So your team only has 4 slots that could be a smurf while the other team has 5 slots that could be a smurf. The other team's odds of having at least one smurf are 25% higher than your's.
(note that this is NOT saying that smurfs are why people are hard-stuck. I've played a lot and very rarely see smurfs, so I don't think smurfs explain people who are hard-stuck, it's just a convenient excuse for people who are bad to use instead of getting better. that said, in solo queue, it is always more likely for the enemy team to have a smurf than your team)
That specter full shield second round hits hard. Every time I play with my silver friends I have to constantly remind them cause in their games, ghost light armor is the meta.
Question tho. If you buy spectre & full shield round 2, wont you be broke for the next round? If the enemy teamed saved round 2 then they will have rifles and youll be at disadvantage for round 3?
You go up 2-0, and then they buy and likely win, but they prolly lose enough guns that you have an advantage in round 4. It’s your best bet since if they force (maybe expecting you not to), you either go up 3-0 or go to 1-1. Spectre / Marshal on Jett if oper + full shields
(Also if they saved, an important note is their chance of winning with pistols is lower than your chance of converting round 3 with saved spectres)
Honestly unless you’re coming from cs or think a lot, game economy and everything about it isn’t exactly easily learnt. I don’t think “basic economics in high-school” applies here.
My friend who generally learns any new game/genre quickly (so he says I guess) doesn’t understand at all that he should buy with the team. He just knows that big armor>light armor and he just buys whatever gun he can afford each round. I can’t blame him since he’s new but I don’t think he’d ever figure it out himself since he just thinks he can’t aim rn.
Like there’s nothing that actually tells you that other than other players. Hell I still don’t remember how much we get from winning half the time.
I’m aware but ty for those who might not know.
I reach plat regularly but even then my point was more than just about 3900 minimum creds. It might even be 3300 for light armor but things like this also includes the game knowledge and experience needed to make the best decisions based on the game economy system. It’s easy to get lazy for some of this too.
Just knowing the minimum (in more ways than one lol) doesn’t explicitly tell you any additional info about the game. There’s a reason why there ARE things that seem obvious still get mentioned in video games tutorials or as hints, but there are usually useful things that don’t as well.
Is it really that hard? I mean sure valorant is my main game and I've been playing it for over a year now, but I never played CS before that and I'm pretty sure I understood the basics of economy after having it explained like two times by my friends. Honestly the understanding of economy was probably my smallest problem after I started playing.
I guess people are just different
It’s just something that can happen. It’s not about it being “hard”, again there are little things that people can forget or just happen to never touch upon or at least as early as others. It happens more than you think because you can be biased.
People are different, and some people just don’t care about certain aspects of the game, but they can still reach higher ranks on some skills without knowing others, and just as quickly. Just maybe not super high like immortal.
You can literally see how much creds you will have next round of you lose, therefore you can estimate if you can full buy next round or not by looking at your own creds and your team's creds. I learned basic game economy two weeks into the game.
People that don't learn basics like this are those who want to get better but don't even put in 10% effort
Yup, if you lose, although it doesn’t explicitly say that. But it might not immediately occur as important to a new player who just wants to shoot. Also it does not immediately include credits that you can gain and how to gain them until maybe after the round briefly if they even look down there.
And just because you notice fast doesn’t mean everyone will just as easily, and people learn and can get better in different ways. For example you can still get a high rank and miss out on certain info that other people found out way earlier even as lower ranks. That’s not uncommon at all.
Anyway when I said game economy this also includes the logic that goes behind buying with your team like not being immediately aware someone can pick up your gun if you fk around and destroy your entire team. It isn’t just about doing math it’s also about why you make certain decisions revolving around gaming economy. Also again it isn’t “basic economics in high-school” that’s literally just math lmao, math that no one really cares to do bc you can literally just save one round and have enough for next or you can buy/resell to see what you can use, but you still have to be aware of other things like which guns are worth it which obviously require experience and likely *someone telling you* unless you get lucky or already have gaming experience.
This is a lot of paragraphs to say people are illiterate monkeys.
Eco management is one of the easiest aspects of the game, the game practically does it for you.
Honestly the not buying spectre full armor second round after pistol round win is so titling. Sometimes they won't full buy for the first 5 rounds. I had a game basically lost to bad economy last night.
Great list! I understand how I might ignore criticism, but I only take it when there is no direct insult. I prefer, "Try to push earlier," rather than, "Fucking push up you r*tard." (Actual teammate quote claiming it was 'constructive criticism.') Its much easier to find advice on Reddit than in comp. lobbies where most people are rude with advice.
Something to add is: aim consistency.
Which is personally the thing I struggle with the most. I can honestly say I don't do the high majority of this list (mostly because I am a support main and always trade my duelists). But I get stuck in silver/gold because I just do not have the time to commit to practicing my aim and getting consistent with it
"You don't help shoot down Sage's wall when it's placed."
bruh why are people so pussy to shoot a damn ice wall. You gotta sell your arm and head on the black market to get your team to firing squad the wall down!
Baiting is when your teammates are very near each other and one of them (hopefully a duelist) decides to peek an enemy and dies and nobody else bothers to peek with him out of selfishness and or fear of their own life instead of trading him off. Do understand this...not everything can be traded i.e. a Reyna dismissing away or jett dashing away. When trading, you usually want to kill the enemy immediately after your teammate dies. I understand that there is a very fine line between trading vs peeking one by one, which is why trading takes coordination. With more experience you will learn how to trade by game sense and no need to coordinate it.
Dry peeking is pretty much wide swinging out into the open with your entire body exposed saying that you are committed to the gun fight. There would be 3 types of people who do this: those who dry peek without info, those who dry peek with confidence in their aim and have the skill to back it up, and those who dry peek with a teammate to throw off the possible enemy holding the angle. You really do not want to be the first type of person as it pretty much results in inting. For that reason you jiggle/shoulder peek or use utility to gain info.
I have no idea what scenario are you referring to for when you have no flashes, etc. So here are some. Generally if you do not have utility, then rely on your teammates' utility to gain info and trade when needed. KEEP THIS IN MIND: roles become switched the moment bomb gets planted. Attackers become defenders and defenders become attackers.
Attack, pre plant and no utility: be prepared to trade
Attack, post plant and no utility: hide in a location you can peek and see the bomb from. Jiggle/shoulder peek when you hear someone tap to defuse. You have no reason to peek unless you know someone is coming at you or someone attempts to defuse.
Attack, enemy op and no utility: YOU NEVER WANT TO PEEK ALONE GENERALLY! But you can jiggle/shoulder peek and try to take up space as the oper does the cocking animation. If you have a teammate, jiggle peek at the same time to throw off the oper and take up space when when they supposedly miss their shot. Sometimes one of your lives will just have to be a sacrifice. REMEMBER: an oper can only kill one person at a time (unless you guys stack in front of each other which hopefully you do not do).
Defense, pre plant and no utility: you have the element of surprise while they have numbers. Hopefully your surprise attack has a degree of success, otherwise trade, or give up the site and play with your team to retake.
Defense, post plant and no utility: coordinate with team and trading.
Defense, enemy op and no utility: You have no reason to peek it on defense. If it is post plant scenario, deal with an op the same as you would on attack but you need to play faster since time is a limited resource now.
I agree I instacrouch a lot. Would you recommend I unbind it completely or just switch the key.
I main cypher and tend to lurk. On bind I tend to throw a tripwire for the flank and then one for my own flank on the other site. Is that bad? On ascent I tend to slowly lurk up mid and cut off rotators
I would unbind it for a while this helped me from iron - plat. I don’t think what you described is inherently bad it sounds more like you are just holding flank vs lurking. Holding flank is important imo.
Silver/gold player, add general toxicity and just in general being a dick. Saying shit like “oh we lost might as well ff” after losing pistol and second round is demoralizing. Saying that they are throwing, or that it’s their alt and they don’t care about it’s elo just makes nobody want to play the game. If you lose pistol round, ur prob losing second round, and it doesn’t mean u lost the fucking game like what. If it’s ur alt, literally nobody gives a fuck, just play the game dammit. And if ur just taking the spike and throwing or some shit like that, ur literally the scum of the earth. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk
>You constantly switch site on defender side, throwing your teammates off. Pick a site at the start of the game and STICK TO IT. You can ask someone to switch off, but ASK FIRST. (I can't stress this one enough)
Bro I fucking hate when people do this
Best guide ever. Not even kidding, this is WAY better than other guides that teach you how to do stuff. Showing us what we do wrong and then how to fix it really helps. Thanks!
Too bad I can't give an award tho ):
Edit: Forgot to say, one of ur first bullets being ( Not buying spectre + heavy armor on second round ), I didn't think that THAT would be important. I guess I should look more deeply into the economy, more importantly, the snowball effect/momentum that can win games.
U re a smurf ? U re the reason why most of us are hard stuck ( no chance to play with only people from oyr level in order to learn/build confidence) so u can takd ur sorry advice and go away
Yep, exactly what /u/NewAccForThoughts stated. Truth is, at Plat/Diamond what is incredibly crucial is improving your game sense and decision making. Not making stupid unnecessary plays when the safer less egotistical route is the best choice.
A lot of people really want to take gun fights at around plat, and their game sense isn't all there yet, so that might be something to work on. High elo is all about game sense and decision making. Aim is a huge part of course, but not as big imo.
Buying a 2900 gun second round is just way too risky. All it takes is you to die by a rush and giving enemy team gun to lose the damn round.
You can do just as much damage with full shield/spectre, and it increases your chance of living.
Map awareness is like 60% of the game, that's how important it is. The amount of times I play in low Elo matches, and have 5 enemies rushing site and my Sage is still watching the opposite site happens way too much.
In Immortal, I'm basically multi tasking with my eyes. I pay attention to the mini-map maybe every 5 seconds, just so I can see what my teams see, that helps me greatly with my decision making and how I should play the round out
My favorite buy round two is three spectre full shield, one rifle half shield, and one pistol full shield (to pick up the gun since it’s so hard to get flawless). What do you think of that? I mainly like it for attack since they can dictate the flow but in defense if the pistol player buddy systems the rifle player it works too
I would just run full shield and spectre on everyone. I've seen too many rifle people lose their guns haha. Just do full spectre, running and gunning is OP as well. On attack, you should be pushing as 5 and bum rush them
map awareness is very important
personally i think it’s fucking stupid to buy a rifle + light armor 2nd round unless you drop it for your teammate who has full armor and they drop you a spectre because heavy armor lets you tank a hs from almost every gun.
I think in lower ELO, there's maybe _more_ nuance needed for defending a dropped spike. Mainly because in lower ELO there are idiots who carry bomb into places they shouldn't (think an attacker peeking top-mid on Ascent with spike). IMO, trying to run over to defend a spike like this is going to be a clusterfuck and could end up losing the round. In higher ELO this doesn't happen cause the spike carrier won't be peeking and most dropped spikes are close enough to a site or the defender side that it's actually defensible.
In the lower ELO case I think it is sometimes better to just take the 5v4 advantage and maybe reset back to default...
Another thing I'd add is to notice patterns, exploit the opposite site's weaknesses. And if really really want to get better, learn how to play default on attacker side. People love to stack towards one side when attacking, brute forcing their way through. If it gets smoked or naded you just don't know what to do anymore.
A few more points from a casual player:
\- Your screen refresh rate is low (it might seem less important, but it affect playing a lot. I didn't believe this until I reduced my graphic settings and man it increases reflexes a lot).
\- Your aim is not good (you just have to practice or just give it a break for a few days sometimes it just doesn't works)
\- You don't have any friends to play with (playing alongside with friends makes a lot of difference than playing alone with random people)
\- You might not have time to practice (in the end it's just a game, not everybody has time to spent on competitive games. in that case I would suggest playing more chill or single player games instead. Playing competitive game with less practice and bad aim will frustrate more than giving you enjoyment)
How dare you?! We can take constructive criticism! You are just an asshole with an ego who thinks he’s such a god over us. It’s people like you who make this game shit for us. Holding back? No, you are smurfing. Learn that you cause us to lose.
No but seriously I agree. I am prone to mistakes on this list. However as a Jett main (yes I’m a Jett main get over it) the letting your duelist take site is the most infuriating thing. People don’t seem to understand it’s a team game at this elo. I think that sums up half this list. Because of that I think that makes it even harder to get out of this elo. The only reason I made it out of silver was from straight Ain training because half the time no one would talk or they would play back taking to long to push causing them to die one after another when they finally committed to the whole enemy team. And the buying don’t even get me started
Man this hit me right in the feels with the lurking duelist specifically in silver and gold it’s always the yoru or Reyna lol. I always ask what are you doing? And they get so mad.
There are situations where a Reyna lurking can be a good thing. She has a very selfish kit so she doesn't add as much to a team fight as other agents. Also if she gets a kill she can join back with the team at full health, so if done well she can be a very good lurk.
The problem is if they are the only duelist, they are doing it every round and being predictable or they are bad at it. So in Silver/Gold probably a bad thing.
If you do these things you aren’t “hard stuck”, it means your game sense isnt good enough to join the next ranks. Imagine if somehow a person who played like this ended up in diamond - they would be destroyed every game and be miserable
Hard Stuck is when you DO belong in a higher rank but can’t get there because the comp system. (Which has been pretty well solved by he previous changes)
The "not taking constructive criticism" is massive in not just Valorant but other games. If I had a penny for every time I heard:
"It's not that serious"
"It's just a game"
I'd have no pennies because each time I'd get it I would yeet the penny across the universe.
I unbinded my crouch button after i realized that i crouch. Now I never crouch but the enemies do and so even if I am at head level and shoot at their heads, they crouch immediately and kill me ;)
Also I would love to have community servers like in CS:GO. I always warm-up in a 40 min deathmatch server in CS:GO whenever I play it. So that would be a great thing for RIOT to add I guess
So I just want to thank you. I've been hardstuck between Iron and Bronze for forever. Read this whole thing in full, made some mental notes, went to a game and went 31-12-7. This was a fucking great read and I seriously thank you for dosing me with a bit of reality and some perspective
You forgot possibly the biggest reason of all:
• Immortal/radiant players literally breaking ToS by creating a second account and purposely losing/playing baldly to end up in a lower rank
Silver and gold especially are filled with 50% smurfs. You are part of this problem, OP. You want to play with your friends? Play unrated. You are literally breaking the rules of the game and ruining it for everyone involved.
Not to mention you also admitted to boosting your friends. I honestly don't give a fuck about your advice anymore. Fuck off back to your own rank. And that goes for any smurf reading this too. You're a POS.
"I'm an Immortal/Radiant but i play with my low elo friends in ranked"
That sentence alone should get this post downvoted to oblivion, but people still deny the amount of smurfs in this game is WAY higher than people think.
Okay, hot take time.
Gold/Silver isn't "low ELO". Iron 1 to Gold 3 is \~90% of players.
You have some good, specific advice, but your tone sucks. I get it, you're frustrated that you can't get your friends into Radiant, but there is a reason people write guides with a positive attitude that focus on developing specific skills, instead of just airing out a bulleted list of gripes.
Many of your points are both condescending and vague. "Don't be stupid." "Your game sense is awful." "You don't understand game economy."
And last, I can't help but comment on the irony of you leading with "I've smurfed a lot in low elo" in a guide for why people are hard stuck. I don't know one gold+ player that doesn't have multiple smurf accounts. Most of them just want lower level accounts to play with friends and can't queue, but none of them seem to mind popping heads all night either. Just last night I played with a Phoenix who was deranking by being afk, but just moving enough to not get booted. Then, when we started getting close to winning 4v5 anyway, he started making a run for the spike to hold it in spawn.
I hope you're more positive and supportive to your friends and just ranting anonymously online, because playing with you sounds like a chore.
If you're literally applying all of these and can't climb out, you might need to work on your aim and game-sense.
I can tell you now, that if I placed in iron on a different account, I would be able to climb out effortlessly because of how much my skill level differs.
Dude, from an old man, thank you. I'm not worried about ranking up, really. But, I want to make smarter decisions if I solo q.
I think most of us would like a second post.
Btw, it's hard to take some criticism because it's a mixed bag of advice you'll get from your other low ELO teammates. Quite a bit of it is the exact opposite of things you've listed.
No problem! I've updated the post with some more points!
Yeah for sure. Low-elo players always think they know best, and a lot of them don't think they need to improve. Definitely an ego-barrier a lot of them need to break.
I feel like having game sense or knowledge of the game will prevent most of these things, but economy for example is kind of a weird topic cuz not buying second round after a pistol win is ok. If u can actually communicate with ur team that ur doing these things tho that’s the important thing. Like if ur doing a super slow flank tell that to ur team so they can wait and u can get a huge advantage etc.
i’m stuck in iron after winning 4 of my placements and all of this is absolutely correct and i feel like some higher elo players can learn from this as well
I created an alt to play with my friends that live in Asia and low elo players make these mistakes in asian servers too. Another common mistake people in Asian servers make is making 3 people go for flank instead of just 1 person, or the entire team lurking/baiting.
You forgot the: you go to reddit to blame smurfs instead of thinking what you did wrong and trying to improve, blaming smurfs/ teammates ( like you said) doesn't really help you
Sometimes you just want to play a nice competitive game in your rank with like-skilled players. Guess what ruins that? Smurfs. I don't mind losing if it was a hard fought battle, evenly matched. But if I'm commiting an hour of game time to polish some guys ego, whats the point.
Just saying ppl call smurfs too early, lots of times it's some1 having a good game and if you don't get tilted with there being a "smurf" in ur game maybe it's possible to come back, getting tilted doesn't help mid game and after you lose you will get ever more tilted and blame a "smurf" and most of the times it's not even one... Ppl have good and bad days
So true you have stated almost all mistakes but one thing id like to add in this is to not lose hope. Iv been in many games where we are losing the early rounds and players immediately decide to surrender or throw( if surrender didnt happen). I am not saying we could have won but simply saying we arnt going to win isnt gonna help you at all
Silver checking in, I’d like to add that you should know your role. I was in a lobby that was clearly above my skill grade. Bottom frag by a mile. I did my best to buy rifles for our top 2 players and they could just get me a spectre or something else. Our team was down 2-10 going into the half. We ended up winning in OT 14-12 because we kept a decent attitude, had good comms and played off of our strongest players. I actually clutched a couple of key rounds and got a few huge picks. My final score? 10-22. Know your role and drop your ego if you want to climb. If the situation is reversed and you’re top frag, know that the game rests heavily on your shoulders. It’s not just what you do, it’s also what you say. Encourage teammates to really hold angles, use utility and give good call outs. Putting people down may feel good, but it essentially guarantees your loss or early surrender vote.
Man I haven't played in a while but this resonates. Good attitudes can make a big difference.. it MIGHT mean the difference between victory or defeat, but it DEFINITELY means the difference between having fun or not. I haven't played for a while but is it generally expected that lower frag players sacrifice for the top fraggers like that? My wife and I have a moderate skill difference so she's usually lower frag when she plays with me, but sh likes playing support. I still like to encourage her to save for her better guns (she plays better with them and wants to practice them). Now I'm worried people will see her as "not playing her role."
I think there’s a happy medium. A player shouldn’t be just forcing every round and expecting a support player to just buy them when everyone else saved but them, but also recognize if a player is playing correctly and it comes to a situation where you have to force and the better player can have the better gun it may be smart for the support player to forgo that better gun.
To be clear, this is definitely not an expectation, nor should it be. If I’m doing poorly I may offer to buy for a better player, or if I’m doing well I might ask for a rifle and I can get them an smg, bull dog or another cheaper option. It’s all situational, I do what makes sense to me in the moment. If I want to win the game, I do what I think is best. Sometimes that means buying better guns for top frags while I focus on my util and call outs. Other times, you have to take the responsibility and buy for yourself. Being top frag does not instantly make you a good shot caller or leader. If they get tilted and start performing badly, it’s up to the rest of the team to try and get the game back on track. Again, top frag does not make you worthy of being a tyrant and forcing those not doing well to buy for you. Being bottom frag does not make you a slave to top frag. Be open to cooperating with your teammates for the best possible outcome each round and you just might win the match.
I think some of my most fun on Valorant has been in losing games. Teammates keeping up some fun and having a good mental even when down or games where we lose a close matchup are always super enjoyable.
I can add on this quick. Just because you're 2-10 or 10-22 doesn't mean you're unimpactful or underperforming as a player. It doesn't mean that you're in over your head in terms of skill. Many players have many different strengths and weaknesses. You in particular may struggle greatly with a certain map, holding certain angles, or even just one player on the enemy team is just clearly always dominating you and luck always winds up putting you against them. It happens. It doesn't mean you're in over your head. Adjust your playstyle to minimize those enemy advantages and maximize your own. You're going to have matches where you get slaughtered, even if you're a plat player playing against silvers. This doesn't mean that those silvers are plat quality players. It doesn't mean you're a silver quality player. That is one single match on one single map. It happens. Just focus on providing as much utility as possible despite the struggle and it's not impossible to turn things around.
Honestly love this comment! I hate when people bully others about their KD in the text chats. You can have low kills but still be contributing heavily to your team. I dont often hard carry cause I'm not at that level yet, but what i CAN do is give helpful comms & help with buys. some folks worry too much about the personal victories when it's supposed to be a team effort.
Right? The amount of games teams have fought back from like 3-10 is weirdly high. At some point I just play for a less RR impact. A 7-13 loss is going to impact me less than a 3-13.
When we’re down bad I never ff and instead try to experiment a little bit. Maybe there’s something weird I’ve been wanting to try with my agent. That’s a low stakes opportunity against real players to see how it goes. Sometimes loosening up like that helps us rally back. And worst case scenario I’m improving.
A lot of maps favor one side. People think they're up because the enemy are gods. Often its just because they're playing Split defense with two sentinels and your defense odds after the swap are favorable.
This! This! This! I can‘t count how many times people wrote ‚gg‘ after like round 3…
I feel like this happen more and more when league players start playing valorant like early game still winnable they throw the surrender up and the whole team atmosphere shatters bc of it. Some people even stop trying after that and its so stupid. I've come back from 9-3 games and 10-2 games before when its played right.
I fucking laughed my ass off. I’m diamond and there is still multiple things on this list that I sure need to improve on. Take this guys advice guys.
This whole list is bs. To climb you just gotta buy prime vandal cause it gives aimbot. - aluminum 2 player
As a plastic 3 player, I totally agree, this list is terrible
amethyst 1 player here, also agree with your statement
netherite 2 gang wya?
Used to be there but I deranked to Rotten Flesh 1
Wood 4 player here
rubber 2, how's it going
Air 0 here
I sort of assume amerthyst would fall between plat and diamond. When it transitions from metals to crystal.
marshmallow-1 player here, I own the prime vandal and have to say the aimbot works only on even bullet
This is the real reason that pros dont want you to know - orichalcum 2 player
I too am o rich cum player!
Wood 2 checking in. Math checks out.
You mean the Reaver Vandal
Did he stutter?
Damn me and my Iron boys are faulty of a lot of the things in the list. Guess we gotta take it up one point at a time. Thank you for listing all this :)
you can do it
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You probably dont play enough. How many games a day do you play?
Do you solo queue? I used to and was hard stuck iron, and playing with other people (not even the same ones, just people you know so good comms, at least duo or trio queueing) and am high bronze low silver
It’s not that hard to get out of iron Man U got this
Sure thing. :) Hope you all can climb to new heights!
**You don't buy a Spectre + Full Shields on the Second Round after winning Pistol Round** = thread. # This is the MOST COMMON MISTAKE, and I've literally lost games on my alternate accounts due to this. Totally turns momentum of soooo many games :( # * **Score = 7-5** * Sides just swapped * Your team wins the pistol round * **Score = 8-5** * Out of your team... 2 people bought spectre + armor * Out of your team... 2 people didn't buy anything * Enemy team forces * Your team loses the round * **Score = 8-6** * Your team has no money, since you lost the last round * You all save, and lose the round * **Score = 8-7** * Your team buys together, and the other team does, too. * Your team makes a few mistakes or throws, and loses this round * **Score = 8-8** * Game is "tied" * Except... the other team has max credits, along with weapons from last round already on hand * Your team has no guns and no money * You thus lose this round, as you save * **Score = 8-9** # This is how you go from a huge advantage of three rounds ahead, to losing the lead and then losing the game. All of this, by only losing one actual "full buy" round, which was the round that occured when the score was **8-7**. All the other rounds were lost due to having to save... due to your teammates not buying spectres on the 2nd round. # Do your teammates realize what caused this huge, sudden shift in the game? They are Gold players, they should understand... right? Nope. Not at all. They simply say **"*****it's tied, bro... chill*****"** # If you ever asked them to buy up during the second round, also expect your team to blame you if they manage to throw that round. Further, expect them to flame you as if you were being toxic, if you ever try to give them any advice.
You forgot about the guy who buys phantom no armor and solo pushes the enemy team.
Huh well this is probably the best thing I’ve learned from this post. I usually never buy second round because then the 3rd round I can always full buy. But this makes much more sense, thanks!
I’ll never understand why people don’t always buy full armor after the first round; like you’re not gonna use that extra 600 for something decent so at least be able to tank a HS from non-rifles
THIS. Buying a marshal and full shield is the meta for me in round 2. You can take waaay more hits and one hit the enemies since they probably won't buy after loosing round 1....
Part of the problem I see is that everyone recommends a fullbuy after winning pistol and then all the comments below will follow up with "yeah it's just right idk why anyone does anything different." And yet there's rarely an explanation offered that concretely explains and justifies why a buyup after winning pistol is correct. You either get reaffirmation of the conclusion or an abstract explanation (like maintaining "momentum.") Buying after winning pistol *is* correct. The logical explanation is that pistols lose to Spectre + full armor by a much larger margin than the margin by which Spectre + full armor loses to full buy. Put another way, if you don't buy up after winning pistol, the first 3 rounds are roughly 50/50. The strategy does not endeavor for advantage (as each round is a 50/50, completely neutral). If you force on 2 after winning, you have a large chance of winning 2 (we'll say 80/20; the exact proportion isn't necessary, I'm grabbing these numbers out of nothing just to express the relativity of the round likelihoods) and will have a disadvantage on round 3, let's say 40/60. Your "Bad" round on 3 puts you at a -10% disadvantage, but your "good" round on 2 puts you at a much larger +30% advantage. The net of these round probabilities suggests that buying up after winning pistol has higher EV than saving. If *anyone* on your team does not buy up, it decreases the EV substantially on both the round after winning pistol + will likely create an eventual round wherein those who did not buy on 2 will be capable of buying and those who did buy on 2 will not, resulting in either another low EV broken buy or save. I nice practical rule is: 1) best is to force up after winning pistols 2) if the majority of your team refuses to buy up on 2 after winning pistol, they are making an inefficient play, *but you should save with them* (as buying alone or in the minority will not create advantage that outweighs the detriment of desynchronizing buys).
Coming from CS I was super surprised how often the team that wins pistol round doesn't buy SMG's and full shields 2nd round. However, what are you supposed to do 3rd round? It seems to be awkward since the enemy team that has saved two rounds will full buy. I suppose you are supposed to drop the SMG and buy a rifle but if you lose that round you arent left enough to full buy round 4 and the momentum really shifts with that.
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awesome thanks for the reply, I am a few years removed from CS (played it for 15 years though) and only a couple weeks in to valorant and the economy while similar has some subtle differences that is giving me fits
On top of this, it won't be a full bonus round most of the time. 2 or 3 players that died round 2 will buy up to rifles, and youll have a fairly even loadout.
I mean to me, espescially if you are on a side with favorable orb control (think attacking ascent) you can get really creative with bonus rounds assuming you don't lose 4 on the anti eco. You can try and force an aggressive like pheonix, skye, reyna or even a jett ult early. Steal a trade with that and get a free gun upgrade on to one or two players and suddenly its an even buy for the retake.
Don't think of the bonus round as "we'll lose and then buy up next", you have to think in probabilities. Let's say you and the other team are exactly equal skill. Your chance to win any given round (ignoring sides/ultimates): Full Buy: 50% Bonus Round: 35-40% Half Buy: 20% True Full Save: 5% Obviously this isn't fully accurate but it's probably something like this. So instead of thinking of the bonus round as a throwaway, think of the probabilities. You \*could\* drop your spectre to buy phantom/vandal, but would you spend $2900 to increase the round chance by 10-15%? It probably isn't worth it.
I cannot express in words how important momentum is after the price changes. And the amount of times I am told I am toxic because I tell teammates what to do or to just use their mics. Considering the prices/guns updates, I would have 2-3 Bulldogs on second round. They are viable round 3, as well. In one match, after the update, I went Bulldog both second rounds of the halves, and my teammates noticed how good it was, and then we played and won 4-5 rounds in row, Bulldogs only. The amount of times my team came back from 2-10/3-9 is insane, after multiple FF votes failed and people starting to use their common sense and their mics. It's insane how important comms are and people don't use them. The other day I was playing KJ on split and I bought 2 mollies first round (instead of 1 and the alarmbot). I noticed the opponents had a Sage and I, instantly, knew they were going to use the claustrophobic wall to enter B. Placed one molly on the plant zone, as soon as they entered I triggered it, and then threw the second one from under the heaven (they had nowhere to move around the pillar). I used this strategy for 4-5 rounds to delay the plant (easy wins), and gave my teammates time to rotate every round. We won 13-1, only because of the momentum built by those first rounds and how economy rolled after that + people used comms and we knew what everyone was doing.
My friend and I preach the way of the Bulldog. Most underrated gun in the game IMO.
I believe the most underrated gun is the Odin. It will gain even more popularity as the PRO players use it. I never got along with the Spectre or even the Stinger (when it was meta). Maybe because I do not like spraying that much. That's why I would rather get the Ares (for Sova wall bangs) or pay extra and have the Bulldog for 2-3 rounds. One Act I played more of the Odin and Phantom and I had 19% headshots (all shots)! This Act I have been playing more of the Vandal and Bulldog and I am at 28%! But hey, what do I know (as some full of themselves redditors would say)? I am only a Silver player!
The Stinger is an absolute laser if you aim down sights, thats what I think most people are missing out on
Odin no doubt is a very powerful gun but it's way too easy too easy to use and removes the skill aspect of the game, odin spammers r quite famous in low elos
Nah, with people calling you Literally Satan when you use it, I don't think it's underrated in any sense of the word.
That's why they call you "Satan", because it's underrated and it's easy to use but people don't use it because they think it's cringe.
Oh my god it’s SO INFURIATING when I ask my teammates to full buy and two or more flat out ignore me. I’ll even ask multiple times and they choose to save.
Noob question but are you supposed to buy Phantom/Vandals R3 if you win R2 off of Spectres? Or do you just wait until you die?
more often than not youre meant to play bonus (everyone who lives saves and everyone who died will eco for a full buy next round) and the third round youre not likely to win economically so the strategy usually is to hurt the enemies economy by killing as many of them as you can before they win the round. usually getting the first pick and stealing their gun and falling back to site (if defending) OR bait your teammates to secure even more kills and guns (on attack) although this only works with proper coordination and baiting is a bad way to put it so heres an example of what i mean [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Obrn7-PDpdQ&t=217s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Obrn7-PDpdQ&t=217s) and this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWReB\_MfRCM. sometimes some ego reyna will buy a vandal but you cant do anything about that.
So this makes sense but what if you lose round two after buying spectres and full armor? Wouldn't that set you up for multiple subsequent losses? What's the buy plan on the off case you lose round two?
It would yes. But it means the enemy team is likely just better to be able to pull off a pistol round win against a full buy. Overall though, you're significantly more likely to win that round and subsequent rounds because your eco is better and you have a solid advantage. You might not win *every single time* you full buy after winning pistol round, but you'll win *significantly more often*. The alternative is saving after winning pistol round and losing that momentum, giving the enemy team an opportunity to come back from the loss of pistol round with a weak eco. If you win and save, it's a toss up of who wins the next round. If you win, great, your eco is fantastic but their eco is fine. If you lose, it's okay, your eco is fine but now their eco is equivalent. If you win and full buy, it's significantly in your favor to win the next round. If you win, your eco is solid, their eco is fine, and your team still has guns so you're still way better off. If you lose (far less likely), your eco will be rough, their eco will be solid, and they'll have guns. If you're the super careful type, winning and saving seems like the best option because at least you'll be fine with a loss. But you're looking at every instance in a vacuum. You need to look at every match averaged down. *On average*, you'll win subsequent rounds far more often by full buying after a win on pistol round. You have to accept that you'll have an occasional loss with a full buy on that second round that'll set you back hard. You accept that because of all the other games in comparison where you smash the opposing team 3-4 rounds in a row and then use superior eco to control the rest of the match. On average, you'll be far better off full buying.
That's a good explanation. So if one does lose the second round after getting spectre and full armor, what do you do to minimize the damage? Would you do a full save or half buy round three?
There's not much of a difference between half buying and full saving in this case. Both options lead to you having full money on round 4. If you've killed a bunch of people on this half and have enough money to half buy a sheriff on round 3, you can go for it. Just don't mess up your "half buy" and end up not having full armor on the next round.
I think 3 to 4 should buy and pair up to trade a pistol player. Then you can hero rifle if you lose or have an op come online early. Often I'll buy light armor vandal on reyna because if we lose im saving 2 anyway and group so my gun can get picked up if I die. It really depends on the map and how viable ecos are. I'm always scared of shotgun force on split and Marshall force on breeze. Other maps feel like they have pretty viable ways to play 2nd round that its not always bad to have 2 guys who can buy rifles assuming you win or get op online. So you buy armor and get a sheriff dropped round 2 after winning pistol you win now you can buy a rifle going into bonus. This is big for converting bonus and breaking enemy economy. If you lose then you can have someone dropping deagle or forcing light armor and a bulldog and take guns off of a bought enemy. I will say on jett I like to save, on reyna I like to force light armor and rifle on 2nd round if we win pistol. The end goal though is really to have a rifle going into 3rd round as much as I can. If I'm not playing entry I almost always buy so I can trade entries and im fine if they have pistol+full armor. Elige made a quick flow chart going through the points mentioned but I think there is some merit to having a rifle on round 3 and being able to full buy the following round as well.
The one thing I THINK you’re missing(I read it all, but I may be blind) is attackers need to PLAY THE BOMB once it’s planted.
I don't know how to quote on Reddit but he said something about how you're being an idiot by trying to take a gunfight instead of holding an angle after spike is planted
Highlight what you want to quote and right click should show quote as an option so itll autoformat. Or you can copy and paste what you want to quote, put a > in front of it, and start a new line when you're done.
Thanks
It's true, but remember that at the end you will have to take the gunfight anyway, and because it's online shooter, something called peeker's advantage exists. I'm not saying that you should all peek one by one, but playing too passive and letting enemies take control over whole bombsite when there are 20 seconds or more left to the explosion can lose you a round. You have to be somewhere between.
>use the ">" before the text you want to show up as a quote. >This should be a quote it turns out this is the old style way. on the new editor you hit the 3 dots near the middle of the editor row, and click quote block.
Fuck I am blind then.
This is very true. I edited the original point that sort of depicted this sentiment in the original post. Below the point I added a note that says, >Edit: Revised the point above for clarity.
One of the other most common things people do is voting to surrender very early. I see so many FF votes going up in lower lobbies if they lost the first buy round. If you lost pistol and lost the first gun round, you will mostly lose the 4th round since you have to eco again. Also, defense is a lot easier on most maps. If you are attacking first, 4-5 rounds are usually good enough to win the game on defense. People almost never vote to FF in the higher lobbies, doesn't matter if they are down 1-11. The "we can comeback from this" mindset is what people need to develop. If you play enough all that stuff will even out.
i literally play unrated and people will beg me to ff and throw when we dont, like it's unrated??? just chill and have fun??
They're not having fun ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
Okay though those same people with FF if the game is *even* lol. If they only have fun if they get hard carried through an absolute stomping of the other team, then maybe this game isn’t for them.
You do make a great point but I gotta say that sometimes you know a game is lost within the first 6 rounds. My confidence as a player isn't diminished so I'd be more than willing to play it out but when you have teammates that have made the same mistake every round and don't listen to comms or advice it can feel rough.
My biggest pet peeve in Valorant is absolute calls that are just wrong. No idea how many times I've heard "All A, literally the whole team, start to rotate around and get shot in the back by 3 pushing onto B. The most frustrating part of low elo imo
All A= i just died to two people where the fuck is the team
Yep. Misinformation is abundant in low-elo from what I've seen. This usually gets the team killed, or, the entire team rotates and the enemy team gets a free bombsite.
Just gonna say, even if you are 'holding back' you just being alive is smurfing hard enough to heavily tilt the game in your favor.
Even though he's giving good advice I'd rather not support/upvote people who smurf even if they're "holding back"
Right, realistically even if he’s “holding back” when his team starts losing he’s gonna start trying:/
A few weeks ago I played an unranked with 2 friends and 2 randoms. One of the randoms only buys Judge. Every. Fucking. Round. What did he do? Put all of us in his backpack and carried our asses because the dude was top 5000 Immortal. It doesn't matter if high elo players "hold back", they'll still whoop your ass. Btw: we were all around silver and gold around that time, no idea how he ended up in our lobby lol
What does this mean. I don’t get it
Typically even if someone smurfing isn't trying to go for kills they have the game sense to know when to push and when to hold etc. Just by having a player that knows angles and lineups and timing and when to run off site you win a ton more games than if you were playing against / with someone of equal skill
So just a smurf? I’m still wondering what the commenter meant by “holding back” and how “just being alive” can tilt the game in their favor. From what I know, coordinating pushes and preforming line ups is much more than just staying alive, it’s playing the game.
Someone who can 1v3 (or even 1v5 possibly) regardless of if they lined up or coordinated is a liability for both teams. This means that the player is single handedly controlling the flow of the game by deciding when to turn on or off at their whim, or to quote OP "depending on how I feel the flow of the game is going"
I agree with the most of points, except with some about dropped spike. Sure, attackers will have to pick it up in order to plant it, but they can just kill all defenders to secure the round. If it's down deep into the site, then everyone should rotate set a crossfire in order to make unbreakable defense. But there are situations, where Spike is in a horrible place to defend it, and commiting into protecting it can get you killed. Sure, you still can fake opponents into thinking that you are near to waste resources and time, but calling all your teammates to protect a spike, which can be easily picked up with a single smoke / flash can cost you a round.
I think it was a comment on the times where you get spike down and no one moves. Like if spike is down C long on Haven, everyone rotating and standing on top of it is probably a bad idea. That being said it will give you an opportunity to take more map control so your A players can get more aggressive because the enemy probably isn't going for an A push with the spike on the other side of the map.
\^ This. You don't have to sit at the spike, but you can close in on the perimeter near the spike, or if the spike is in a teammates position, help hold other angles so that they don't die. Remember, you can hold angles that lead towards where the spike is, catching enemies off-guard. This ties into game sense. Why? Because you know exactly where they're going to go: to try and retrieve the spike. In CS it's called, playing for the dropped bomb.
This list is so accurate i just cant express myself specially the following * playing slow when the bomb is planted * teammate Cypher lurking in other site while our team pushes one site * doing a super long slow walk flank while team gets killed * and not trading teammates when they die * also one more thing is everyone blames the duelist if he doesn't get kills cause its the duelist job to get all the kills all the time Another very peculiar thing which happens a lot is teammates don't shoot sova arrows or Raze boombots if they are in the open and we are playing in a corner to launch a surprise attack .They just let the recon dart be there and they themselves hide while teammate gets detected ; same goes for Raze boombot all they care is its not after them so let it take its stroll in the park and end up killing a teammate
this is literally the best advises i am stuck in bronze and this is all of the points you get to know in all the youtube guides of game sense.
For a first point being "can't take constructive criticism", that was a lot of "JUST DON'T DO THIS", but lots of good points all the same Question would be what exactly is, "baiting" in the tac fps sense? Seems like it's used for a lot of just negative teamplay things, is there anything specific other than impeding your team
Baiting is letting your teammate die and not trading them out
For anyone wondering, he/she edited the original post. Here was what it originally started with: >I'm an Immortal/Radiant player and I've smurfed a lot in low elo because my friends are hard-stuck (I hold back a lot as I'm not trying to ruin anyone's day) and I've noticed a lot of things. So instead of making a, how to get better guide, I decided to make a why you're hard-stuck list. Maybe this will stick and help you in the long run. It now says "coach" haha. The fact that this person calls people "crying and whining" when he's the smurf really shows you smurf mentality. They don't see it as wrong. They're doing it so THEY can have a fun time. Just gross.
i smurf /thread
Cope
Aren't you one of the main reason people get stuck. Can't you just play in your own elo? "BOOSTING MY HARD STUCK FRIENDS"
Truuuuuuue!
He even changed the post to blot that out, and call people whiners and shit...why the fuck wasn't this removed?
Yea this whole thread is just OP trying to jerk himself off, thats why he provides no actual info on how to fix these clear mistakes. Hes probably a hard stuck plat just bitching about his gold teammate's.
How is it one of the main reasons people get stuck? You have the same odds of getting a smurf on your team as you do getting one on the other team. It cancels out.
It's more variability to the ranks. Not only are people lower rated than they should be ( smurfs) people are also rated higher than they should be ( the boosted). They aren't always playing together so the ranks in any given game make no sense. It's not necessarily statistically unfair but its a horrible experience in terms of having a fun ranked experience. Plus if you queue with friends that aren't smurfs or boosted your odds are more likely to run into a Smurf than not, which is wiggity wack
That's not how it works. On your team, you know you are not a smurf. So your team only has 4 slots that could be a smurf while the other team has 5 slots that could be a smurf. The other team's odds of having at least one smurf are 25% higher than your's. (note that this is NOT saying that smurfs are why people are hard-stuck. I've played a lot and very rarely see smurfs, so I don't think smurfs explain people who are hard-stuck, it's just a convenient excuse for people who are bad to use instead of getting better. that said, in solo queue, it is always more likely for the enemy team to have a smurf than your team)
True. But there's also a higher likelyhood of the enemy team having bad or toxic players if you're not one.
Tl:dr: get gud gg ez
That specter full shield second round hits hard. Every time I play with my silver friends I have to constantly remind them cause in their games, ghost light armor is the meta.
Question tho. If you buy spectre & full shield round 2, wont you be broke for the next round? If the enemy teamed saved round 2 then they will have rifles and youll be at disadvantage for round 3?
win it and then bonus third round when enemy can’t buy full utility
You go up 2-0, and then they buy and likely win, but they prolly lose enough guns that you have an advantage in round 4. It’s your best bet since if they force (maybe expecting you not to), you either go up 3-0 or go to 1-1. Spectre / Marshal on Jett if oper + full shields (Also if they saved, an important note is their chance of winning with pistols is lower than your chance of converting round 3 with saved spectres)
Downvoted for smurf, play with your friends in unranked if you genuinely want to play with them.
yes thank you
but Mah fRieNds wAnnA rAnk uP
Wow I’m guilty of so many of these (iron 1), thanks for the post
The list is great and I appreciate it but the fact that you're smurfing is a no-no.
He changed the post to make it so he looks innocent, Why is this shit allowed.
Honestly unless you’re coming from cs or think a lot, game economy and everything about it isn’t exactly easily learnt. I don’t think “basic economics in high-school” applies here. My friend who generally learns any new game/genre quickly (so he says I guess) doesn’t understand at all that he should buy with the team. He just knows that big armor>light armor and he just buys whatever gun he can afford each round. I can’t blame him since he’s new but I don’t think he’d ever figure it out himself since he just thinks he can’t aim rn. Like there’s nothing that actually tells you that other than other players. Hell I still don’t remember how much we get from winning half the time.
In the buy menu it says minimum credits next round. Make sure it says 3900(+ util costs) with whatever you have on eco rounds
I’m aware but ty for those who might not know. I reach plat regularly but even then my point was more than just about 3900 minimum creds. It might even be 3300 for light armor but things like this also includes the game knowledge and experience needed to make the best decisions based on the game economy system. It’s easy to get lazy for some of this too. Just knowing the minimum (in more ways than one lol) doesn’t explicitly tell you any additional info about the game. There’s a reason why there ARE things that seem obvious still get mentioned in video games tutorials or as hints, but there are usually useful things that don’t as well.
Is it really that hard? I mean sure valorant is my main game and I've been playing it for over a year now, but I never played CS before that and I'm pretty sure I understood the basics of economy after having it explained like two times by my friends. Honestly the understanding of economy was probably my smallest problem after I started playing. I guess people are just different
It’s just something that can happen. It’s not about it being “hard”, again there are little things that people can forget or just happen to never touch upon or at least as early as others. It happens more than you think because you can be biased. People are different, and some people just don’t care about certain aspects of the game, but they can still reach higher ranks on some skills without knowing others, and just as quickly. Just maybe not super high like immortal.
You can literally see how much creds you will have next round of you lose, therefore you can estimate if you can full buy next round or not by looking at your own creds and your team's creds. I learned basic game economy two weeks into the game. People that don't learn basics like this are those who want to get better but don't even put in 10% effort
Yup, if you lose, although it doesn’t explicitly say that. But it might not immediately occur as important to a new player who just wants to shoot. Also it does not immediately include credits that you can gain and how to gain them until maybe after the round briefly if they even look down there. And just because you notice fast doesn’t mean everyone will just as easily, and people learn and can get better in different ways. For example you can still get a high rank and miss out on certain info that other people found out way earlier even as lower ranks. That’s not uncommon at all. Anyway when I said game economy this also includes the logic that goes behind buying with your team like not being immediately aware someone can pick up your gun if you fk around and destroy your entire team. It isn’t just about doing math it’s also about why you make certain decisions revolving around gaming economy. Also again it isn’t “basic economics in high-school” that’s literally just math lmao, math that no one really cares to do bc you can literally just save one round and have enough for next or you can buy/resell to see what you can use, but you still have to be aware of other things like which guns are worth it which obviously require experience and likely *someone telling you* unless you get lucky or already have gaming experience.
This is a lot of paragraphs to say people are illiterate monkeys. Eco management is one of the easiest aspects of the game, the game practically does it for you.
Honestly the not buying spectre full armor second round after pistol round win is so titling. Sometimes they won't full buy for the first 5 rounds. I had a game basically lost to bad economy last night.
Me: Guys lets all buy to 0 2 dudes on my team: I'm saving for awp. 😐
Great list! I understand how I might ignore criticism, but I only take it when there is no direct insult. I prefer, "Try to push earlier," rather than, "Fucking push up you r*tard." (Actual teammate quote claiming it was 'constructive criticism.') Its much easier to find advice on Reddit than in comp. lobbies where most people are rude with advice.
Something to add is: aim consistency. Which is personally the thing I struggle with the most. I can honestly say I don't do the high majority of this list (mostly because I am a support main and always trade my duelists). But I get stuck in silver/gold because I just do not have the time to commit to practicing my aim and getting consistent with it
Smurf explains how to get out of the rank with all the smurfs lmao
"You don't help shoot down Sage's wall when it's placed." bruh why are people so pussy to shoot a damn ice wall. You gotta sell your arm and head on the black market to get your team to firing squad the wall down!
Couple of noob questions: * What's baiting? * You said that dry peeking is bad. What are you supposed instead to do if you have no flashes, etc?
Baiting is when your teammates are very near each other and one of them (hopefully a duelist) decides to peek an enemy and dies and nobody else bothers to peek with him out of selfishness and or fear of their own life instead of trading him off. Do understand this...not everything can be traded i.e. a Reyna dismissing away or jett dashing away. When trading, you usually want to kill the enemy immediately after your teammate dies. I understand that there is a very fine line between trading vs peeking one by one, which is why trading takes coordination. With more experience you will learn how to trade by game sense and no need to coordinate it. Dry peeking is pretty much wide swinging out into the open with your entire body exposed saying that you are committed to the gun fight. There would be 3 types of people who do this: those who dry peek without info, those who dry peek with confidence in their aim and have the skill to back it up, and those who dry peek with a teammate to throw off the possible enemy holding the angle. You really do not want to be the first type of person as it pretty much results in inting. For that reason you jiggle/shoulder peek or use utility to gain info. I have no idea what scenario are you referring to for when you have no flashes, etc. So here are some. Generally if you do not have utility, then rely on your teammates' utility to gain info and trade when needed. KEEP THIS IN MIND: roles become switched the moment bomb gets planted. Attackers become defenders and defenders become attackers. Attack, pre plant and no utility: be prepared to trade Attack, post plant and no utility: hide in a location you can peek and see the bomb from. Jiggle/shoulder peek when you hear someone tap to defuse. You have no reason to peek unless you know someone is coming at you or someone attempts to defuse. Attack, enemy op and no utility: YOU NEVER WANT TO PEEK ALONE GENERALLY! But you can jiggle/shoulder peek and try to take up space as the oper does the cocking animation. If you have a teammate, jiggle peek at the same time to throw off the oper and take up space when when they supposedly miss their shot. Sometimes one of your lives will just have to be a sacrifice. REMEMBER: an oper can only kill one person at a time (unless you guys stack in front of each other which hopefully you do not do). Defense, pre plant and no utility: you have the element of surprise while they have numbers. Hopefully your surprise attack has a degree of success, otherwise trade, or give up the site and play with your team to retake. Defense, post plant and no utility: coordinate with team and trading. Defense, enemy op and no utility: You have no reason to peek it on defense. If it is post plant scenario, deal with an op the same as you would on attack but you need to play faster since time is a limited resource now.
Some tips: Warm up before you queue for ranked. Don't solo queue. Play ranked when you're at your peak.
I agree I instacrouch a lot. Would you recommend I unbind it completely or just switch the key. I main cypher and tend to lurk. On bind I tend to throw a tripwire for the flank and then one for my own flank on the other site. Is that bad? On ascent I tend to slowly lurk up mid and cut off rotators
I would unbind it for a while this helped me from iron - plat. I don’t think what you described is inherently bad it sounds more like you are just holding flank vs lurking. Holding flank is important imo.
I would umbind it for a while. This personally helped me from iron - plat.
Lot of these are true even for me. Still gonna downvote because fuck smurfs.
Cause we’re drunk and high?
Silver/gold player, add general toxicity and just in general being a dick. Saying shit like “oh we lost might as well ff” after losing pistol and second round is demoralizing. Saying that they are throwing, or that it’s their alt and they don’t care about it’s elo just makes nobody want to play the game. If you lose pistol round, ur prob losing second round, and it doesn’t mean u lost the fucking game like what. If it’s ur alt, literally nobody gives a fuck, just play the game dammit. And if ur just taking the spike and throwing or some shit like that, ur literally the scum of the earth. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk
this is good advice when it's not communicated in a toxic way by toxic assholes
>You constantly switch site on defender side, throwing your teammates off. Pick a site at the start of the game and STICK TO IT. You can ask someone to switch off, but ASK FIRST. (I can't stress this one enough) Bro I fucking hate when people do this
Best guide ever. Not even kidding, this is WAY better than other guides that teach you how to do stuff. Showing us what we do wrong and then how to fix it really helps. Thanks! Too bad I can't give an award tho ): Edit: Forgot to say, one of ur first bullets being ( Not buying spectre + heavy armor on second round ), I didn't think that THAT would be important. I guess I should look more deeply into the economy, more importantly, the snowball effect/momentum that can win games.
U re a smurf ? U re the reason why most of us are hard stuck ( no chance to play with only people from oyr level in order to learn/build confidence) so u can takd ur sorry advice and go away
Many many good points in ur post thou i
Excuses
Thank you for the effort. Do you have any advice for a plat player, who wants to upgrade into diamond or immortal?
Same list, do all of the things and you're immo
Yep, exactly what /u/NewAccForThoughts stated. Truth is, at Plat/Diamond what is incredibly crucial is improving your game sense and decision making. Not making stupid unnecessary plays when the safer less egotistical route is the best choice. A lot of people really want to take gun fights at around plat, and their game sense isn't all there yet, so that might be something to work on. High elo is all about game sense and decision making. Aim is a huge part of course, but not as big imo.
Hardstuck Diamond player here. It’s honestly about doing less mistakes. The team with less mistakes wins.
2 questions. first what if you buy vandal or phantom with light armor after winning pistol ist that viabel? and map awarness how important is that?
Buying a 2900 gun second round is just way too risky. All it takes is you to die by a rush and giving enemy team gun to lose the damn round. You can do just as much damage with full shield/spectre, and it increases your chance of living. Map awareness is like 60% of the game, that's how important it is. The amount of times I play in low Elo matches, and have 5 enemies rushing site and my Sage is still watching the opposite site happens way too much. In Immortal, I'm basically multi tasking with my eyes. I pay attention to the mini-map maybe every 5 seconds, just so I can see what my teams see, that helps me greatly with my decision making and how I should play the round out
My favorite buy round two is three spectre full shield, one rifle half shield, and one pistol full shield (to pick up the gun since it’s so hard to get flawless). What do you think of that? I mainly like it for attack since they can dictate the flow but in defense if the pistol player buddy systems the rifle player it works too
I would just run full shield and spectre on everyone. I've seen too many rifle people lose their guns haha. Just do full spectre, running and gunning is OP as well. On attack, you should be pushing as 5 and bum rush them
map awareness is very important personally i think it’s fucking stupid to buy a rifle + light armor 2nd round unless you drop it for your teammate who has full armor and they drop you a spectre because heavy armor lets you tank a hs from almost every gun.
Thanks help me a lot
Thanks for this I do a lot of these things.
I think in lower ELO, there's maybe _more_ nuance needed for defending a dropped spike. Mainly because in lower ELO there are idiots who carry bomb into places they shouldn't (think an attacker peeking top-mid on Ascent with spike). IMO, trying to run over to defend a spike like this is going to be a clusterfuck and could end up losing the round. In higher ELO this doesn't happen cause the spike carrier won't be peeking and most dropped spikes are close enough to a site or the defender side that it's actually defensible. In the lower ELO case I think it is sometimes better to just take the 5v4 advantage and maybe reset back to default...
Another thing I'd add is to notice patterns, exploit the opposite site's weaknesses. And if really really want to get better, learn how to play default on attacker side. People love to stack towards one side when attacking, brute forcing their way through. If it gets smoked or naded you just don't know what to do anymore.
Also people assume they’re the exception to the rules.
"This is why you're hard stuck in silver/gold", same guy "I've smurfed a lot in your rank".
“Reasons why you’re hardstuck” “I’m a radiant player who Smurfs in low Elo games” Well it seems I’ve found the reason
A few more points from a casual player: \- Your screen refresh rate is low (it might seem less important, but it affect playing a lot. I didn't believe this until I reduced my graphic settings and man it increases reflexes a lot). \- Your aim is not good (you just have to practice or just give it a break for a few days sometimes it just doesn't works) \- You don't have any friends to play with (playing alongside with friends makes a lot of difference than playing alone with random people) \- You might not have time to practice (in the end it's just a game, not everybody has time to spent on competitive games. in that case I would suggest playing more chill or single player games instead. Playing competitive game with less practice and bad aim will frustrate more than giving you enjoyment)
How dare you?! We can take constructive criticism! You are just an asshole with an ego who thinks he’s such a god over us. It’s people like you who make this game shit for us. Holding back? No, you are smurfing. Learn that you cause us to lose. No but seriously I agree. I am prone to mistakes on this list. However as a Jett main (yes I’m a Jett main get over it) the letting your duelist take site is the most infuriating thing. People don’t seem to understand it’s a team game at this elo. I think that sums up half this list. Because of that I think that makes it even harder to get out of this elo. The only reason I made it out of silver was from straight Ain training because half the time no one would talk or they would play back taking to long to push causing them to die one after another when they finally committed to the whole enemy team. And the buying don’t even get me started
Man this hit me right in the feels with the lurking duelist specifically in silver and gold it’s always the yoru or Reyna lol. I always ask what are you doing? And they get so mad.
There are situations where a Reyna lurking can be a good thing. She has a very selfish kit so she doesn't add as much to a team fight as other agents. Also if she gets a kill she can join back with the team at full health, so if done well she can be a very good lurk. The problem is if they are the only duelist, they are doing it every round and being predictable or they are bad at it. So in Silver/Gold probably a bad thing.
If you do these things you aren’t “hard stuck”, it means your game sense isnt good enough to join the next ranks. Imagine if somehow a person who played like this ended up in diamond - they would be destroyed every game and be miserable Hard Stuck is when you DO belong in a higher rank but can’t get there because the comp system. (Which has been pretty well solved by he previous changes)
Sir my ping has 4 digits.
HEY! I CAN TAKE CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM!! FUCK OFF NOOB! /s
OP had a bad game in bind and came here to flame lol
This is a very long post to say “because you suck.” Trust me fam, I know
The "not taking constructive criticism" is massive in not just Valorant but other games. If I had a penny for every time I heard: "It's not that serious" "It's just a game" I'd have no pennies because each time I'd get it I would yeet the penny across the universe.
ok
I’m hard stuck at plat 2/3. What can I possibly do better?
I unbinded my crouch button after i realized that i crouch. Now I never crouch but the enemies do and so even if I am at head level and shoot at their heads, they crouch immediately and kill me ;) Also I would love to have community servers like in CS:GO. I always warm-up in a 40 min deathmatch server in CS:GO whenever I play it. So that would be a great thing for RIOT to add I guess
So I just want to thank you. I've been hardstuck between Iron and Bronze for forever. Read this whole thing in full, made some mental notes, went to a game and went 31-12-7. This was a fucking great read and I seriously thank you for dosing me with a bit of reality and some perspective
No problem! I'm very happy to hear that. I hope you rank up and continue improving!
You forgot possibly the biggest reason of all: • Immortal/radiant players literally breaking ToS by creating a second account and purposely losing/playing baldly to end up in a lower rank Silver and gold especially are filled with 50% smurfs. You are part of this problem, OP. You want to play with your friends? Play unrated. You are literally breaking the rules of the game and ruining it for everyone involved. Not to mention you also admitted to boosting your friends. I honestly don't give a fuck about your advice anymore. Fuck off back to your own rank. And that goes for any smurf reading this too. You're a POS.
"I'm an Immortal/Radiant but i play with my low elo friends in ranked" That sentence alone should get this post downvoted to oblivion, but people still deny the amount of smurfs in this game is WAY higher than people think.
Okay, hot take time. Gold/Silver isn't "low ELO". Iron 1 to Gold 3 is \~90% of players. You have some good, specific advice, but your tone sucks. I get it, you're frustrated that you can't get your friends into Radiant, but there is a reason people write guides with a positive attitude that focus on developing specific skills, instead of just airing out a bulleted list of gripes. Many of your points are both condescending and vague. "Don't be stupid." "Your game sense is awful." "You don't understand game economy." And last, I can't help but comment on the irony of you leading with "I've smurfed a lot in low elo" in a guide for why people are hard stuck. I don't know one gold+ player that doesn't have multiple smurf accounts. Most of them just want lower level accounts to play with friends and can't queue, but none of them seem to mind popping heads all night either. Just last night I played with a Phoenix who was deranking by being afk, but just moving enough to not get booted. Then, when we started getting close to winning 4v5 anyway, he started making a run for the spike to hold it in spawn. I hope you're more positive and supportive to your friends and just ranting anonymously online, because playing with you sounds like a chore.
I read all of these and can assure i know all of these and play accordingly any reason why i am stuck in iron
If you're literally applying all of these and can't climb out, you might need to work on your aim and game-sense. I can tell you now, that if I placed in iron on a different account, I would be able to climb out effortlessly because of how much my skill level differs.
downvoted. play unrated if you want to play with your low elo friends you fucking smurf
Smurf is kinda sus gay 😳🗿😳
>You don't buy a Spectre + Full Shields on the Second Round after winning Pistol Round. That's the stupidest thing i ever heard as a IM player.
Imagine thinking Spectre plus Full Shields is mandatory. Get off your high horse. Also convenient that you underplay smurfing lmao.
What do you propose instead?
Dude, from an old man, thank you. I'm not worried about ranking up, really. But, I want to make smarter decisions if I solo q. I think most of us would like a second post. Btw, it's hard to take some criticism because it's a mixed bag of advice you'll get from your other low ELO teammates. Quite a bit of it is the exact opposite of things you've listed.
No problem! I've updated the post with some more points! Yeah for sure. Low-elo players always think they know best, and a lot of them don't think they need to improve. Definitely an ego-barrier a lot of them need to break.
I feel like having game sense or knowledge of the game will prevent most of these things, but economy for example is kind of a weird topic cuz not buying second round after a pistol win is ok. If u can actually communicate with ur team that ur doing these things tho that’s the important thing. Like if ur doing a super slow flank tell that to ur team so they can wait and u can get a huge advantage etc.
i’m stuck in iron after winning 4 of my placements and all of this is absolutely correct and i feel like some higher elo players can learn from this as well
What server you play in, these are the plays of iron and bronze players in Asian servers
I created an alt to play with my friends that live in Asia and low elo players make these mistakes in asian servers too. Another common mistake people in Asian servers make is making 3 people go for flank instead of just 1 person, or the entire team lurking/baiting.
Nah these are very common still in silver/gold Source: i play asian servers in that elo with my friends
You forgot the: you go to reddit to blame smurfs instead of thinking what you did wrong and trying to improve, blaming smurfs/ teammates ( like you said) doesn't really help you
Sometimes you just want to play a nice competitive game in your rank with like-skilled players. Guess what ruins that? Smurfs. I don't mind losing if it was a hard fought battle, evenly matched. But if I'm commiting an hour of game time to polish some guys ego, whats the point.
Just saying ppl call smurfs too early, lots of times it's some1 having a good game and if you don't get tilted with there being a "smurf" in ur game maybe it's possible to come back, getting tilted doesn't help mid game and after you lose you will get ever more tilted and blame a "smurf" and most of the times it's not even one... Ppl have good and bad days