Between competitive and the newly released Premier mode, there are tons of different milestones that VALORANT players can set for themselves. Maybe you just want to reach Gold, or you want to get to the top of the Radiant leaderboard for an act, or even win a Premier season.
Players will often need to adapt and make tweaks in the way they play VALORANT to remain competitive, though, given how frequently the game changes via new agents, maps, and balance changes.
Winning in VALORANT can look harder than it seems, especially as you advance into higher ranks. Considering you’re only responsible for your own gameplay, you can only win more matches in VALORANT by improving yourself. If you’re looking to push up higher in the game’s ranked system and make a name for yourself in your region, you’ll need to focus on consistently winning games. Every loss will set you a step back from your objective, so learning how to win more in VALORANT can help you optimize your time in the game.
1) Warm up before you queue for competitive
Sometimes you’re short on time and you just want to hop into a queue right away. Other times, you get pulled into a stack that’s already been playing. Regardless, you should take some time to warm up before hopping into any game mode, especially competitive.
How you warm up depends on you and what you like to prioritize. If you feel like you just need to get your aim locked in, then head to the training range. If you want to get quickly familiar with holding angles and peeking, try Deathmatch. Team Deathmatch is also a good option, combining the fast-paced traditional Deathmatch play with ability usage.
2) Communication is vital
As you climb higher and higher ranks, proper communication is vital. Maybe you can get away with not communicating in Spike Rush or even unrated matches, but any player looking to hop into competitive should be communicating, ideally with a microphone. At the absolute very least, pings and text chat should be used.
Excellent communication goes beyond just talking on the mic. I go out of my way to make sure everyone is on the same page during agent selection, the buy phase, attack plays, defense setups, post-plants, and retakes. In a match against similarly skilled opponents, better comms have proven to get me the win almost every time.
3) Have a small pool of agents you’re confident in
The key to choosing your go-to agents is finding the middle ground between being a one-trick and not specializing in any agents. While a player who specializes in just a single agent will be quite good at that character, if they queue into a match with another player who insta-locks their agent, they’re screwed.
Related: Best agents in VALORANT, our ranked tier list
Alternatively, being the player who “fills” all the time can sometimes handicap a team as that player doesn’t necessarily excel at the role they’re playing, whether it be entry duelist, initiator, or smokes. Picking one or two primary roles, with one or two agents from each role to specialize in, is what I like to go for.
4) Optimize your VALORANT controls and settings
Each player will have their preferred settings and layouts, but if you’ve been playing VALORANT with the default settings, you may have some room to grow.
Control settings like sensitivity tend to be highly personal. If you favor speed over accuracy, you’ll want your in-game settings to reflect this and vice versa. Spend some time in the training range until you get a sensitivity that’s comfortable, or use tools like the ones in Aim Labs to find the perfect sensitivity for you. Experiment with different crosshairs, too.
Related: VALORANT player has simple trick for finding the perfect sensitivity to train their aim
When it comes to visual settings, you’ll want to maximize your frames per second to fully take advantage of your reaction times. Frame drops and playing suboptimal frames can cause you to perform poorly since you’ll be at a natural disadvantage against other players.
5) Be aware of timings
At least once you will be hit by “VALORANT timing,” an instance where the worst scenario occurs the second after you’re no longer prepared for it. This is when you get peeked as soon as you pull an ability out, or when someone comes around the corner the second you stop holding that angle.
It’s going to happen at least once, but you can also take steps to avoid it. When it comes to getting caught with your abilities in hand, try to keep your gun out until the very moment you’re about to use your ability. Additionally, if you have proper setups and crossfires established with your teammates, there will be fewer instances where you get peeked the second you look away, and at the very least your teammate can get a trade.
6) Don’t be tilted by losses or setbacks
VALORANT is inherently a frustrating game, believe me. But at the end of the day, it is just a game, albeit a competitive one. To those who take the grind seriously, though, don’t let individual bad rounds or bad games get you down; ranking up is a marathon and not a sprint.
Here are some tips and tricks to avoid or reduce tilt in VALORANT:
- Queue with a group
- Mute toxic teammates and accept a loss
- Take a break
- Report the enemy player frying you, even if they’re not cheating (this one makes me feel better)
- Look at pretty skins
- Play unrated
While trying to get better in VALORANT, you’ll want to remove the element of stress as much as possible. If playing ranked matches is just too much pressure for you as you’re grasping the ropes, you should consider playing unrated games until you feel confident.
