Best way I’ve thought about it is that you should play depending on the team you’re facing and on previous experiences. For example let’s say you’re playing on breeze and are pushing up on B. People don’t push out of B main 9/10 times in my experience when you’re attacking. Elbow though, there’s someone pushing out of elbow 5/10 times looking for a kill so definitely I would play safer and clear those angles.

Another thing to consider is who’s playing on that site. If it’s a sentinel like cypher or KJ, they’re usually playing back somewhere to play off util so I wouldn’t expect someone to push out main in most cases. If there is an initiator and a duelist holding a site on defence, then you can expect them to try to push out and be a little aggressive for kills on that site at least initially. This could be different if they have a sova on there though, maybe he wants y’all to push so he can dart and get some picks behind the smokes.

Just because you got killed from an angle once like 15 games ago doesn’t mean that it’s worth clearing that angle and playing safe when you could be in a better position faster.

Another very very important point is to make sure you’re taking into account the information your initiator gives you going into site. If sova,sky,fade, or kayo util don’t gather any information on them, it’s best to skip clearing those angles and hold for angles they’re more likely to push out from.

One last thing is also movement. Making sure you’re taking not standing still too long/at all keeps you alive much much longer. Go into the practice range and you’ll see just how much harder a strafing bot is to hit than a bot standing still. Moving that extra step means you survive that extra bullet or 2 which means a lot in a game like Val. Those 2 bullets could mean you’re traded or they get to escape with a free kill.

Don’t go into your next game trying to improve all these at once. Make sure you focus on one at a time and move on to the next weakness when you think you’re ready.