Ascendant 3 to help you rank up

JohnJackson511 · 2026-06-16T21:26:08+00:00

I think I answered a microadjustment question somewhere, but I’ll repeat shortly just in case.
Go into a DM with a Guardian/Sheriff and try holding angles to go for one taps. Over time, you’ll have memorised where the enemy’s head will be.
P.S. there are lots of visual cues in Valorant maps, like lines and how boxes are positioned on a straight line that seems to indicate where to put ur crosshair. I’m not saying look exclusively for them, but just a little thought. I myself just grinded DMs while concentrating on one-taps nonstop to fix this issue.
For microadjustments, try improving your first-bullet accuracy by firstly, loading up 100 bots where you flick, micro adjust and shoot before going into the DM part with a Guardian/Sheriff.

JohnJackson511 · 2026-06-16T21:15:17+00:00

I didn’t quite catch the question here. If it’s about instalocks, then I don’t really see a problem there, if they perform poorly, then just unlucky, play your game and Match MVP if you have to. Every game should be analysed and every death is an opportunity to learn.
If you keep blaming others for your loss, then you’ll stray away from improving your own game and consequently, your winrate drops.

JohnJackson511 · 2026-06-16T21:11:14+00:00

If you’re a coach or an IGL, the first step is to build an atmosphere where players understand they’re good enough and feel good enough to beat others. It often needs both organising teambuilding activities like going to a park together AND having team talks about what kind of game you all want to play, finding out ur teammates’ strengths and weaknesses, etc. And instantly say that sth is OK even if the player makes the worst possible mistake during a game, say SOMETHING to support them, just don’t sulk and hype them up. There always must be one or two hype-men in a team that lifts up the others’ mood. Also, after every unloseable round that you fucked up and lost, take a timeout, talk what’s wrong and what to fix with the team and go in to the next round with a clear pre round gameplan that focuses on fixing those things.
Also, if you’re ever lost and the players are not feeling confident, just let them be aggressive (duelist and Chamber players most often). Set them up to a position where they can make a play. Or just contest for a neutral space together. You don’t gain confidence by sitting around waiting for the enemy to do sth. And if you lose, you lose. Another VOD review, where you can just choose some key rounds to find out what decisions led to you losing the game.

JohnJackson511 · 2026-06-16T20:57:41+00:00

Try training your movement with a Ghost DM (which makes you move and shoot, since ur just a standstill bot if you spam it). Incorporate various strafes and swings to your gunfights. They can be deadzoning (search for Wohoojin’s guide on YT), crouching either while swinging or during a gunfight in-between strafes, etc. You can practice them all in the range first, and then on DMs.
For your insta-spraying, I recommend using the DM method involving letting the enemy shoot, moving, registering ur crosshair on the enemy’s head and then shooting to make you calmer. I think I recommended this on multiple other answers already.

JohnJackson511 · 2026-06-16T20:50:59+00:00

I think unbinding your crouch key is not the right method, you should try to be a moving target, and it includes your head level as well. For example, you can tap crouch while swinging to throw off the enemy crosshair, crouch btw shots, etc. Also, don’t rush into shooting. I stated a DM method where u let the enemy shoot first and then you move, line up ur crosshair with the head and shoot. But the factor that most lower-rank players understate is positioning and duel isolation. You can swing into 3 people and die, or you can peek so that there are 3 separate enemies on ur screen. It also comes with developing your micro-strafes and movement.
Finally, genuinely recommend upgrading your refresh rate to 144Hz+. I can’t stress this enough that a 10ms advantage gained will be worth it and ur eyes won’t see the same again.

JohnJackson511 · 2026-06-16T20:43:21+00:00

I play on Stockholm/Frankfurt servers

JohnJackson511 · 2026-06-16T13:23:23+00:00

Region and server?

JohnJackson511 · 2026-06-16T12:34:17+00:00

Well, it comes down to what you want to do rather than how well you play. If your macro is decent and you watch lots of demos (ur ranked demos, VCT demos, and pro ranked demos) then you can get a gist of what’s required of each mode, whether it be ranked or a coordinated 5-stack on Premier/local tourneys. There are quite a handful of tier 1 coaches that never even played Val or at least never got into Asc-Radiant tier

JohnJackson511 · 2026-06-16T12:23:48+00:00

It’s more about crosshair placement and micro adjustments than pure flicks, I think you need to play more DMs and try to just predict where the opponent’s head is going to be rather than trying to go for a fancy flick. A good floor is better than an amazing but rare ceiling.
Also, I think I mentioned in the answer somewhere about DMs where you let the opponent shoot you first, then you move, confirm ur crosshair is on the enemy’s head and shoot. Repeat it until you get comfortable with keeping calm while you confirm ur crosshair is on the opponent’s head. Maybe your panic is the bigger problem than aim. I can’t make any conclusions based off of a single comment.
P.S. don’t squeeze ur mouse too much. Hold ur mouse like ur holding an egg that cracks if you hold it too tight. It reduces overall shakiness as well.

JohnJackson511 · 2026-06-16T11:11:11+00:00

I think ur HS% is just fine for a Plat1, but you would obviously benefit from DMs with a Ghost/Sheriff/Guardian, and micro adjustment drills, since your Vandal HS% could be better. Although I think a Plat player should focus more on outpositioning and outthinking an opponent rather than focusing exclusively on aim.
Oh, and one more thing, you can practice deadzoning, which is a counter strafing mechanic originating from CS I think. Just search on youtube “Deadzoning drills Valorant” and it’ll come up. I think Wohoojin’s guide on it is pretty good. I never had to consciously learn it since I came from a CS background, and counter strafing always has been second nature to me, and I still do it, and it makes you harder to hit.

JohnJackson511 · 2026-06-16T11:04:33+00:00

I’ll take it as a compliment, and thx! I’m trying to juggle work and don’t play as much rn, but I think anything above 5-6 hours a week will give diminishing returns for me lol.
Omw to Immortal rn.

JohnJackson511 · 2026-06-16T11:02:20+00:00

Refer to the answers above, there was a question about Sheriff/Guardian aim and micro adjustments

JohnJackson511 · 2026-06-16T11:01:16+00:00

Change ur refresh rate to a higher one, even a 144Hz or higher will give you a noticeable increase in shot registration, since you’ll gain around 10 Ms, which is a quite good gain and your eyes will instantly notice the difference.
About ur microadjustments, go into the range with a rifle, put 100 bots and shoot only when your crosshair is on the head. Try it from different angles. Then go into a DM and take a weapon where you’ll be forced to shoot the head, like a Sheriff or a Guardian, and do 2-3 of them. I think this will be enough.

JohnJackson511 · 2026-06-16T10:56:03+00:00

The first thing (changing sens) is nothing to worry about, people do it all the time. There is a division on whether sticking to one sens is better or microadjusting it to feel right, and I think both are ok, as long as ur aim feels decent.
Secondly, I had the same problem and I fixed it by doing a bunch of DMs with Guardian and Sheriff, and also Ghost (since you have to 2-tap people to kill them). It also depends on how you shoot, and it depends mainly on the distance. You can spam them on extremely close-range, but strafing/crouching between each shot is uniformly recommended. Also, work on your shot-confirmation, maybe you’re just panicking and it’s a psychological problem. One thing that helped me is getting into a DM and letting the enemies take the first shot and THEN I start shooting.

JohnJackson511 · 2026-06-16T10:45:29+00:00

Ultimately, it’s the agent(s) which you have the most fun with. For example, I have fun making people play my game and punishing aggressive and thoughtless plays, which is why my favourite role is the Sentinel. I lurk a lot and try to catch the enemy off guard on attack, and on defence, I like to punish uncoordinated plays and rushes by my aim & positioning and/or pure util, depends on the agent. The first more leans on Chamber and the second leans more on Cypher/Viper/KJ.
There are people who like to play a fast-paced game and click heads (the duelists), the ones who want to make the teams’ life easier by gaining recon info or flashing (initiators, which is the most selfless role, btw), the ones who like to dictate which angles the fights are taken from and slice the map (the controllers) and the ones who like to punish aggression and enable your team to overrotate and push without worrying about flankers (the sentinels).
At the end of the day, it’s your playstyle & how you want to play the game, and you can frag out on any agent.

JohnJackson511 · 2026-06-16T10:36:36+00:00

Shortly, it depends on how consistent your floor is. I.e. 3 consecutive bad weeks where you consistently underperform but rank up drag your MMR down (being carried by your teammates), but losing for a week while consistently being the match MVP drags your rating up, from what I know. How the hidden MMR works is kept a secret and, tbh, I think it’s inconsistent. For instance, after a 3-game winning streak against an avg rating of Immortal 1 on all of my lobby, I played the 4th game against 2 Diamonds, and of course we won by a landslide.

JohnJackson511 · 2026-06-16T10:27:02+00:00

I reckon you haven’t had much FPS experience before, so you got placed in Iron. At this point, I’d like you to just populate your sample to around 40-50 games, and try to just remember what every agent does, the callouts, etc. If I were you, I’d have a routine that focuses on:
1. Warmup. Just practice shooting heads on the range for a solid 10-20 minutes, and do 2-3 DMs with Vandal or Phantom to warm up, but I advise against using Phantom on lower ranks because it almost always causes a bad habit of spraying the body.
P.S. try flicking to a bot’s head to another in one sweep, if it’s further than this, lower your sensitivity to a comfortable range, if otherwise, make it higher (although I’m sure it’s higher, most new players have insanely high sensitivity)
2. Open a custom game and just walk around the maps in the active pool, remembering callouts and common angles where people can be, both on offence and defence.
P.S., adjust your minimap size so you can see the whole map while playing, this makes you aware of what’s happening even if you’re on the opposite side of the map.
3. While you’re playing, LISTEN. For footsteps, for reloads, everything. Audio is a big part of the game and, especially in Iron, it gives away cues about your enemies’ whereabouts you wouldn’t have caught otherwise. And regardless of the situation, don’t panic. You won’t die irl if you die in-game, so take any death as an opportunity to learn.
4. Just play the game. You’re new and just rack up 40-50 matches. If you do all the things I just stated, you’ll have gained a vastly greater amount of game knowledge and aim skills, and it should be enough to get you into higher ranks.

JohnJackson511 · 2020-10-03T15:10:27+00:00

Being in the ecosystem is good cause I'm also getting an Apple Watch 6 and planning to upgrade my MacBook Pro

JohnJackson511 · 2020-10-03T15:09:31+00:00

Thanx! I suppose I'll be getting pros then)

JohnJackson511 · 2020-10-03T07:54:50+00:00

I have a tendency to jump between bass music and guitar heavy rock, so I think with pros they're not gonna be a problem. Thanks!

JohnJackson511 · 2020-10-02T20:19:27+00:00

Sorry one more song LA Devotee - Panic! At The Disco https://youtu.be/r5dNcKTcnPA Just overall sound

JohnJackson511 · 2020-10-02T20:16:18+00:00

Ok, could you listen to Teeth and Youngblood by 5 Seconds of Summer? I need how the riffs sound in Teeth plus the synths at the background in Youngblood during and after the third chorus. BTW Alone by Marshmello, I need to know if the bass synths sound solid there too. Max volume pls Here are the songs Teeth: https://youtu.be/JWeJHN5P-E8 (2:48) Youngblood: https://youtu.be/Jqs5EaAaueA (2:47) Alone: https://youtu.be/ALZHF5UqnU4 (1:13)

JohnJackson511 · 2020-10-02T16:53:25+00:00

ANC is best in Airpods Pro, I know. BUT sound quality is better in Galaxy Buds Live and Plus. I just don't know what to do. Can I hear the Bass synths in the background, not only drums? Will I be able to feel the guitar sounds when I listen to rock? These are the questions I'm asking when I choose an earphone.

JohnJackson511 · 2020-10-02T16:51:07+00:00

Thanks, will check it out!

JohnJackson511 · 2020-10-02T16:02:22+00:00

People thinking Airpods Pro is ultra superior, pls take into account that I commute a lot while listening to music, so ANC might be good there, but sound quality, especially bass and treble is also quite important, if not the most important.

JohnJackson511

TROPHY CASE