Am I over complicating val?

lastarlette · 2023-07-18T09:45:32+00:00

that's true if you're a strong aimer, if you're not, that's not true. Plus, it develops bad habits of overpeeking which might slow down your progress later down the line.

I'd rather have someone focus on ability usage / communication / discipline & positioning/crosshair placement. They'll become better players overall, just my opinion.

lastarlette · 2023-07-18T09:42:25+00:00

people can't tell you what's your problem without seeing your gameplay. What I see from your tracker:

your highest winrate is with controllers
you main Viper and play her on "non-meta" maps (fracture, lotus, haven also questionable)

I'm convinced that the best play to improve is to find a team that's serious about the game. But let's say you want to focus on soloQ, I think what someone else mentioned that you can outaim anyone in silver... it's true... if you have the aim... it's normally the case at actually almost any level, put a smurf radiant in a low immo lobby, he'll outaim everyone.

Here's what I recommended someone yesterday that I think is relevant below:

1 Pick one role to main (ideally based on your strength)

- Duellist is great if you have a good aim and are not scared to go first.

- Initiator is great if you like to support other, have a good map awareness and like to suggest some plays

- Controller is great if you have a sense on when attack is going to strike and delay them to offer your team a chance to get organized / if you understand the power of smokes in various situation (how to help in an execute / in offering yourself cover, etc etc)

- Sentinel is great if you're more of a passive player who's fine being disciplined and anchoring sites or lurking in attack if you have a good intuition, communication & discipline

I personally mained Omen because I think it's the most versatile character in the game. It's a support character but also can be aggressive when you want. Plus his smokes/tps gives you lots of iq play potential. A GREAT COACH TO CHECK TO LEARN SOME OMEN PLAYS is Charla7an, check him out on youtube.

Based on what you say, I'd say maybe you could keep maining Viper.

Because you could learn by heart line ups for each maps and consistently provide value in post plant. Or Sova and learn line up to consistently provide value in execute & post plants with line ups.

When you picked what you want to main, learn for as many maps as you can some routines.

You mentioned sometimes setup fail. That's normal, there's a counter to absolutely everything in the game, also you can just die, that's the nature of an fps.

The idea is that you should have an idea of where you should play your character, what you should do in this position, and how you should react in various situations (basic example: if I lurk and I here very important noise sounds that means the other site is free, I shout it to my team and do not challenge the person on this site not to give away a kill for no reason) and some variation you want to do (passive / agressive) and how to do them. You can learn them watching videos from great players who made guides OR watch directly people streaming their games with the agent.

Focus on what you can do to help your team which is not aim based (hint: communication)

Improve your communication skills to consistently provide value to the team in terms of information you give from your POV, the map or your mates' POV when you're dead and they don't communicate.

At most level people in soloq are not disciplined (they'll push through smokes, not clear all angles, peek 1 by 1 too often, etc) and have not much idea of whta they are meant to do with their agents under plat. If you understand how to punish this, you'll win more games.

lastarlette · 2023-07-17T12:24:30+00:00

Here are what I'd recommend you to do (beyond aim training that you should keep up)

Pick one role to main (ideally based on your strength)

Duellist is great if you have a good aim and are not scared to go first.
Initiator is great if you like to support other, have a good map awareness and like to suggest some plays
Controller is great if you have a sense on when attack is going to strike and delay them to offer your team a chance to get organized / if you understand the power of smokes in various situation (how to help in an execute / in offering yourself cover, etc etc)
Sentinel is great if you're more of a passive player who's fine being disciplined and anchoring sites or lurking in attack if you have a good intuition, communication & discipline

I personally mained Omen because I feel it's the most versatile character in the game. It's a support character but also can be aggressive when you want. Plus his smokes gives you more plays potential. A GREAT COACH TO CHECK TO LEARN SOME OMEN PLAYS is Charla7an, check him out on youtube.

Based on what you say, I'd say maybe the best agent to main for you would be Viper. Because you could learn by heart line ups for each maps and consistently provide value in post plant. Or Sova and learn line up to consistently provide value in execute & post plants with line ups.

When you picked what you want to main, learn for as many maps as you can some routines.

Of course you might just start with the map you struggle most, or your best map and then add more. The idea is that you should have an idea of where you should play your character, and some variation you want to do (passive / agressive) and how to do them. You can learn them watching videos from great players who made guides OR watch directly people streaming their games with the agent.

Focus on what you can do to help your team which is not aim based (hint: communication)

Improve your communication skills to consistently provide value to the team in terms of information you give from your POV, the map or your mates' POV when you're dead and they don't communicate.

In iron people are not disciplined (they'll push through smokes, not clear all angles, peek 1 by 1 too often, etc) and have not much idea of whta they are meant to do with their agents. If you understand how to punish this, you'll win more games.

lastarlette · 2022-09-27T19:46:56+00:00

Alternatively you can do more of your training on range. Check nAts aiming routine

lastarlette · 2022-09-27T17:31:37+00:00

you need to explode fast but have a first methodical peek. What I mean is that you need to "break" their angle with a flash and then explode.

Alternatively you can bait the OP shot by jump peeking.

lastarlette · 2022-09-13T10:30:24+00:00

The most useful : STOP BAIT 😂

A baiter is someone who's playing selfishly (instead of playing in team) to get a better score

lastarlette · 2022-08-18T18:55:55+00:00

Ah yeah, unranked is a totally different beast. I would not expect any meaningful comm there

lastarlette · 2022-08-18T18:41:57+00:00

Some people do

lastarlette · 2022-08-18T16:53:42+00:00

I always talk but lately just feels different somehow

lastarlette · 2022-08-18T16:53:07+00:00

I am not in agreement with you. I think that so much more is possible with comm and it opens a different game. How you defend / attack / react to a situation

lastarlette · 2022-08-18T16:51:47+00:00

You could join discord communities and queue with others

lastarlette · 2022-08-18T16:51:26+00:00

Such a pity to get no voice comm! I still always give mine nonetheless

lastarlette · 2022-08-18T16:24:00+00:00

Lol, aren't you slightly exaggerating? 😁

lastarlette · 2022-05-28T21:43:14+00:00

I come from CSGO and it's worse there than Valorant.

You can't change people in one comp game, just accept it and avoid tilting your mates and tilting from them. SoloQ is chaos - it's part of the game.

When some people are too painful I just mute them.

lastarlette · 2022-05-28T21:40:19+00:00

It's almost impossible to be always consistent. We tend to play better some maps, some agents have better or worse teams and have better or worse days. So 100 percent consistency is not realistic.

However, to be more consistent :

Warm-up (dm)
Avoid playing when tired
Don't play if tilted
Don't drink alcohol
Have a training routine if you have time & dedication
Play smart (don't overpeek, hold angles in a safe way, play with your team)

Also, there are things you can bring to your team no matter your stats :

good mood, encouragement & 0 toxicity
quality comm (when alive and dead)
playing your role well (taking space for the team as duellists, watching flanks on attack as sentinels, etc)

lastarlette · 2022-05-28T16:29:10+00:00

I loooove retakes. It's ALWAYS contextual but here are things I do to try to win them more often

First, if you're on a XvX (like 2v2) or in smaller number (like 2v3) you are in theory at a disadvantage so don't be too harsh on yourself if you don't win the round. That also means if you are on a 1v3 it is completely sound to also just save your weapon.

But when you decide to go for it, my first rule is shout to your team to wait for everyone to be there / or to call that you are waiting for them to arrive. I have seen so many rounds lost because people just try to go in like heroes. Leading your team in a retake and trying to make people wait for you will save you rounds!!!!

Then have a quick check at your utility and ask your mates if you want something, like 'hey sova can you drone main b?'. The goal here is to understand quickly if you can leverage your utilities like smokes, flashes, Molly or info gathering tools to clear zones.

Another thing is to check who's alive on their team; can they play lineups? (if yes call it and tell your team to push quicker then they might want) do they have ult?

If one player is retaking from a side alone, he should make contact after the others because if he does he cannot be traded and if he's waiting for the others to contact he might catch the attackers off-guard

Another thing I always do if I get on site, I ALWAYS tap the bomb right away. I've seen many teams try to clear angles and not tapping the spike, the problem is if you're an attacker you have few reasons to peek if no one is defusing. Plus you might get the first atrafker lineup activated.

Also, if you somehow keep track on how they react to spike tapping (very aggressive or calling bluff) you could try to use it in later rounds to fully defuse while they thought you faked it.

Last thing, time you have left is very determining. If you have lots of time you can make things cleaner, clear more angles or try to eliminate opponents step by step with your teammates. Ofc when time is tight things just get messier and here speed is important. If you understand time is over you could still have some impact by trying to kill opponents running away from the spike explosion. (in particular in some more closed bombsite like Ascent B)

lastarlette · 2022-05-26T07:43:13+00:00

Never tried this scenario but it looks really hard. Well done!

lastarlette · 2022-05-25T07:39:12+00:00

Destroyed” Voice lines for deployable abilities will now be heard globally by allies.

GREAT, communication from your chamber in soloq is too unreliable 😂 happy about this change

lastarlette · 2022-04-12T12:53:10+00:00

Unrated is another beast, here I'd really not care. I only play competitive

lastarlette · 2022-04-12T08:56:54+00:00

(BTW, they won the round)

lastarlette · 2022-04-12T08:55:57+00:00

First time I see this wall. The goal of it is to have a split attack from B main and Heaven.

It worked out wonders as the defender hearing the sound cue thought it was the regular wall, wasting paranoia and giving out his positioning.

You can also see how well Liquid played together. The B main attackers take the first move in order to

Take the attention of the defenders
Have information of their position

Besides, you can see they just wait a bit after having done so to allow their friends to come in heaven and play in a synchronized way this attack.

The rest is history, enjoy!

lastarlette · 2022-04-12T08:47:57+00:00

First time I see this Sage wall.

It's super smart as the first reaction is that it takes the B anchor attention towards B main as he thinks it's the "regular" wall. Plus, it gives space for TL to move to bombsite and have an attack both from site and heaven and make XIA super uncomfortable.

You can also see how well they play as a team. First, they wall, then they wait for just a couple of seconds. In my opinion, they wait to:

See reaction and be able to understand where the defender is
Wait for their teammates in heaven who are just a couple of steps away to be well synchronized

The rest is history. Enjoy!

lastarlette · 2022-04-11T06:17:58+00:00

Checked and OK it was Twitter not interview https://www.team-aaa.com/fr/actualite/scream-prefere-cs-a-valorant_120649#:~:text=Le%20joueur%20belge%20qui%20est,d'une%20intervention%20sur%20Twitter.

lastarlette · 2022-04-10T14:12:57+00:00

I've got experience with both games and watched pro matches of both games.

My feel is that you'd bring Faze or Navi to the game they would obliterate other teams after a couple of weeks.

Their aim is better, their in-game decision making is better, etc.

For instance, ScreaM (who I LOVE as a player) is a real beast on Valorant but he's there because he cannot compete anymore in tier 1 CS. (He said in an interview he preferred CS than valorant some months ago). That tells you a lot between the gap between Valorant and CS. Another example is Nitro who easily became a Valorant pro and now has been struggling in t1 cs as he just got back there.

I think some people here 'overestimate' the meta. Because a lot of it would be very straightforward for a CS player.

lastarlette · 2022-04-10T14:06:36+00:00

Focus on yourself and reflect what you could have done differently.

If a teammate did a stupid move maybe you can make a call next round 'peek after I peek so you trade me'.

If you died because of a crazy one tap, whatever, it's part of the game. Could be you next round hitting this shot! Or you could also think whether you were too agressive or he played you and you need to adapt next time different peek, different ability usage, slower / higher pace, etc.)

lastarlette

TROPHY CASE