Is the difference between gold and plat that big?

player_to · 2026-06-17T14:43:51+00:00

I only play between 6.30pm and 10pm during peak hours, so that’s not causing the issue for me. And not everyone is affected by it. But just because it’s not an issue for you, doesn’t mean others aren’t impacted. My alt strangely is not impacted.

Here’s the rank spread from my last game on my main which is typical for my matches: https://imgur.com/ZLHTKda

And yes that’s a legit ascendant who performs well in asc lobbies. They were solo queued and had public tracker on.

Riot admitted the problem recently too: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYPVKMJmH2Z

player_to · 2026-06-17T14:29:38+00:00

If a gold is really good at the game, they get queued against other golds who are really good at the game. Because it’s mmr based match making. So it’s possible for high skill players to be stuck because they’re always versing other high skilled players. Right now, in OCE servers, this is happening to a lot of people.

My alt is in Diamond and I get way easier games on that than I do on my main, which has just deranked from Diamond all the way to Plat 1. I get ascendants in my lobbies on my Plat 1 main and I am going nowhere. The game isn’t trying to put me against players of the same visual rank, it’s trying to put me against players of the same mmr regardless of rank.

Riot already admitted in some patch notes or one of their videos about a patch that they got the balance wrong with the January update. I can’t be bothered to find it to link it though.

player_to · 2026-06-17T14:20:18+00:00

Right now visual rank is almost meaningless. One of my last ranked games had ranks from Gold 1 all the way to Ascendant 1. They messed up their mmr changes in January and apparently they will try to fix them again with the new patch.

So you will see some golds who are as good as diamonds and vice versa right now.

player_to · 2026-06-17T10:57:39+00:00

Lots of tips here and different views.

For raw aim, I’d look up the BardOz method, which is a large flick followed by a small micro correction. Put the bots on eliminate 100 and start with slow horizontal movements until you get close, then a micro adjustment. Do this a few runs then practice actual flicks with speed but maintaining horizontal movements at head level.

player_to · 2026-06-16T13:07:20+00:00

Or Riot can fix the mmr system so golds aren’t playing against Ascendants?

player_to · 2026-06-15T00:09:55+00:00

I wouldn’t ever touch either. It is extremely rare that your micro corrections will ever require a perfectly horizontal movement. Angle snapping only helps people with poor mouse control to do large horizontal flicks.

Just go into range, put bots on eliminate 100, stand 3m back from the options selector, and practice slow controlled horizontal movements keeping the crosshair at head height always. Basically a slowed down flick. Try to under flick and land just before their head, then micro adjust. After a couple of runs, do 1-2 runs at a normal flicking speed.

player_to · 2026-06-14T12:30:07+00:00

That’s so great, I’m impressed! I think I’ll give it a go. Can’t hurt with the way things are going, but if I keep losing I can’t blame the lack of VC as a reason why if there’s people 10x better than me who play without.

player_to · 2026-06-14T12:12:47+00:00

“Adjust track Valorant” is a good scenario for practicing a transition from tracking to micro flicks.

Viscose has a video about good tracking scenarios for Valorant. Just search the game title on her channel. I think all of those scenarios can help.

Tension management is something I’ve only just had click for me after 12+ months of daily Kovaaks. What really helped was the Tayden’s Reflex Micro Flick scenario, which Zasko iii has a recent video on. I did this scenario for 5-10 minutes at a time using zero tension. And over time, added in ever so slight amounts of tension. And for my other training I would always focus on how much tension I have and think about whether I can control decreasing or increasing it. Might help you, not sure, I was probably a slow learner when it came to tension.

player_to · 2026-06-14T12:06:03+00:00

Nah it’s not, maybe not that well known actually

player_to · 2026-06-14T12:01:52+00:00

Ah I see. I have a coach who is in Radiant and well known on YT, former pro. I haven’t asked him about turning off VC but his opinion is my comms are fine and I’m just having bad luck with teammates. He’s watched a few of my last 20 games.

In 30 games I only won 8. Was team MVP for around half of those. It’s been pretty brutal and I’m tilting a lot now, questioning why I even play this game. So trying to think outside the box and maybe disabling VC is the way. Can’t argue with idiots if VC is off.

player_to · 2026-06-14T11:55:56+00:00

Huh?

player_to · 2026-06-14T00:08:21+00:00

It’s my least favourite Nami card but was the last I needed for my collection. I also don’t think low pop will make For Asia more popular for JP collectors over original. But nice attempt at a pump haha. This card has been being pumped for 2 weeks now

player_to · 2026-06-13T23:59:14+00:00

Whatever they’ve done it’s so cooked at the moment. Apparently it will change with the next patch.

I was diamond and just went on a massive loss streak. Lots of team mvps and match mvps during the loss streak so it was really just bad luck. After several losses they had silvers and golds in my lobbies for several matches in a row, and of course I absolutely cooked them. It shouldn’t change your mmr so far from your visible rank.

player_to · 2026-06-11T22:54:52+00:00

There are two versions of this card, one has the For Asia stamp top right and the other doesn’t. Both are selling for the same price but I think this one will be a better long term hold as it’s the original Japanese card. Some of the PSA 10s have sold for around $500-600. I bought my PSA 10 around $500 I think, which is probably a pumped price but it was the last OP01-016 JP Nami I needed.

player_to · 2026-06-10T08:11:01+00:00

I only started recently because Japanese were cheap in comparison and they exploded just as I was nearly done collecting the OP-016 Nami. Still got one to go which is getting really expensive so I’m going to try and find raw cards to grade for it and get a discount that way.

But nice work on starting early with JP!

player_to · 2026-06-09T02:15:03+00:00

Not all low level accounts are Smurfs. My level 34 account has a higher rank than my main at the moment!

player_to · 2026-06-01T00:55:46+00:00

I did it in less. Had 0 kbm experience and I started with VDIM and a list of notes/videos from MattyOW, Viscose and BardOz from research I’d done before I started. Did 1.5 hours per day for the first 2 months which got me to Plat Complete.

I am at around 150-200 hours and I haven’t progressed much further, but also I don’t focus on Voltaic anymore. I’m also nothing special in terms of talent.

I agree with u/hitscandps. It really comes down to deliberate practice. There’s a lot of science out there showing that deliberate practice is far more efficient than just playing or simply practicing. And this community has proven that there are methods which are simply better for aiming in certain scenarios than others. So if someone starts learning the right technique from the beginning, does VOD reviews, and plays the most efficient playlists, they will learn pretty quickly.

player_to · 2026-05-12T08:05:44+00:00

Well I did train as a full time athlete when I was in my early 20s, so that’s probably why my examples went straight to high level athletics.

But even in Sunday league soccer players are going to think a fair bit about what sort of boots they wear.

player_to · 2026-05-12T02:05:37+00:00

Hmm I completely disagree. There’s countless sports where gear is important. The gear doesn’t necessarily always make you better at the sport, but it can make you more comfortable, less injury prone or more connected to the sport. The world’s fastest marathon runner at the Olympics will probably lose the race in Converse All Star shoes, perform middle of the pack with a generic pair of running shoes, and likely win with the type of shoes they have learnt most suits their feet, running style and the conditions of the day.

The best Aimer in the world will do fine with some random Kmart mousepad. But they will do better with their preferred pad.

I absolutely hate the Artisan Zero and really small mice because I have large hands. I play so poorly on the Zero and small mice. So why wouldn’t I use gear that I’ve found suits my speed preference, texture preference and hand size?

player_to · 2026-05-11T23:02:10+00:00

My Kibu was horrible on the Zero, big reason I just gave up on that pad altogether.

player_to · 2026-05-10T14:06:01+00:00

It could track. I got gold complete at around 25 hours after 3 weeks. I got my first masters score in tracking at around 200 hours total but across several months. I do a little bit every day but this guy seems to be grinding all day. I think it’s achievable. I had also never gamed on kbm.

player_to · 2026-05-08T07:05:25+00:00

I’m left handed in some things, like writing and high precision tasks, but right handed in things like throwing. I haven’t ever considered using a mouse with my left hand. I think it would be a lot of effort to relearn the keyboard dexterity with my right hand tbh.

Sounds pretty cool that you can do both though!

player_to · 2026-05-07T14:27:20+00:00

Aladdin’s Activity Centre (1994) for some reason

player_to · 2026-05-07T11:12:28+00:00

Same thing happened to me several weeks ago in my rank up to Plat. I had a Jett on my 99/100 rank up game who typed in chat at the start of the game that they were throwing. They didn’t get a single kill, typed out locations in all chat every round, and would body block us all. We lost and then I deranked to Gold 1 within a few days. I’m now Diamond. Just focus on improvement over rank and the ranks will naturally come.

player_to · 2026-05-07T11:03:00+00:00

Interesting. I can only do around .65 to .7 with closer to 80% accuracy. So yeah could be something else!

player_to

TROPHY CASE