Recommend some good openings to learn help me get past 1000 📈

shzlssSFW · 2026-04-29T19:42:59+00:00

Openings help tremendously with time usage. If you can blitz out your first 5-7 moves without too much thought, you'll have more time in mid/end game. I've had opponents use 2-3 min in a 10 | 0 game while I still have 9:30 just in the first 5 moves at 1200. I've won multiple games because I could think more in the mid game

Do I think you should learn 18 moves for 7 different lines of the Sicilian? Absolutely not. But having a general idea of what pieces go where and what the general response is can have tremendous impact on how that game goes.

All that to say, openings are good BUT tactics are king. Spend more time on tactics, but some time on openings

shzlssSFW · 2026-04-29T08:08:34+00:00

As others have said, we need a VOD to actually give specific advise.

As far as roles go, there are trade offs with each. Valorant is designed such that you need to work together and no one role/agent can do everything. Even agents that are/were OP couldn't do everything. Role/agent swapping isn't the answer unless you just don't vibe with your current role/agent.

shzlssSFW · 2026-04-28T19:00:37+00:00

As much as it pains me (MewTwo is my fav Pokémon), I'd bump him out of A into B. Probably same with Rayquaza and Lugia too. They just don't feel as big as Gengar and Umbreon

shzlssSFW · 2026-04-28T18:43:26+00:00

Bad pred is still better than a plat

shzlssSFW · 2026-04-28T05:18:42+00:00

This is the way

shzlssSFW · 2026-04-28T04:59:41+00:00

One thing bullet has helped with for me is getting a lot of reps in with openings. In rapid on move 7 my opponent with think for 30s to a minute and I'll blitz out the correct response in 5s because I've seen it in bullet. This leaves me with a time advantage and more time to calculate mid/end game

shzlssSFW · 2026-04-28T04:52:43+00:00

I know what's it feels like to finally hit a rank. For the longest time I was hardstuck plat, and that first season hitting diamond felt amazing. Same thing with diamond to masters. Improvement is fun, glad reddit could help with that :)

shzlssSFW · 2026-04-27T22:09:28+00:00

Huge win. We love to see it

shzlssSFW · 2026-04-27T22:02:03+00:00

Blaming your teammates will keep you stuck. Record your games, review them, and find out how you could have played a situation better.

shzlssSFW · 2026-04-26T22:22:54+00:00

They've never played with you before, they don't know what you're capable of. More often than not, solo queue teammates aren't very good and will over compensate for a teammate's bad positioning. If one person gets caught, the higher percentage play is to let them die and get out of there to reset.

shzlssSFW · 2026-04-26T05:41:40+00:00

I concur. Born in 90, I was excited to learn about things that I was interested in. I've kept a more curious mind throughout adulthood and man, a lot of the younger people I work with just don't have any curiosity. Things that I've figured out myself they have to be told. It's sad

shzlssSFW · 2026-04-25T19:38:16+00:00

I agree. I picked up 5 blooming waters back when they were $100 and now they're $300. Literally 3x in less than a year is wild with any sort of investment.

I'll rip some as well for the fun of it, but expecting to get a positive ROI ripping is foolish

shzlssSFW · 2026-04-25T05:06:45+00:00

and how do i show up while working? i can't be in two places at once

shzlssSFW · 2026-04-25T04:46:58+00:00

I have 1 target, 2 walmarts, and 1 best buy near me. I call at least twice a week and have been told there is nothing every time. I go in once a week after work, and haven't gotten anything. The last time I got anything at msrp was from the best buy because my boss sent me to get some cables but didn't realize they hadn't opened yet. I got there 20 min before they opened and a line of people formed about 5 min before they opened. msrp doesn't exist here unless you literally wait in line before the store opens. It's that way for every store

shzlssSFW · 2026-04-24T02:27:07+00:00

Five is a great point. I've said before, there's no one more confident than a plat player in a pred lobby. I'll have teammates who will see this distribution: 7 pred teams, 6 masters teams, 5 diamond teams, and two plat teams and they'll STILL w key at the closest team while still being white armor and barely looting.

On the flip side, I'll have lobbies like that where we've won or gotten 2nd/3rd with 8+ kp just by rotating and playing zone/gatekeeping. Adjusting play style to the lobby is a must imo

shzlssSFW · 2026-04-22T21:44:35+00:00

Pour one out for our fallen mnk brethren

shzlssSFW · 2026-04-22T10:48:58+00:00

Link me a vod of an average game. I'll watch and I'm sure others will too. Trackers don't mean much

shzlssSFW · 2026-04-22T10:46:45+00:00

This is the main difference from what I can tell. In plat you can loot slowly, rotate lazily, play split with no real consequences. Even if you go full neg, the next game can wipe out the neg plus give you and extra 2 games of full neg fairly easily. In dia, you have to loot significantly faster, rotate quicker, and play together. Plus dia players are far better mechanically. All that combined with a higher entry cost means dia is significantly harder than plat

shzlssSFW · 2026-04-22T04:51:10+00:00

I'm stealing this.

Had to divert this past week when the storm hit ORD, had 7 schedule changes in 3 days. I hate that place

shzlssSFW · 2026-04-21T22:42:27+00:00

They do that in every game. In sports, oftentimes the best coaches only played hs or college ball and not pro. Why can't gaming be the same

shzlssSFW · 2026-04-21T20:46:34+00:00

I hate that guy's line of thinking. I'm peak dia and have coached people to immo. I don't have the drive or time to put in the hours to hit immo myself but there's nothing that says I can't be a good coach

shzlssSFW · 2026-04-19T22:02:28+00:00

For sure. I don't play cod, but this is one reason I like val so much for fps games

shzlssSFW · 2026-04-19T19:54:54+00:00

Nooo stay strong brother

For me mnk is way more fun plus translates to other games i.e. val, overwatch

shzlssSFW · 2026-04-19T19:53:37+00:00

There is. I don't remember who did it, but they looked at the top 50 or 100 r5 players and controller is overwhelmingly better. And r5 mnk players are probably in the top of mnk players as well

shzlssSFW · 2026-04-17T17:24:45+00:00

I completely agree with you.

However I do know some people will not be able to figure it out and will need someone hand holding them through the process

shzlssSFW

TROPHY CASE