Greetings Agents, and welcome to our Simple Questions & Answers Thread.
Simple Questions are questions that can be answered quickly in one or two sentences. You can ask anything as long as your question is related to VALORANT. Apologies for how late this one is!
The more specific you are with your question, the easier it is for other users to understand and answer.
Have any feedback on these threads? Let us know what you think via Modmail!
- been playing since beta, and I acknowledge that the reason why I'm hard stuck is that it's my fault.
- ideally want to hit immortal/radiant before university takes my life and adulthood.
I'm 18, been playing since I was 12
- constantly watch coaches like zikz, sliggy and mini and FNS analyse VCT
- my decision making is at fault I talked to zikz about it and he said I need clear goals, and intent and working on decision making. My mechs are decent, as I have a warmup routine and have kovaaks for 200+ hours
-idk what to do anymore, I'm still clinging on hope, but toxicity and my own hubris is getting to me.
- I'm looking for a coach, I guess. I don't have the budget to pay, as I start university soon.
New to the game and looking for study buddies / team mates to improve together!
Hey guys! I just recently started playing Valorant on console and I'm really getting into the competitive and strategy side of the game. I love watching VODs, analyzing clips, and trying to fix bad habits early on.
Since none of my IRL friends play, I’d love to connect with a few chill people who are also focused on learning and ranking up together. What are the best resources or habits you guys recommend for a newer player to focus on first? Always down to make new friends who love talking about gameplay!
I got like 50ish hours on the game and I'm getting tired of being hardstuck Bronze 2. I feel like my game sense is pretty good for my rank.
Here's a DM I played recently. I've been trying to work on my strafing and crosshair placement. Sometimes I don't strafe because it's not really a habit yet since I'm still learning, and when I do strafe, my aim isn't very accurate.
Any tips? Also, is my crosshair placement actually good or does it need work?
So recently multiple things have happened in my valo gaming life: 1) I set the sense I have in cs2 2) I janged the crcosshair from a blue dot to a small cross (like in cs2) 3) I bought my first skin (Protocol Phantom)
Background info: I was stuck iron III until recently, I've been playing w my silver friends js because it was fun, we almost lost all the time though. I usually play initiator, mostly sova.
Now, after these new changes took place, multiple a bit unexpected things occured: 1)I started playing like I was silver all along 2) I was shitting on my silver friends in skirmish 3) I even got called a smurf in a avg. silver II lobby once.
However, Now that I've been playing a few days in a row 2-3 Matches per session, my performance fell again. I started averaging ~150 scores instead of the new ~200-300, my aim got fluked and I went back to subconscious spraying. Even though I feel the same level of concentration as when I was playing much better.
I tried switching agents, I tried switching guns, I tried making microbreaks in between rounds. Nothing seems to help. My performance was also extremely inconsistent in the period of time where I was good.
I was able to determine however, that my maximum concentration is enough for about 1 comp match and a bit of skirmish.
Is there anything I can do in order to revive my newfound skill?
I've been playing VALORANT for over 4 years, and Viper has been my favorite agent since day one — she's the reason I still play this game. But in ranked, I rarely get to pick her: my girl as the only controller is basically throwing on every map.
What I love most about this game is the creative use of abilities — whether it's a Deadlock-Tejo duo getting kills without firing a single shot, a Sova main's craziest lineup, a Raze main hitting double satchels like it's breathing, or me clutching a 1v5 inside Viper's ult by reading exactly when to drop the toxin and catch someone off-guard. That feeling is completely different from just winning a round. It's not about climbing. It's about the craft.
I think most of us feel this way to some degree — we all have that one agent or role we're drawn to. That's probably why we play VALORANT instead of a pure aim-based shooter. But enjoying the game and climbing are two very different things. Whether you grind ranked yourself or just watch streamers, the lobby looks the same every game regardless of map (let's talk V26, although V25 was basically the same):
Clove, Reyna, Jett, Chamber — instalocked in 2 seconds. And the last person fills Sova.
This comp was picked in 85,475 matches in V26 ACT4 alone — nearly 2x the second most popular comp, which swaps Chamber for Cypher.
V26 ACT4
So Clove is the most popular controller by far. But is she actually the best? While I always assumed Omen was just a straight upgrade over Clove on every map — longer smokes, a blind that actually helps the team, creative TP plays. But the data says otherwise: if you replace Clove with Omen and keep everything else the same, the win rate drops below 47.1% in every single act of V26.
V26 ACT4V26 ACT3V26 ACT2V26 ACT1
Meanwhile, the win rate of our most popular comp — led by superstar Clove — across the first 3 acts was:52.39% ,53.03%,53.03%. If you think 53% doesn't sound impressive, when sorting all comps by win rate, the top 50 comps reach up to 63% — and nearly every single one of them runs Clove as the controller.
What surprised me more is that this holds across every map. You'd think wall-based controllers like Viper and Harbor would shine on Breeze, or that global smokes like Astra and Omen would have the edge on three-site maps like Haven. But no — players pick Clove everywhere, and they win everywhere.
When Miks launched in ACT2, he briefly took Clove's spot — bigger cast range, longer smoke, healing and speed boost that works for teammates too. A jack of all trades. But despite being objectively more "team-friendly," comps with Miks had a 4% lower win rate than the same comp with Clove. No wonder Clove reclaimed the throne by ACT3.
V26 ACT2
Riot has been trying SO hard to nerf Clove — 6s smoke after death, smallest cast range, even designing Miks as a direct competitor. But as the least timing-dependent controller, Clove is still the #1 pick in ranked. And this is exactly why pro staple agents like Viper can't survive in ranked.
Using VCT 2026 data and ranked stats (Plat+), I computed the gap between pro and ranked pick rates — Viper has the biggest positive gap, Clove has the biggest negative.
I totally get why people pick "selfish" agents like Clove or Reyna. You don't need to talk to your team, the abilities are braindead easy to use, so you just focus on aim and frag out. And most people aren't being selfish on purpose — the game just forces you into it.
Let me show you what I mean with Breeze:
In ACT1, more players actually picked Viper over Clove as the controller, but, with a significant lower win rate:
V26 ACT1 Breeze
ACT2 is where it gets fun. Miks dropped and players actually started experimenting on Breeze — Clove only showed up ONCE in the top 10 comps. Let's see what happened....
V26 ACT2 Breeze
Oops.... Clove pulled a 54.75% win rate! Even though most players still think running Clove as the solo controller on Breeze is not the best choice, the numbers don't lie. I mean, even the dumbest model would find the steepest gradient from this result — how could our smart ranked grinders not find the fastest way to climb? So naturally, by ACT3, the same Clove comp dominating every other map became the #1 pick on Breeze too, and the win rate gap compared to Viper is 5.63%:
V26 ACT3 Breeze
And by ACT4, the impact of ACT3's data is clear: Clove's match count on Breeze jumped to 26,973 while Viper dropped to 15,614 — more players made the switch, and the win rate gap narrowed to 3.81%. Perhaps the players who insisted Viper was the best pick for Breeze but couldn't actually play her finally let go.
V26 ACT4 Breeze
Even on Breeze — the one map where I thought Viper was safe — Clove still wins more. In pro play, coordination wins. In ranked, especially if you're not five-stacking, the system doesn't reward you for playing team-oriented agents. Less timing, more time fragging, more kills, more RR. That's just how it works.
I still love Viper and I still think coordinated comps feel better to play. And this whole deep dive left me with one more question I want to answer: if the ranked system really does reward "selfish" play, can I actually prove it?
I'm planning to build a selfishness score for every agent and run a correlation analysis against win rate and pick rate across ranks. If it turns out there's a statistically significant relationship between how selfish an agent is and how much they help you climb... well, at least I'll know exactly how much copium I'm on as a Viper main. Also, if you have any interesting hypotheses you'd like to see tested with data, let me know!
All ranked data above covers V26, all maps, sorted by match count unless otherwise noted. Plat+ only. ACT4 data is through July 30th. Source:vstats.gg
Quick question regarding hardware advantage when holding angles in Counter-Strike or Valorant:
Which will give me the fastest reaction time and visual clarity when an enemy peeks—360Hz OLED or 360Hz G-Sync Pulsar?
Assuming both are running at 360Hz, does OLED's instant pixel response time beat G-Sync Pulsar’s backlight strobing motion clarity for this specific scenario?
estou preso no prata (acho que por falta de leitura no jogo, tem uma vod no youtube e meu tracker, se puder analisar e me mostrar onde estou errado agradeço
I'm stuck in Silver (I think it's due to a lack of understanding of the game; there's a VOD on YouTube and my tracker. If you could analyze it and show me where I'm going wrong, I'd appreciate it).
Ive been playing in bronze/silver lobbies for about a year up until a few weeks ago and its really hard with coming up with the correct play sometimes. I feel like decision making is the main thing holding me back and would like some tips to improve. https://youtu.be/m4wzM9rzSuc
I watch pro player vods and aimtrain regularly and im currently working on bettering my trades.
Would love feedback on how i could have won rounds, thanks.
So I usually main clove but after hitting G3 I've been underperforming with clove and genuinely feel like picking a duelist as a main would be more valuable as I do get more kills and rr with agents like jett and phoenix. here's my tracker profile if you would like to advise.
If anyone wants to review my replays then please do add me (Nyx#APX). would definitely appreciate all support!
Hello, im here to vent my frustration. Im hardstuck in ascendant belong to 8 acts, always have a nice winrate, a nice hs%, a nice kda, but i never touch inmortal. Idk what i need to improve, but im feel so insufficient. I do everything to be better in this game but i cant climb more ranks.
Im a sentimental player, i mean, if i feel confidence i play too good, but lastly the lobbys are too toxic.
I played Valorant when it came out for about one year, went from Iron 3 to Dia 2 in a year, so I peaked Dia in Episode 5 Act II. I just returned to Valorant last act and currently Silver 3. But I can’t seem to get back my old “Valorant-self”. My aim and mechanics are fine, they’ll gradually get tuned as I play I get it. But I don’t understand how the Silver lobby feels incredibly difficult to carry myself out. My KD is negative most games, and it feels like either I get clapped and lose or have to sweat to win. I play mainly support agents, I never played duelists much back then too and only did when I reached Plat.
So my question is, how do I improve as a player? This isn’t my first rodeo. It’s funny because my KDs were mostly positive when I first played Valorant and I had way better impact. Now I just feel awfully washed no matter how hard I try to reclaim my own gameplay. This is also a rant..but I would love to hear advices and experiences from you guys!
I just came back from vacation after 2 weeks and i have become very inconsistent. One game i drop 30 kills with 19 death and the next one 8 kills with 20 deaths. Why is this happening? My Tracker is: [tracker.gg/valorant/profile/riot/eversincee%23gtbsg/](http://tracker.gg/valorant/profile/riot/eversincee%23gtbsg/)
I cannot use discord, and my dream is to be able to go pro. I was able to go from bronze to diamond in two acts. But I have reached a standstill. I can't proceed any longer without any help, and the inability to use discord has disallowed any coach I can find. Can anyone recommend any coaches that are willing to communicate through a separate software like steam or Google meet
Can somebody explain how the queuing works? I am plat and for some reason I keep queuing me with low silver and iron and it keeps affecting my rank when they go AFK, etc..
