Hello folks,

Immortal 3 (currently) player here. Peaked radiant last act.

I just wanted to give some simple advice in regards to aiming, and the mentality behind it.

Now, for starters. There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to improve your aim. In fact, it's something you should want to do as a player if you're trying to improve. This can be done through many exercises. Many aim trainers exist, you've got two of the biggest, Kovaaks and Aimlab. Me personally, I've used neither. I never felt as if I needed to, I just used to grind deathmatch. Why? Well the thing is with deathmatch, you can use Valorant's actual weapons on actual Valorant maps, with Valorants movement model. There's a few benefits that are associated with this. Let's get into 'em here.

You learn more headshot angles (for example, crosshair placement on stairs, awkward angles).

You learn how the weapons handle, and how the spray patterns (somewhat) work.

You figure out which weapons are better for certain situations, depending on how you're planning to play.

You learn a lot about movement, such as jiggle peeking, strafing, counter strafing etc.

The list is endless but it goes without saying. There is no better way to learn how to play a game than actually playing it and learning it for yourself.

Let's now get into the reason why I titled this post how I did. Simply put, it is nowhere near good for your in-game mental, if every single gunfight all you're thinking about is your aim. The problem is, when you lose an engagement you will instantly subconsciously put it down to your aim. Now as we know, this isn't always the case.

Let's say for example, you're defending, peeking A cave on breeze from left side of pyramid. You are playing KayO. You've already used your knife, and called out the enemy team is pushing out of cave and taking site. You swing from the corner of left pyramid for a wider angle, and see two players. They kill you.

Now, while it can easily be written off as "I just didn't hit my shots" it's actually a lot deeper than that. There was many decisions that could've been made to keep you alive in such scenario (of course, you can't always come out on top, but it's important to maximise your chances of doing so). Now let's get into what you could do. Firstly, if you're going for the aggressive play, KayO arguably has the best flash in the game at the moment. The pop flash is insanely powerful, you barely have any time to react. You could've used the flash, and then peeked. Even if you hypothetically trade one, you might kill their viper, which as we know is a big deal on breeze due to lineups being played post plant. Now, another approach you could take, is simply holding the close angle on pyramid, they may simply not expect you to be holding such an aggressive angle, which could get you a pick or two. Another approach? Don't wide swing exposing yourself to two opponents at once. The odds are already against your favour, instead if you can, ease off until your team is ready to support.

Now what I (attempted) to explain there was how important decision making and positioning is. Winning gunfights doesn't always come down to aim and this is something a lot of people refuse to get a grasp on. Better positioning will always put you in favourable positions. Of course like said before, you can't win every engagement, every round of every match played. There will be times where you have to have the awkward fight, this is simply inevitable.

Another thing I want to slightly brush over in this post is the fact that TOO many people are trying to get on the aim level of pro's or very good high rank streamers. There is nothing wrong with this but it's important you take the facts into consideration here. A lot of these players were professionals in another raw sim shooter back in the day. A prime example is TenZ. He came to Valorant from CS, he picked up Valorant rather quickly and from there on his mechanical skill translated over. You cannot compare yourself to someone who has that many more years of experience on you. It's simply putting unrealistic expectations on yourself. While there's nothing wrong with using them as a goal, it's important to never put yourself down in comparison to them. On top of that, they have the game sense to match it. They're all extremely well rounded off players and that is something you can only learn with time and experience.

Finally, I'd like to talk more on in game mental, and how it affects how you play. If you want to play Valorant load it up and go crazy common sense right? Well, here's where it's interesting. Sometimes you'll find yourself loading up but not really "wanting" to play. You'll load up just because you're in a cycle of playing. Days like this, you may find yourself underperforming, getting tilted easily, making bad choices etc etc. When you have a day like this, it's best to get off. Either come back later or take a break until the next day. Mental is very important in a game like Valorant. The rounds are short, the breaks between rounds are short, and you're constantly having to make decisions quickly. It can be extremely mentally straining, as silly as it may seem.

Anyway thanks for coming to my TED Talk ;).

Sorry for any spelling mistakes and grammatical errors in advance. If you spot any, please let me know. I hope I've helped some of you.