Edit 1: Thanks to everyone who left awards on this post! Just want to clarify as this cycles around, this post isnt meant to be a "solve" solution on how to climb. Just data I personally collected regarding different ideals that hopefully can have an impact on your climb. Goal is to improve the community as a whole. I know some things lack depth, but the starting point with this post is what is important.

I have always had a drive of helping friends improve and helping them get to the next level in terms of skill/rank. Over the course of last act I have seen an uptick in different "myths" about how climbing in solo queue is impossible, requires you to drop 40k/game, lock duelist, etc etc.From reading u/EvrMoar's responses on twitter about how ranked works, I decided to exclusively solo queue to see if any of these myths had actual proof behind them.

Background on me as a player if needed:

• Peak WAS Diamond 2, but from exclusive solo queue it is now Diamond 3
• Total Playtime 611 hours per Tracker.gg playing since beta , Profile Here: https://tracker.gg/valorant/profile/riot/Wendler%23NA1/overview
• VALORANT is my 2nd committed MnK game. Previous to VAL I had most of my playtime in Destiny 2, rare hours on Apex Legends (blended Controller before full switch). less then 100 hours in CS, if that.
• I main Initiators with Controllers/Chamber as a flex role

Data Points I tracked are as follows:

• Map Played, Agent, KD/KDA, AFK/DCs, W/L, Team MVP, Match MVP, "Mentals", Workday, Scoreline, Games Played

"Mentals" was a simplified 3 tier system that I would evaluate post match, regardless of W/L.

• "Positive" = Good Coms, Good Mentals, Good Vibes.
• "Indifferent" = Nothing really impactful to the match, forgettable
• "Negative" = Bad/No Coms, Toxicity, Bad Vibes

DATA

-Data I collected to this point-

I started the current act placing Plat 1 - 50rr. I had one double skip on Plat 2 promo to Dia 1. I essentially have climbed 5 tiers exclusively Solo Queue. There were less then 10 games you'll see on my tracker where I Duo Queued, most of those were unironically losses, lol. (S/O my duo so far CaptainGambit).

Conclusions To Date

• MYTH 1-YOU HAVE TO TOP FRAG/DROP 40K TO CLIMB: I have a 54% Win Rate, but only 27% (11/41) of those wins were as a result of Team MVP'ing, and 15% (6/41) were a result of Match MVP'ing. Climbing 5 sub-tiers IMO busts this myth that you need to top frag every single game to climb. Your individual Impact is not defined by your KDA.
• MYTH 2-EVERYONE DC's/AFKs: Only 4% of my matches contained someone who went AFK/DC'd. This is prob more props on VAL's team for working on this. AFKs/DC's are not why you cant climb.
• MYTH 3- DUELIST IS THE EASIEST/ONLY WAY TO CLIMB: I main Initiators with Controller flex and (2) games of Chamber. I Climbed 5 sub-tiers over 76 games. You can climb with any agent.

1. I'd honestly recommend finding 1-2 agents/per map that you are REALLY good at and understand. Filling an agent you dont know how to play is worse 99% of the time vs playing an agent you know.
2. Your Omen is at Plat Level, but you fill Killjoy instead which is at a Silver Level. The significance of this matters if your playing against a team where all 5 players are on agents they understand in their given rank. This doesnt mean auto-lock, but have options that are effective for you.

• POSITIVE MENTAL WINS GAMES: Notice how W/L for "Positive" is 77%/21% respectively. Compare this to "Negative" its 24%/76%, and "Indifferent" its 25%/75%. Most of these Negative games were related to people giving up/quitting/having a meltdown with a 5 round deficit. There is 100% a reason the W/L looks this way and its probably correlated.
• COMMUNICATION WINS GAMES: The games under "indifferent" were games with mostly zero communication, which is absolute hell as an initiator to try and assume what everyone's objectives are. IMP TO CLARIFY, you do NOT HAVE TO FULL IGL and middle manage every moment. Just be clear/concise with what your goals are. "ok ill flash for you here" "ok ill smoke this and this". type in text chat the damage done. You'll be surprised how many more rounds you will win because of this.

Things like Duo-Queuing can be "easier" as you can lessen Variance, but your individual impact can still matter. I dont aim train a ton, or have crazy aim. I think a lot of this climb was due to game sense. I maybe warm-up for 10 minutes in-game and do 1 DM before I queue.

• Notice I didn't track "smurfs". The reason for this is there's no way for me to realistically go back and look at who is/isnt. I think at the end of the day over-focusing on this hurts your mental more then it helps, Especially if its at a skill level you desire to be at. If its a Diamond Smurf in Plat would it really help you improve if you beat golds in plat instead? Pay attention to their actions and what is working for them and why. Its not all raw aim.
• Per u/EvrMoar , only 35% of those that make smurf accounts end up at/above their main's rank. Keep this in mind as you notice someone pop off. Sometimes they do! its important to not let it affect the rest of the current game or the next one.
• I am a firm believer "60/20/20" Theory. 20% of games you will win no matter what you do, 20% of games you will lose no matter what you do, and 60% of games YOU will have to be the decider in the outcome of the match. Again Decider/Impact is NOT defined by kills.

If you got this far, thank you for reading! If you see me in game just say hi, I mostly play East or Central. If you have any questions feel free to ask here or shoot me a DM on discord/twitter. My discord is just Wendler#4190 , Twitter is just twitter.com/wendler34 . I plan on continuing this data through end of act.

Hope this Helps! Good luck in Your Climb!

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