I, currently Gold II played Viper when I was in Bronze and Silver.

I would put the smokes up and the team just stands around, not executing onto site. Once my smoke had ran out, my team loved to take excute onto site without any cover. Essentially, my smokes were absolutely useless in low elo since no one took advantage of them.

I climbed out of Bronze and Silver purely through aim diffing people, getting 190 ADR and 1.5KD in those ranks. Now that I have made it to Gold, my progression has not slowed but rather it has increased because people play around my smokes and thus my value as a controller has increased. I am sure, that the higher I go, the more valuable my smokes will become leading to more wins.

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My recent green carpet.

I know it is a small sample size but it does mean something. Even if I was losing all these games, I can tell that my smokes are not going to waste.

I suggest you play duelists or initiators to get to Gold at least. Then you can start playing controllers.