https://imgur.com/gallery/3DCUM6R
https://imgur.com/gallery/LIcfHe2
https://imgur.com/gallery/jfeQBIK

Thought i'd share my experience and some tips for future readers and fellow solo queue players.

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I started in Platinum 2, was Diamond 2 in the previous act.

I reached Immortal before on my alt but on that account i queue together with friends.

My main is exclusively for solo queue since a few acts ago and it's the first time i reached immortal on it.

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I played mainly Sova on most maps, Raze on Split and Bind and Omen/Brim/Viper if i had to fill in a smoker.

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This was in EU servers btw, Episode 3 Act 1 on September 9th 2021.

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Here are some tips i can give:

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1. WARM UP: Before going into competitive, go into the Practice Range and practice tapping, bursting, flicking and spraying with the Vandal, Phantom and Sherriff to get the muscle memory going. Also practice your movement here, i struggled a lot with counter strafing at the beginning and now i finally got the hang of it. After practicing, what i then do is set the practice range mini game on hardest difficulty and try to kill at least 15 bots with the vandal.

I recommend setting it on the hardest difficulty because it will make your in-game opponents look comparatively slower.

After that do a Deathmatch or 2. You don't have to focus on winning the match, your only objective is to get a feel of getting kills so you get used to it and don't panic when in a comp game.

Don't shift-walk and just go full running to practice peeking, remember your main objective is to warm up and not to win.

After the Deathmatch, if you still don't feel like your aim was good enough then do another one.

I didn't used to do this in the past and would just go in dry. Because of this my aim would be completely off or i would randomly freeze when i see an enemy.

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2. SERVERS: This isn't applicable to everyone but, on the ''Play menu'' on the Top right side of your Player Card there are some green/yellow buttons. If you hover over it, you can choose what servers to queue for.

By default, it's set on ALL servers. If you can then you should pick out servers where you have less then 35 ping on. The reason for this is because anything above 50+ ping especially is really bad, you will not be able to hold angles as easily and when an enemy peeks you and headshots you it will look like that enemy did it instantly but in reality he took a lot longer to kill you. This is peeker's advantage.

It works the other way around as well but it's a lot less effective. On top of that your shots will also register slower or not at all. I played a game before on 60 ping where i headshotted someone point blank with a phantom and saw the hit animation on their head for 1 frame (i recorded and rewatched it) but it didn't register. Gun fights will generally become a lot more difficult on higher ping.

From personal experience, as i live in north west europe i choose London, Frankfurt 2 and Paris 2.

Remember this is just from personal experience but i recommend you avoid Frankfurt 1 if you can.

There seems to be a lot of toxic players in that server, London has been the chillest so far.

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3. EQUIPMENT: i use a 24 inch 144Hz 1ms response time monitor (the AOC G2460PF) and the Logitech G502 Proteus Spectrum.

A good monitor and a good mouse won't automatically make you a better player, but they do certainly enhance your current skills. A monitor with a higher refresh rate will definetely help as the valorant servers run on 128 tick rate (kinda like 128 frames per second), it means that if you have anything lower then 128 Hz that you're kinda missing some frames. It will also make your game look smoother.

I use a GTX 1660 TI and a Ryzen 5 2600 as GPU and CPU, and on medium settings this gives me an average of ~150 FPS.

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4. TEAMMATES: If you're going to solo queue, then you obviously can't choose who is in your team and you can't know how good or bad they are at the game. You also get like -3 RR points for dodging so i discourage that too. Most of the times your teammates will be close to your level.

There will be games where you will have to carry, there will be games where you get carried and there will be games where you just need to do your part and you win the game.

Always remember to stay friendly to your teammates, if they mess up say ''nice try'' in voice chat.

Anything else like ''you could've done this or that'' or ''why didn't you help me'' won't help your teammates play better. Even someone having a very bad game can come out and clutch rounds for you after continued positivity. Tilting your teammates is one of (if not the easiest) way to lose a game.

It happened way to many times that someone gets insulted and they start playing worse, i've even seen some players outright trolling because of a disagreement.

Any game is winnable, no matter how many rounds the enemy team leads with.

It happened so many times as well, that my teammates start arguing and fighting among themselves, start a Surrender queue or just start game throwing. Only for us to suddenly win several rounds in a row and then lose out in the end, meaning that we could've easily won had we not given up.

Buy guns for your teammates if you have the credits, request guns of your teammates if you're low on credits. Work together and trade/help each other win duels. You might be a solo player but it's still a team game where you have limited utility.

Also, if your teammate is the last one alive. For crying out loud, don't start backseating and telling him/her what to do. It doesn't happen as often in Diamond+ elo but i remember when i was playing wtih my friends in Plat the randoms would always tell me what to do. ''stick the defuse'', ''he's probably there'', ''use ult'' are all useless things that you should never have the need to say.

The only thing i want to hear in a clutch scenario is relevant info such as:

- Where was/were/are the last enemies?

- How much damage did you do and to which agent?

- Do they have any flashes, mollies or other utility left?

- What weapon did they have?

- When retaking: is the Spike half defused?

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Anything other then the above mentioned questions will only disrupt my thought process and focus.

I especially hated it when players would give wrong information on locations.

One more thing about this, don't scream/complain/tilt with your mic on please.

I get frustrated when i mess up too but i first give info, let go of the push-to-talk button then start arguing to myself about what i did wrong and how i could've played that better.

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5. PLAY TIME: I really recommend you don't play when your tired, sleepy, drunk, high, annoyed or low on time. Play when you're in good shape and have warmed-up as mentioned in point 1.

For this act i had a 64.2% Win Rate if what's written on Tracker.gg is true with 43 Wins and 24 Losses.

They aren't a lot of games compared to most ranked players but this is due to me playing on my alt a lot and also due to the fact that on my main, i only played when i was in good shape.

And when i played, i only played 2-3 games. If i played a game and lost but still feel like i played well, then i would play another game. If i lost that game (making it 2 losses in a row) i would stop for the day. You should know when it's time to stop, as getting on a losing streak will only make your play worse and worse. I would sometimes even stop if i won but played badly.

Remember the around 90% of the time, whether you win or not is dependant on yourself so give it your best shot.

This is a highly competitive game where the outcome of duels can be decided in mere milliseconds!

Not only that but if you have good game-sense and play a Sentinel, Initiator or Controller you have to constantly think where the enemies could be and what should or shouldn't be done. Duelists tend to have it easier as their main focus is to get kills but even then, the game puts a strain on your mental energy.

Take breaks if you can and drink a lot of water.

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Finally, try to always give it your best shot even in the most unwinnable games.

Even if you're guaranteed to lose, you will lose less points if you win more rounds or if you performed well.

If you've read up until this part then i thank you for it.

Now, this post can stay here as a record that i completed my personal challenge of reaching Immortal playing Solo queue only. Up next is Radiant Solo only :D

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Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.