I have been high immortal since ranked came out and I am displeased with the standard of skill in Valorant. My first FPS was CSGO and I observed the same trend back then and witnessed the game transform into what it is today. CSGO had a dedicated playerbase that was far from casual and the skill level of the average player had improved exponentially by the time the game was 2 years old. There is a trickle-down effect where the fundamentals of the highest ranks slowly trickle down through the ranks until you have silvers that understand these concepts which are then considered ``the basics``. However, in this game I notice players can be in the top 5% of ranked, high ascendant, and still lack fundamentals that could be observed in the silver equivalent of CSGO when the game was just as old as Valorant is now. I have reviewed over 250 VODS for players and I am going to explain how you get good at Valorant by changing the way you train and think.

If you ever reach immortal, you will realize Valorant is an entirely different game at this rank. Let’s say a players teamplay ability was represented as a percentage. Radiant is 100%. Immortal 3 would only be 90%. Immortal 1 would be 70%. What do you think Platinum 3 is? I would say 20%. In gold and below the players have maybe 5% of the teamplay ability required to play at a Radiant level. Think about the huge difference between iron and gold in terms of decision making. Now think about the fact that the average gold probably understands 5% of the fundamentals involved in Radiant level gameplay. It is almost impossible to learn these concepts by just mindlessly grinding ranked. In a few years it will be possible when the fundamentals finally trickle down the ranks. This is why I always roll my eyes when players in Iron-Gold focus on grinding ranked to improve their game sense, teamplay, decision making, etc. You don’t even need to touch ranked that often and you could reach Ascendant faster than someone grinding ranked all day long. I have coached a few people that have reached immortal within 6 months of first touching a mouse and keyboard FPS. You do this by training your mechanics until it becomes instinct. When you see a professional player react to a surprise double peek with a spray transfer, that is instinct. You don’t think, you just react, and the only way to reach this point is by practicing every little mechanic over and over again in the range. If you want to get good, your number 1 focus is learning how to win your duels. If I give player X Immortal level aim and Silver game sense and player Y Immortal level game sense and Silver Aim. I can promise you player X will be able to reach and maintain Immortal months before player Y. First you need the mechanical ability and then you need to understand how to apply that skill.

I recommend 1 hour of mechanics training every day for the fastest improvement. You could do 2 sessions of 1 hour a day if you really wanted to improve at the fastest rate without burning out. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how much time you spend as long as you do it every day consistently. In Immortal, there are players who started 2 years ago that play 5 hours every day. There are also players who only play a few games a week but they have 4,000 hours in FPS experience. As long as you are practicing everyday, you are improving. It’s a matter of how dedicated you are in improving that dictates how fast you will improve. Figure out how much time you will dedicate to mechanics training and create a time limit for each drill below.

MECHANICS TRAINING ROUTINE:

https://www.reddit.com/r/VALORANT/comments/r72w6g/comment/hmx0m5n/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

Step 1: Turn on eliminate 100 with armour on in the practice range. Stand in the area the bots spawn on the left or right facing the side of the head of the bots. Switch your position after every 100 kills. Buy a guardian and kill the bots without missing. You should be hitting 100/100 without missing. If you are missing, you are going to fast. Don’t move.

Step 2: Add elevation to Step 1. Use Jett to get on top of different boxes around the practice range. After every 100 kills, change elevation (different box, anything but flat ground). If you miss you are going to fast. Don’t move.

Step 3: Do step 1 but this time you’re going to actually flick like you would in game. You’re still using a guardian. However, after you flick to the head you don’t shoot. If you missed, you recorrect and don’t shoot. Do this until you are on the head. THIS IS ONE FLUID MOTION KEEP YOUR CROSSHAIR MOVING. Once on the head, trace the inside of the bot’s head on the very edge. Do 2 circles (one clock wise one counter clock wise) and shoot them to kill. This little circle teaches familiarized you with micro adjustments (very small aim corrections when you’re just barely off target).

The above 3 steps train your “point at head and shoot” mechanic. You need to spend a lot of time doing this slowly and it will be boring. This builds instinct. We use a guardian because if you use a vandal, you can shoot before your crosshair is on the head and still get a kill. Play some music. Basically, what you’re doing is breaking down the process of a flick and making it very slow and accurate before increasing speed without sacrificing accuracy. This will elevate your aim. Most people just practice fast flicks and miss 1/3 shots because they’re copying tenz’s speed. You’re not really improving, just building bad habits. The most important part is you aren’t missing. Like at all. Increase speed but don’t miss. You aren’t actually flicking fast, just increasing speed but never missing. Also, try to lift your mouse as little as possible. That means only lift your mouse when you run out of mouse pad. That means you aren’t resetting to neutral mouse position in between kills. Your neutral mouse position = where your mouse is when you start a round or the default position on your mouse pad. This results in your mouse being in awkward positions all over your mouse pad while aiming. This teaches you how to hit those long flicks across your screen. This also teaches you how to flick while clearing awkward angles or being caught with your mouse away from default position. This will feel incredibly awkward. But good aim form will feel awkward for anyone with bad habits. It’s worth it, those long across your entire screen flicks Radiant’s hit are fun but take a long time to learn.

Important: draw a straight line from one enemy’s head to the other. Not a curved line, a straight line. Outside of this linear movement there should be no mouse movement. That means draw a linear line from every bot’s head to the next bots head an onwards. Don’t wave your crosshair around in between kills.

Step 4: Many of you think you have good movement but you actually don’t have full control of it. For example, when you slice the pie while peeking something, you are probably unable to slice the pie at the precise angle you want to which results in you over peeking unintentionally. Turn on eliminate 100 armour and stand in the middle of where the bots spawn. Use a guardian so you can’t spray (movement speed is the same as vandal/phantom) You are only allowed to press A and D. No W and S. You can never stop moving. DO not flick the bots but use movement to move your crosshair into the bot. Keep your crosshair at head level at all times floating in the air not aiming at anything. Counter strafe the crosshair into the bot’s head and shoot while changing directions (don’t stop). This teaches you how to counter strafe (useless in this game), strafe shoot (very important), and how to peek. You should always be peeking with A and D. Not W, S, or AW/DW. 1000 kills. Remember to never stop moving, counter strafe and immediately move again regardless of hitting or missing your shot and then try again. Because you are standing in the middle and never stopping your movement you will need to 180 degrees while moving to kill the bots that spawn behind you. This builds your ability to 180, or 135, or 90, etc. Peeking with A and D is superior because you fly across your opponent’s screen where as with AW or DW you aren’t as fast. This trains that mechanic and makes you familiar with ONLY moving with A and D. Overtime, you will naturally transition to A and D movement/peeking in your ranked games because you practice this mechanic daily.

You can also turn on practice and stand where the bots spawn. Start on the left or right and counter strafe your way through the whole line up while shooting when your crosshair is on the head. For example, start on the right and hold A until your crosshair is about to reach a target, let go of A and tap D (counter strafe) and shoot the target before holding A again and shooting the next bot to the left of the bot you just killed. This builds your ability to peek into angles and shoot them with no flick. An easy kill. If you master this, there is literally no way you aren’t platinum 1.

Step5: now buy a vandal or phantom and aim train while moving. Simply put it all together. No spraying. Just tapping/bursting. You can flick fast and normal now (finally).

Turn on practice and flick to one bot, shoot them in the head but hold down for a spray and transfer to another bots head. The spray should be short and you only start spraying once your crosshair is on the first bots head you flicked too. Mentally tell yourself which bots you will go for. Pick two right next to each other. Farther ones should only be done once you’re really good at spray transferring two bots that are right next to each other. Keep in mind the first 3 bullets or so are practically dead straight on a vandal so when you transfer you’re barely below the second bots head, not at stomach level (used for longer distance between bots spray transfers).

Learn how to burst as fast as possible without the bullets not going where your crosshair is. Do this by bursting a wall as fast as possible. 2/3 bullets and repeat. All your bullets should be going in the same place, if they aren’t and you have spread, you are bursting too fast.

Turn on movement in bots and track them for a while before shooting. Don’t move.

Move across a stationary bot (A and D only). Crosshair glued to the centre of their head. This teaches you how to move and track. For example, you want to walk across an angle where the enemy will peek, you want your crosshair to be on the edge of the angle as you walk by it. This trains that mechanic.

Step 6: DM OR CUSTOMS MATCH. Clear every angle (counter strafe) by slicing the pie as if you are taking a site in game. For example if you spawn in by teleport outside showers on bind, go take A site as if you are in a game. Clear every angle perfectly at head level as if someone is holding it. If you happen to see someone try and kill them. Made it through A site without dying? Great, rotate to B as if you are a defender rotating sites while clearing every angle and onwards around the map. Keep your crosshair at head level while transitioning between every angle. You will go 20-40 every game. You are practicing clearing angles and slicing the pie (YouTube it). Do not just hold W and try to win the DM like every low to mid rank. Peek with A and D not WA or WD or W. This is boring, annoying, and seems like a waste of time but this level of discipline is required at immortal and radiant. Peeking incorrectly = dead unless you get lucky. How are you supposed to peek and move properly in ranked if you just hold w while peeking incorrectly in DM during your warm up? Stop doing that.

Then DM and train aim/peeking without clearing angles. Peek with A and D and not W at your opponents. Peek like it’s a ranked game. Slice pie still.

Step 7: hop in ranked, keep crouch unbinded until diamond. I understand this is controversial but even s0m (csgo pro/radiant in valorant) has crouch completely unbinded. He literally queues radiant ranked with it off. In my opinion it’s almost useless in this game until diamond but many would consider that a hot take. Tap and burst with minimum spraying. Use a phantom the same way you use a vandal.

Eventually you will reach Immortal 1 + where you can finally start to learn how to actually play Valorant. This is the rank that will shape your team work, communication, game sense and all-around decision making. I would like to give you insight into the mentality required to reach immortal. It is startling how many of you are obsessed with ranking up. A lot of you don’t realize this mentality will hold you back. Deranking or ranking up is the last thing on my mind when I am playing competitive. The purpose of a ranking system is to give you evenly placed matches. You are not supposed to speed run through the ranks. Nothing will change once you hit Radiant. You are still playing the same game. You are just better, and playing with and against players of somewhat equal skill. If you aren’t having fun in platinum, you will not have fun in Immortal. In order to improve, you have to find a balance between "I will always give my best" and "I don't care about the results".

You need to focus on playing to improve. Every single round is a learning opportunity. You win games round by round. Play each round like it’s a new game. Think about what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong. Realize that you are not good enough to expect good results in every match. I see a lot of players complain about being inconsistent. You will never be a consistent player in competitive solo queue. There are too many variables, such as random teammates, mic’s/comms, etc. You should try to get good results despite this, because trying to produce good results will make you improve. Stop focusing on things you can’t control, and start focusing on how you are playing and what you can do better.

It's difficult to motivate yourself to try your best in a match where you think you are going to lose. That's because you know that there is no short-term reward for your effort, ranking up, but there will always be a long-term reward, improvement, and that's what you should be focusing on. If you want to improve you need to apply critical thinking in game. You need to be asking yourself questions when you are dead and before rounds start. What did I do wrong? What did I do right? What could I have done better? What did the enemy do? Did I make the best possible play given the information I had? Ask yourself these questions even if you are winning. Just because you win rounds, does not mean you are making the best plays.

Let’s talk about Valorant fundamentals that are expected of you at Immortal 3. This dumbed down list is definitely not even close to exhaustive but its good enough to get you started. I would describe these fundamentals as "the bare minimum". Print these points off and review them daily before every Valorant session. You will forget all of this. You will not implement this into your gameplay. I can guarantee that. You quite literally have to change the way you think while playing Valorant. This list is simple and straight forward but you still won’t implement this into your game unless you review this list daily. Adopt a team player mindset.

FUNDEMENTALS: "THE BARE MINIMUM"

1. Use your scoreboard. You should always know who has ults on your team and the enemies team going into each round. You should always know who is 1 kill away from an ult. You should always know if your teammate has an OP or if the enemy can afford one. You should always buy with your team accordingly. A teammate should never start the round without a buy. If the team buy is all over the place the onus is on you to say something and coordinate a force or eco round. This could be the difference between winning a round and swaying the game in your favour VS. tanking your economy and losing. You should always know if your enemies can afford armour and a full buy. You should not be getting caught off guard, ever. This is the bare minimum guys.
2. Stop doing nothing. All the way though diamond and into ascendant I will VOD review and see a player quite literally doing nothing for their team for 50% of the round. “What am I doing for my team right now?” should be running through your head at all times while attacking. And if you don’t have an answer then DO SOMETHING. ANYTHING. You should either be holding something, taking map control, peeking something, rotating or supporting your teammate by being in a position to trade them. What I see in VOD review is players will start an attacking round without putting much thought into anything. They don't look at their radar on attack to see whos doing what and what they should be doing at the start of the round. That's why you have teammates doing one thing while you are 10 steps behind them doing nothing and providing no value to your team. Pretty much everyone does this up until high elo.
3. Spacing and Trading. Set yourself up to be traded and to trade. You are now a team player. No more peeking an angle alone when you have a teammate 5 steps behind you. Simply tell them you are going to peek and they need to be in position to trade you or you will not engage. In position means in position to peek as soon as you die or fight. Just because a teammate is close to you, does not mean they can trade you. They shouldn’t have to run up to your angle to trade. In higher elo we call this spacing. Basically, this term refers to a players ability to appropriately position and distance themselves from their teammates. This is not a skill you master just because you are immortal. There are professional players with superior spacing to others. Learn how close your teammates need to be and how angles work. For example, if one player holds tight the other can hold wide. Your radar literally tells you what your teammate can see (vision cone). It's in the game for a reason and you most likely never pay attention to it. While climbing everyone will solo peek everything. It is your job to watch the radar and look for that teammate who is going to peek alone. You get in position to trade that team member. You should constantly look for opportunities to double up and fight with a teammate. Players will not do this for you but that doesn’t mean you can’t do it for them. If you are attacking A on bind and 4 of you are short while one is showers. You better run your ass to showers without thinking twice to assist that teammate who is taking map control ALONE. It is astonishing to me how no one does this until immortal. You could be winning games against far better players by simply having a cohesive team. You could literally shut down solo queue smurfs if you guys played like this. Image you are playing valorant but you aren't allowed to take any 1v1s. You have to turn every 1v1 into a 2v1 in your favour by playing with your team. This is just how the game is played at immortal. And no one does this before this rank. Crazy huh?
4. Do not ever retake site alone or one by one (unless you have a timing). When retaking a site, you need to do two things. First you get in position, close to one of the many entrances to the site. Hold the push at that position. Then, you wait for the rest of your teammates to get into position around the various entrances to the site. Tell your teammates to wait for everyone to be in position and when to go. While they are getting into position you should be calling what abilities you have and what you will use during the retake. If your team is not synchronized while retaking a site, that is a problem.
5. Call for your teammates to use abilities. In Immortal, your abilities belong to the entire team and their abilities belong to you. Players will call for whatever abilities they want executed. Start doing this now. Hold ALT throughout the round to see what abilities your teammates have and call for them to use it in order for them to set you up for frags. I don’t care if your teammates in gold do not listen to you. Get into the habit of requesting. Do not spam request as you will just tilt people. Remember, in low to mid elo players will not use abilities all game but as soon as you request, they are happy to do so. Think of it as a reminder.
6. In CSGO, you see silver players voice comming like immortals do in Valorant… start communicating every game. I don’t care if you are the only one talking. If you don't comm in this game and you are upset you aren't at the rank you want to be, then I could care less. You are literally throwing. You don't realize the importance of comming but it can turn losses into wins. You probably win games daily that would've been lost if your teammate didn't make that vital call in round 10-11 to tie the game.
7. A kill as an attacker is more impactful than a kill as a defender. When an attacker gets a kill, the defenders lose map control while defending the bomb sites. 1 defender plays mid, the other 4 are spread out between 2 sites. That means 5 attackers can potentially attack a single site with 2 defenders. If any one defender dies, you force a rotate. Either mid opens up, or one of the two sites has only one defender. This means a defender should be playing his life in most scenarios. If you push as a defender and get a frag, seriously consider turning around and playing the numbers.
8. You don’t always need to repeek the same angle you just peeked. I understand for players under immortal this is ingrained into your playstyle. You peek, fight an enemy, miss, hide, and then repeek without even thinking because you are so frag hungry. You can always not repeek and take a different position or wait 10 seconds before peeking again. You should start pausing before every repeek and forcing yourself to think it through. “If I die here, am I screwing over my team?”. People in my unrated games consider this playstyle “patient” but in reality, this is just how immortals play the game.
9. Pathing refers to a players ability to chose the most optimal route or path when moving around the map. There are 1000 ways to enter a site. To learn the path in which you should follow while entering site I recommend watching a professional VOD and copying the route the player uses to enter the site. Follow the route a few times in customs and memorize it. When entering a site you are supposed to expose yourself to the least amount of angles at any given time.
10. Synchronize your aim and movement. If you peek and counter strafe and shoot with no crosshair correction once you stop moving (because your crosshair moved into his head while running) you will kill them while “running”. Essentially, you are synchronizing your movement and aim. You don’t stop moving until your crosshair is on the enemy head, thus timing your movement and aim perfectly. In immortal games you constantly die like this when holding standard angles and I always find it funny because if I queue unrated people will cry about me “running and shooting”. I don’t run and shoot. It’s a perfect peek with a shot the exact moment I stop moving. What lower ranks do is they peek, counter strafe (stop moving), THEN flick to head. At this point you are 100% stopped on the enemies screen. Higher rank players aim while moving and stop once they are ready to click mouse 1. All aim correction should be done while moving because you are harder to hit. Always move with A and D not WA or WD. Credits to my boyfriend for writing this bit (its on reddit in his comment).
11. If you are holding an off angle, hold it. If you are holding a standard angle or just barely off a standard angle repeek it over and over.

I hope this gives you insight into what I think about during a Valorant match in high Immortal. This is just an introduction. I want you to understand that we think about so much more than you guys. And this is the bare minimum. I follow the economy of both teams throughout the game. I always have an idea of what the enemy team is buying and how they will play out the round based on that buy. I always know when someone can ult. I am always watching to see where I can assist my teammates. I am constantly looking for opportunities to create plays with my teammates. I always know what abilities my teammates have. I comm literally everything so my teammates always know whats going on no matter how obvious it is. If I find myself not providing value to the team and doing nothing I immediately find something to do. I always space my player correctly in reference to my teammates. I always watch the angles my teammates are holding and base my positioning off of them.

You should expect from yourself that you will try your best no matter what. You should not expect from yourself, that you will frag out or win every game.

Focus on the long term, improving, to maintain your motivation during bad times. Don't focus on your short-term rewards, ranking up/deranking, because this will lead into tilt, if things go badly. With this mentality, you will improve and rank up with time.