I've seen discussion in this and other subreddits about "defaulting" and have yet to see someone give a correct definition of the term. Defaulting is not "playing defense on attack", "playing for picks", "holding spawn", or "spreading the map".

Anyone who has watched or played Valorant long enough has heard the phrase “default” at some point. You might have just come off a hard round loss, and one of your teammates called out “yo, lets default this round”. But what does that mean? If your only insight into the term was the behavior of your ranked teammates you’d likely assume “default” means sit in spawn and do nothing, hoping the other team makes a mistake and pushes into you. Many people seem to believe that defaulting is “playing for picks”, or “spreading the map”, both of which can be consequences of a default, but aren’t synonymous with the concept.

A “default” refers to the process of methodically taking map control (generally of one specific area) to allow easier and more diverse mid-round decisions, while holding flanks. The goal of a default is to generate options for your team in the mid to late round (through information or picks), and to limit and increase the cost of the options for the other team. Taking mid control, for example, increases the cost of enemy rotations through mid. This cost can be lives, time spent re-clearing, or utility used to clear. Let’s use this 1/3/1 default on Ascent as an example (the red line is the map control the attackers have gained).

In this example, the attackers took mid control with three players, while Reyna and Killjoy held their respective flanks. From this position the attackers are capable of **splitting/hitting either site (**or pushing spawn), the defenders have no information as to where the hit is coming, and any info play is likely to be punished due to the attackers’ superior positioning. Although the attackers have not taken control of either A or B main, they still control the majority of the map, and crucially, the rotations. The attacking team has the option to safely rotate through mid at any point, whereas the defenders must rotate through spawn in order to do so safely. Depending on what information the attackers have at this point, they can choose any number of options for mid and late round. If rotations were heard coming off of A, they might choose to do something like this.

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Killjoy will have to clear A main and wine, Sage can wall off garden and clear tree, and then she, Omen, and Reyna can clear site, leaving Jett to pick off rotations or hit the flank. If their information indicated that B site was weaker, they might do something like this.

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Jett and Omen push through market to B, Reyna pinches B main, Sage rotates to pick up pizza, and Killjoy holds catwalk and reinforces market should Sage die.

If they have time to work with and little info, they might decide to hold where they are and wait for the other team to attempt to re-clear mid before determining their end round strategy.

They could also choose to leave Jett in her forward position and give up mid entirely, re-grouping at either A or B main in the late round. The diverse array of options available to them, the control over enemy rotations (the enemies must rotate through spawn in order to do so safely), and the informational advantage they have is the result of a successful default.

Defaulting allows you to gather information to help with mid-round decision making even if it doesn’t net you any kills, and that information can apply to future rounds as well. Knowledge of how the other team responds to pressure applied somewhere on the map can enable traps, fakes, etc. Information gathered in this manner can help you take advantage of under-stacked or over-stacked sites, quick rotations, and lazy re-clears. Not only do defaults help you win rounds, they force the other team to be respectful of your default, allowing you to fake it on later rounds and make site hits easier (the other team has to allocate resources as if you’re defaulting).

To summarize, defaulting is just a fancy word for taking map control. Map control allows for easier mid-rounding, often provides an informational advantage, and conditions the other team to a style of play that you can choose not to adhere to.

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