I will preface this post by saying that I have played valorant ranked since it was released and have been a hard stuck silver 1-3 player since then until last month. After hitting plat 2 and consistently top fragging in my games solo queuing and climbing from silver 2 to plat 2 in a little over a month, I would like to share with other adult gamers on how I did this and my theory as to why it happened.

I am a 27 year old csgo-gone-valorant player and have been grinding roughly 20ish hours a week since beta. I was always an LE player in csgo in my early 20s so naturally I thought I’d be at least gold in valorant. But that wasn’t the case unfortunately.

I noticed I was playing poorly in silver with an occasional good game but this was frustrating me. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t climb in valorant. I had a good understanding of all character abilities after a couple weeks and I understood how to use my economy properly from my csgo past. However, I just couldn’t climb for the life of me.

So I started really diving deep into what had changed in myself from my early 20s in csgo to now. I know that reflexes get slower as you age but at the young age of 27 I knew this wasn’t the case. So I thought, “What has changed about me, aside from gaming?”

One thing I realized is that I’ve changed jobs several times over the years. Now this might not seem like a correlation just based on a job change, but just wait.

I went from delivering pizzas and college to being a general manager of a restaurant in that time. I also began to drink more and gain some adult friends who also liked to drink as well. I also noticed that I was drinking alcohol much more now than when I was in my early 20s. Back then, I’d maybe drink alcohol twice a month. Now, it’s been several times a week. I wouldn’t necessarily get drunk every time I drank, but I definitely got a buzz most times. I noticed a month or two ago this trend of drinking more in the last few years (without thinking about its correlation to my shooter gameplay), and decided it was time for me to take a break.

Within a week, I noticed my aim and thought process within the game had drastically improved in what seemed like an overnight miracle. I was hitting head shots across the map and winning most of my gun fights. I was using my abilities more usefully and all around gameplay had improved. At first I thought it was just a lucky day or two. And then it just didn’t stop… I then realized this improvement was a direct correlation to no longer drinking Alcohol or being hung over while playing/light headed from the day before. And then I continued to stay sober because once this correlation had been realized, I wanted to see just how high I could truly climb sober.

Now it’s been a little over a month and I am currently plat 2 and climbing. I am still top fragging in the majority of my games and see no barrier for myself to get into diamond or even higher.

Now I’m not here to be that guy who tells you “get sober you goof”, but as the title says, I truly believe for adults who are serious about improving their ranked experience and also drink regularly, to just try going sober for a month and see how much you improve as well. I strongly believe you will improve when your mind is void of alcohol and you can really get that muscle memory perfected. I just don’t think that’s possible while drinking regularly.

That’s my unconventional tip for adults, I truly hope it helps others if you decide to try my advice. Good luck!

TL;DR: I quit drinking alcohol and my rank went from silver 2 to plat 2 and climbing.