I just hit Immortal tonight after a really long climb with my duo all the way from Silver 1 to Immortal. It was really fun and I'm really proud of myself as I've never climbed from the bottom to the top in any game, just placed high. Here's what you can learn from my experience. I'm sure there's a ton of things I forgot and I can try to add them when I remember it.

All ranks:
- The ranking system exists for a reason, you're not supposed to win every single game. If you're in the rank you're supposed to be in, you'll win half your games, and lose half. Unless YOU'RE making the difference between victory and defeat, don't expect to win every single match.
- Rule of thirds: When you're climbing, use the Rule of Thirds - You will win 1/3 of your games easily, you will lose 1/3 of your games harshly, and the other third is where you make the difference. This applies in higher ranks the most.
- You just ego push the last guy in 1v# situations
- Play the bomb. I have seen radiant players not play the bomb. It's not hard, just don't peek unless they're on site/around the bomb. Really easy.
- Understand that 90% of the time, you suck, and there is more you can do. If you can't do this, you can't improve.

Iron-Silver:
- 99% of the people in this rank are just terrible mechanically. Work on crosshair placement/movement and you can get to gold with a basic understanding of the game. In these ranks I literally just pick Jett and hold W until I kill 3-4 people and the round ends.
- A lot of people like to "burst" every single fight they get into because they aren't comfortable spraying. Bursting is for extremely long ranges (Like Breeze), headglitches/pixel angles, and going for headshots. I see too many low elo players bursting the body at mid-range.
- Absolutely nobody flicks. With Valorant being a game with an extremely low time-to-kill, you can't take time to line up your shots. You have to shoot as soon as possible and just "go for it" when you're in a gunfight.
- A lot of people commit to sprays when peeking into four people instead of backing off
- People are afraid to die, causing them to never push in and improve and they also end up baiting. In retake situations this is especially terrible because you waste time. Defusing the bomb takes 7 seconds and you need to kill everyone alive and defuse in the short 45-second time span allotted when the bomb is planet.
- In these ranks, if you're not dropping 30+ kills, there's more you can do to win.

Gold:
- This is generally where people start to improve mechanics and movement, unfortunately people think kills mean everything and this is where it becomes significantly more difficult to just outaim and run through a team. You need to focus on taking good fights. Start evaluating the risks you take. If you have less than a 60% chance of succeeding when you peek an angle, don't peek it.
- Your awareness is terrible and you're not rotating at the right times. Look at your map every 5-10 seconds, and keep in mind that just because they're "Hitting A" doesn't mean there can't be stragglers in other parts of the map.
- You're not "lurking", you're playing bad so you decide to go to the other site and don't find any kills and don't do anything while your team is dying.
- Additionally, lurking is generally around the middle of the map, flanking the other team in the MIDDLE of retaking, and catching off people that are rotating. (It's extremely easy in gold, but gets much harder the higher rank you go.)
- You're not entrying and you're waiting for your teammates to die for no reason
- You're using the vandal
- You're investing your ult in terrible rounds. If you have a really low chance of winning a round, don't use it. (There are exceptions, duh. Reyna and Jett for example have ults that can completely turn a low-chance round around.)
- "Default" does not mean you just sit back and wait for the other team to push. You go up slow and make mid-round decisions with your team based on the information you get.
- You don't watch angles that your teammates can't hold
- Stop relying on Killjoy and Cypher to give you map awareness. Just know people can be anywhere.
- You should be able to get 20-30 kills consistently, (Because some golds are way better than others) or there is more you can do.

Plat:
- You are getting rolled by an awp (cs is the og) because you don't know how to play around it. Smoking an awp out generally makes it useless, basically anything in Sova and Skye's kit make one useless too.
- You're using the vandal
- Learn when to play retake, if the enemy is just spamming util on site and then playing post plant on site, staying alive and hopefully getting a cheap kill or some damage off and then waiting for your team is pretty effective.
- When pushing a site, you brainlessly walk in and then keep aggressing after you should be sitting on site
- If you do your job, and hopefully get a few plays during the game with good utility, you don't need to constantly try to carry. People in plat will know how to punish your stupid aggression and kill-hungry plays.
- A smoke is not a wall
- You need to play angles where you can't be easily traded, getting on kill and dying especially on defense doesn't always work.
- You don't comm. They win games.
- Stop backseat gaming, if someone is in a clutch situation, only call if you think they maybe didn't notice something, like a footstep, the time, their ammo, etc.
- Kill trading is extremely important, you should generally try to swing as soon as your teammate gets contact
- Good utility usage and timing, watch pro matches
- "Default" does not mean you just sit back and wait for the other team to push. You go up slow and make mid-round decisions with your team based on the information you get.
- Micro decision making is generally terrible, watch your own VODs.
- Ult timing, I still see people popping Killjoy ults when we have classics here.
- 20-25 kills or you can do more

Diamond:
- Positioning is really bad. If you're not able to easy escape and can be cleared easily by enemy utility, pick a different spot.
- A smoke is not a wall
- You don't comm. They win games.
- Kill trading is extremely important, you should generally try to swing as soon as your teammate gets contact
- You are getting rolled by an awp (cs is the og) because you don't know how to play around it. Smoking an awp out generally makes it useless, basically anything in Sova and Skye's kit make one useless too
- Utility usage is generally poorly timed and poorly placed, I see a lot of Killjoy players not utilizing swarms on attack, Sage not using slows on attack, etc.
- Getting one kill on defense and getting traded is bad. Most of the time, you're leaving your other site teammate in a 1v4 and the rest of the team has to retake. Sometimes nobody's holding site with you and your teammate has to retake 4v4.
- You try the same things over and over again, and don't pay attention to the other team's quirks/playstyle. This is what "studying" in pro matches is,m (to an extreme level) they adjust their strategy based on how the other team plays. There is always a better way to approach your hold/attack.

Immortal/Radiant:
- Keep playing, it'll come by experience from here and up.