First of all, I'm LEM in CSGO with 800 hours and was diamond in R6 with like 2.6k hours. I know it might not be a lot of experience for some, but I can understand some of the basics like counter strafing. Saying that I just want to clarify that I can clearly tell the difference between perfect counter strafe and typical run & gun. If someone wants an explanation I will provide it in a second.

I'm currently silver 2 in VALORANT playing with my friends in bronze. I actually completely do not care about the rank, but I think it's worth the mention because you can tell that movement mechanics on this ELO is pretty.. poor on average, to say the least.

Sorry for the comparisons, but this game is clearly inspired by Counter-Strike movement and aiming mechanics, yet I feel I already have been shot in the head more times, on more ridiculous distances while the enemy was running with a rifle than I was in every match in every Counter-Strike game I own combined. I even test the vandal on the wall from time to time while waiting for the round to start and I'm surprised how many times the bullet lands very close to the center of my crosshair while I'm running on like 10m distance. It's usually about 50% and it looks like either shot is completely somewhere else, or very close to (if not exactly in) the center. When you look at CSGO for example, the chance of killing someone even close (<5m) to you with an AK-47 while running is very slim, bullets just go all over the place.

I swear I die more the lower my rank because people just don't care about movement inaccuracy and it works way too often in their favor because they are a harder target for me to hit and still shoot accurately - they just get the good of both worlds by pure chance.

I do realize hitboxes in VALORANT are bigger than in any Counter-Strike game, but this can't be the only reason the run & gun is THAT efficient in this game. I wonder if tagging actually doesn't affect this issue very hard, because in this game every gun slows you to 0 when you get shot, so maybe if you are very lucky the shot will come out on the frame you got tagged, resulting in a perfect aim for a split second. That would be so ridiculous and random, but I haven't tested it myself. I'm pretty sure considering all the times I shot the wall the guns are just way too accurate while running.

How to tell the difference between run & gun and counter strafe:
There is still a delay in online gaming we probably will never overcome, which is very minor but results in a slight peeker's advantage or you dying behind the cover. This issue also causes you to feel like someone killed you while running because he was not standing still on your screen when he shot you in the head. I actually learned the hard way how to distinguish it. When you are falling dead on the ground and a guy is completely still for a few frames - he probably did a (near) perfect counter strafe. This works both for VALORANT and CSGO. If he is still running while you fall dead - he definitely killed you while running. Very often it is also apparent in VALORANT when someone is standing still, you start shooting him and he gets scared and starts running and while he is accelerating he still shots you in the head with his first shot.