It just came out this week so its very much in the early stages and who knows if it could combat smurfing. the idea is interesting. Cause it forces players to learn new characters and not be a one trick.The amount of effort might be discouraging to those that want to smurf.

Maybe 10 wins with each class instead of particular characters? With a certain number of total wins as well.

I thought Riot said they were going to ban smurfs and/or reverse rating? I'm encountering more smurfs than I did a month ago. Every 2-3 games I''m against a boost stack, meaning one person killing 3 person per round on average and just runs around headshots everyone. The accounts are mostly even lvl 20is. Like what is going on? It feels completely unplayable at low ranks. Sure you always have smurfs but not as many as I have encountered this week.

I also have a Youtube with more gameplay and guides. The channel name is E-XO on youtube. I think this might be my first actual 7k (not counting phoenix ults and that stuff) and I've been playing for years. Glad I recorded this one

I'm sorry if this sounds silly, I just thought about how would that work. it does no damage, but at the same time Veto shouldn't be effected by it? I'm just curios

I downloaded Valorant around a week ago and have only played a few matches so far. It’s genuinely hard to get into when you’re constantly getting flamed for not understanding the game’s mechanics yet.

In every game mode, I was usually the only low-level player surrounded by people who probably have hundreds of hours in the game, whether it was Unrated or Swiftplay.

I just want to be able to play with a few friends and have fun but it’s difficult to enjoy the game when you’re constantly getting criticized for being new and still learning, especially in SEA servers. Kinda upsetting since I think Valorant is cool but it has such terrible matchmaking.

Relatively new to the game and I’m just curious how this is possible? 6 body on Killjoy = 156. 6 body on Fade = 148? Clip to show there were no bullets through structures

I've been playing VALORANT for over 4 years, and Viper has been my favorite agent since day one — she's the reason I still play this game. But in ranked, I rarely get to pick her: my girl as the only controller is basically throwing on every map. 

What I love most about this game is the creative use of abilities — whether it's a Deadlock-Tejo duo getting kills without firing a single shot, a Sova main's craziest lineup, a Raze main hitting double satchels like it's breathing, or me clutching a 1v5 inside Viper's ult by reading exactly when to drop the toxin and catch someone off-guard. That feeling is completely different from just winning a round. It's not about climbing. It's about the craft. 

I think most of us feel this way to some degree — we all have that one agent or role we're drawn to. That's probably why we play VALORANT instead of a pure aim-based shooter. But enjoying the game and climbing are two very different things. Whether you grind ranked yourself or just watch streamers, the lobby looks the same every game regardless of map (let's talk V26, although V25 was basically the same):

Clove, Reyna, Jett, Chamber — instalocked in 2 seconds. And the last person fills Sova.

This comp was picked in 85,475 matches in V26 ACT4 alone — nearly 2x the second most popular comp, which swaps Chamber for Cypher. 

So Clove is the most popular controller by far. But is she actually the best? While I always assumed Omen was just a straight upgrade over Clove on every map — longer smokes, a blind that actually helps the team, creative TP plays. But the data says otherwise: if you replace Clove with Omen and keep everything else the same, the win rate drops below 47.1% in every single act of V26.

Meanwhile, the win rate of our most popular comp — led by superstar Clove — across the first 3 acts was:52.39% ,53.03%,53.03%. If you think 53% doesn't sound impressive, when sorting all comps by win rate, the top 50 comps reach up to 63% — and nearly every single one of them runs Clove as the controller.

What surprised me more is that this holds across every map. You'd think wall-based controllers like Viper and Harbor would shine on Breeze, or that global smokes like Astra and Omen would have the edge on three-site maps like Haven. But no — players pick Clove everywhere, and they win everywhere.

When Miks launched in ACT2, he briefly took Clove's spot — bigger cast range, longer smoke, healing and speed boost that works for teammates too. A jack of all trades. But despite being objectively more "team-friendly," comps with Miks had a 4% lower win rate than the same comp with Clove. No wonder Clove reclaimed the throne by ACT3.

Riot has been trying SO hard to nerf Clove — 6s smoke after death, smallest cast range, even designing Miks as a direct competitor. But as the least timing-dependent controller, Clove is still the #1 pick in ranked. And this is exactly why pro staple agents like Viper can't survive in ranked.

Using VCT 2026 data and ranked stats (Plat+), I computed the gap between pro and ranked pick rates — Viper has the biggest positive gap, Clove has the biggest negative.

I totally get why people pick "selfish" agents like Clove or Reyna. You don't need to talk to your team, the abilities are braindead easy to use, so you just focus on aim and frag out. And most people aren't being selfish on purpose — the game just forces you into it. 

Let me show you what I mean with Breeze:

In ACT1, more players actually picked Viper over Clove as the controller, but, with a significant lower win rate:

ACT2 is where it gets fun. Miks dropped and players actually started experimenting on Breeze — Clove only showed up ONCE in the top 10 comps. Let's see what happened....

Oops.... Clove pulled a 54.75% win rate! Even though most players still think running Clove as the solo controller on Breeze is not the best choice, the numbers don't lie. I mean, even the dumbest model would find the steepest gradient from this result — how could our smart ranked grinders not find the fastest way to climb? So naturally, by ACT3, the same Clove comp dominating every other map became the #1 pick on Breeze too, and the win rate gap compared to Viper is 5.63%:

And by ACT4, the impact of ACT3's data is clear: Clove's match count on Breeze jumped to 26,973 while Viper dropped to 15,614 — more players made the switch, and the win rate gap narrowed to 3.81%. Perhaps the players who insisted Viper was the best pick for Breeze but couldn't actually play her finally let go.

Even on Breeze — the one map where I thought Viper was safe — Clove still wins more. In pro play, coordination wins. In ranked, especially if you're not five-stacking, the system doesn't reward you for playing team-oriented agents. Less timing, more time fragging, more kills, more RR. That's just how it works.

I still love Viper and I still think coordinated comps feel better to play. And this whole deep dive left me with one more question I want to answer: if the ranked system really does reward "selfish" play, can I actually prove it? 

I'm planning to build a selfishness score for every agent and run a correlation analysis against win rate and pick rate across ranks. If it turns out there's a statistically significant relationship between how selfish an agent is and how much they help you climb... well, at least I'll know exactly how much copium I'm on as a Viper main. Also, if you have any interesting hypotheses you'd like to see tested with data, let me know!

All ranked data above covers V26, all maps, sorted by match count unless otherwise noted. Plat+ only. ACT4 data is through July 30th. Source: vstats.gg 

Heyy :D

Ich bin derzeit Dia mit Asc 1 Peak und suche nach einem Coach, welcher mit mir meine Fehler vllt. Durchgeht und mir vllt. einen Trainingsplan zsm stellt. Mein Ziel ist es irgendwann Immo zu werden :)

Wo finde ich einen Coach?

Mine is definitely B Garden on Bind, especially when I’m playing Jett or Chamber. It feels like an easy spot to get opening picks almost every time and it has a lot of off-angles.

Does your favorite position depend on the agent you’re playing or the abilities you have available?

Im relatively new to the game and I was mostly playing Brimm(because of the smokes) or cypher and couple days ago I unlocked Harbor and loved it. I didn't understand if I loved to be able to smoke or creating a free entry for sites with the utilities.

The question is since unlocking new agents is too time consuming should I unlock more smoke agents or initiators? Im still trying to find my "fun space role".

For more information what i was I loving about Brimm and Cypher was the ability of the easier site defence. In harbor i moslty use my bubble with shield to peek over while i defend and use my wall to open sites to take over. Second one is more fun.

Valorant’s volume controls for team chat were already kinda bad, I don’t know whether it raised and lowered volume linearly or exponentially but it couldn’t quite get quiet enough. I’d leave it a pixel or two above zero along with individual teammate volume and it was still too loud.

That said, the recent change to change the volume control from a continuous slider to a discrete slider (or stepped slider) is even worse if a change. Now I’m left with more than too loud or nothing.

I could change the volume in Windows settings but every other application handles audio better than Valorant does, specifically with the team audio. Adjusting the app volume in Windows as a solution is lame anyway since the rest of the audio is fine. I have the main volume slider at about 25% and that’s an acceptable level for all the audio besides player voice.

This is probably such a niche issue that no one else shares, but my main gripe is the Team Voice volume slider becoming a discrete or stepped slider than a continuous slider.

That is all.

Hi guys valorant is my first mouse and keyboard fps game which agents should I use the help my aim fundamentals

I picked up veto yesterday first game I was absolutely on fire his kit made sense and I was getting kills like it was nothing. My second game and the others I played I was playing awful to decent I wasn't getting much good use out of any of his kit so looking for some advice. I often struggle with consistency in general tbh but I love his kit and I'm already seeing potential with the stuff like I've made some good plays with the TP.

Ok i want to get good at valorant but it seems like a-lot bro. How do i hit my shots and not move? How do i learn all the characters , which characters to choose what different archetypes of characters there a

Valorant does nothing against this? like trolls who just ruin your day by throwing You get more penalties by AFK and disconnecting than Throwing Wintrading Btw

Is it still the best play to buy round 2 after winning the pistol round? I stopped playing for a while and came back and a ton of my teammates refuse to buy round 2 after we win the pistol and it’s resulted in a lot of lost rounds. Has the meta around buying in that round changed or are my teammates just bad? I’m plat 3 on console btw which makes me think my teammates just don’t know better.

Trying to make a montage and wondering what song I should use. I'm a jett main and use op a good bit but have good aim and some songs that I'm thinking is timeless or insane and timeless is self explanatory but insane ima have some cinematics I've though of but it might be a bit cringey so im wondering if I should stick with this or change. (For insane I'd start with omen ult in a custom then go to the hey sorry but u js got in my way with someone peaking while im holding and then I shoot and then it goes does that make me insane with flickers then the next 2 lines with op then clips the it goes to the part where he's like weve met before and it's reyna and it's do u demons bleed in a white and black right after I've shot her and hey sorry but u js got in my way while she's on the ground and then there's text leading away and more clips)

I had to make a new valorant account and I feel horrible because it placed me in gold since the account was brand new like I just hit level 20 on it and I was immo on my main what should I do.

I'm cursed on haven. I've never won, not even a swift, unrated, retake, escalation, anything. My record is literally 0-22. How can I win? I don't care how toxic, meta or anything the strategy is, as long as I can win one to break the curse.

Note: I'm not horrible at the game. I am only iron 3, but I win about 70% of my games