So you have developed a small pool of agents that you’re comfortable with, and you think you have a general idea of where you fit into your team’s composition, but you keep coming up short in the moment. Don’t sweat it; there are a few things we can break down to help you identify and improve the way you’re playing your engagements, all in the form of tips to win more fights. Let’s take a look at the list.

1. Predicting Your Opponent’s Moves

The first step to winning more fights is anticipating your opponent’s moves. This involves understanding the common routes that players take, the typical spots where they peak, and their preferred strategies. Good crosshair placement is all about minimal mouse movement. The less you have to move your mouse to aim at an opponent, the quicker and more accurate your shots will be. This is why predicting where your opponent will be is so crucial. If you can accurately predict your opponent’s movements, you can position your crosshair in the right place ahead of time, allowing you to react faster and land your shots more consistently.

2. Aim at Head Height

In Valorant, headshots do significantly more damage than body shots. Many weapons in the game can kill opponents with a single shot to the head. Therefore, it’s essential always to aim your crosshair at head height. This increases your chances of landing a headshot and securing a quick kill. It’s important to note that the height will vary depending on whether your opponent is standing or crouching. With time and practice, you’ll be able to aim at the correct height instinctively.

3. React Quickly

One common misconception among players is that pros have superhuman reaction times. However, this is not the case. Pros aren’t necessarily quicker than you; they’re just better at giving themselves time to react. If you’re feeling slow, you’re probably not giving yourself enough time to react to your opponent’s actions. One way to improve your reaction time is to peek your angles quickly. If you peek slowly or crouch-peek, you’ll be an easy target for your opponents. They’ll see you turning the corner, adjust their crosshair, and get ready to pull the trigger before you even have a chance to react.

4. Use the Minimap

The minimap is one of the most useful tools at your disposal in the chaos of a site push. It provides you with a wealth of information about your teammates’ positions, enemy sightings, and spike locations. Being constantly aware of your minimap can help you make better decisions and focus on the right places. For example, if you see that all of your teammates are on one side of the map, you know that you need to watch the other side for potential flanks. Similarly, if you see a question mark on the minimap, you know that an enemy has been spotted in that area.

5. Predict Walk Timings

Sound plays a crucial role in every round of every match. The sound of footsteps can give away an opponent’s position, and different abilities make distinctive sounds that can tell you what your opponents are planning. However, experienced players will often try to move silently to avoid detection. If an opponent tries to make a lurk play or a flank, they’ll typically try to do so silently. If you’re taking your eyes off of an entrance or potential flank, work on timing how quickly that player would be able to walk through that unwatched location so you can react accordingly and watch your own back.

6. Understand Player Patterns

Every player has their own playstyle and patterns. Some players might prefer to take the same route to the site every round, while others might peek in the same way every time. Many players, especially in ranked games, are very predictable and will keep doing the same thing, especially if it’s working and they’re winning. If you can notice these patterns and start to predict them, you can gain a significant advantage. In the case of abilities such as Jett’s updraft, predict where that Jett will be moving based on where you heard the sound queue, and place your crosshair accordingly.

7. Pre-aim a Corner

As you move around the map, your crosshair should be constantly adjusting. You should be pre-aiming at common spots where enemies could be hiding and snapping your crosshair from one angle to the next as you clear areas. This is all about minimizing the amount of crosshair movement you need to do when you spot an enemy. If you can predict the correct angle, you’ll only need to make a small adjustment to your aim when you spot an enemy, allowing you to land your shots more quickly and accurately.

8. Isolate Your Fights

Taking on multiple enemies at once is usually a bad idea. The more enemies you’re fighting, the harder it is to keep track of all of them, and the more likely you are to get overwhelmed. Therefore, you should try to isolate your fights so that you only fight one enemy at a time. This can be done by using cover to block off angles, using your abilities to control the battlefield, and choosing your fights wisely.

9. Use Geometry

Building on the tip of isolating your fights, understanding the map’s geometry can give you the upper hand as well. For example, the player who is closest to a corner will see their opponent later than the player who is further away. This is because the player further away has a wider field of view. Therefore, you should try to keep some distance from corners when you’re peeking to give yourself the best chance of seeing your opponent first.

10. Practice Consistently

Finally, the most important tip is to practice consistently. All of these tips and strategies will take time to master. Don’t expect to see immediate results. Instead, focus on gradual improvement. In each game, try to focus on one or two areas that you want to improve. Over time, you’ll start to see progress, and all of these tips will start to become second nature.