5 Bad Habits You Should Avoid in Valorant

So you’ve been grinding Valorant for months, yet you’re still at the SAME old, low elo you’ve always been at.

Why is that you may ask? Surely all the hours you’ve put into the game would eventually progress you to higher ranks… right???…. right????

Well, there’s some bad news, but just putting in the time isn’t going to be enough to climb you up the valorant rankings.

What WILL help you climb is quality practice over quantity. That means identifying areas for improvement that you can actively work on through your games.

One of the problems that low elo players make is they struggle to find ways to improve. 

To first get better at valorant, you need to identify habits that you’re making in the game.

Here are 5 bad habits that ALL low elo players have, and how you can break them. Make sure to stay til the end of the article, as we saved the best tips for last.

1. Fear to Push Site in Attacking Half

Jumping into things, the BIGGEST habit we see low elo players having is being afraid to push.

A scenario we see all too commonly on the attacker side is when the team decides to hit a site.  But then…. no one actually goes into the site. The smokes come out, and flashes are thrown, but then no one actually enters the site and tries to take it.

Instead, they stay in the backline, going for long range duels and hoping to win those out. We get it, pushing onto a site is scary.

For the most part, you don’t know where the enemies are going to be. Because of that, the defenders have the element of surprise over you unless you use utility to rat them out.

That along with the fact that if you’re the first person onto the site, all eyes are on you. Meaning unless your aim is on point, you’ll likely get killed during the push.

No one likes being the first person to enter a site, but SOMEONE has to do it. And if you coordinate your push properly,  you’ll only be alone for a short instance before your teammates come to back you up.

With the right ability usage and assistance from your team, pushing onto a site doesn’t have to be that daunting. Even if you go down, at the very least you’ll have teammates to hopefully trade you.

Typically when one person goes in,  the rest of the pack will follow.  Or at least… most of them will. You can’t take control of a site without pushing through it.

When your team decides it’s time to go in, make sure you go in.

At low elo, strength in numbers will typically get you the site. Don’t be that guy that’s staying in the back lines while the whole team is going to the site. This is okay ONLY after the site has been taken and the plant has been spiked.

Once that’s taken place, the back line is okay to be in to hold the flank or to hold certain long range choke points and angles.

Essentially, you’re covering positions that your teammates are unable to on site. Just make sure that you’re the only person here if you do. The majority of the team should be closer on site where they can better defend the spike.

This is your first habit to break. Make sure that EVERY time your team pushes, you’re in there on the site with them. Once the site’s been taken, you have more freedom on where you want to position yourself to defend. But you can’t get to that point if you don’t actually push, my friend.

2. Aiming at the ground

Moving on, the next habit we see low elo players have is aiming WAY too low. You’ve likely heard this before, and yes, we’re beating a dead horse here. But we’re doing so because this is a habit that’s VERY hard to break even if players are aware of it.

Unless you have an Op in hand, you always want to have your crosshair at head level so that…  well, you’ll hit the head and deal more damage.

Most people understand that and will remember to do so when things are calm, such as when you’re holding an angle.

However, when it comes down to the heat of the moment during a round, that knowledge goes out the window. The stress gets to you and all of a  sudden you’re looking at the floor or the enemy’s body.

Or perhaps you get deeply focused on something else during a lead, which leads to your crosshair being misplaced. You don’t intend to do this, but it just happens unconsciously during certain parts of a round.

This is one of those scenarios where you know what you should do, but you can’t do it all the time. Once this habit develops, it’s very hard to break. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

The first step to fixing this problem is to identify where it happens in the first place. This could be through vod reviews where you monitor your crosshair placement as a round progresses. Or you could also have a friend spectate you during rounds to spot points where your crosshair placement goes down.

Most low elo players will likely notice their aim deteriorate as the round goes on. This is due to multiple factors, whether it be nerves or just mental fatigue.

Once you become more aware of where these issues arise, you can then be more alert and focused on your crosshair placement in those specific instances. Put more attention into aiming during those times until it becomes more second nature where you don’t have to think about it. To track your progress, continue to vod review your games and monitor where your aim is at different time points.

And remember, this is a habit we’re trying to break. Meaning that it won’t be an overnight fix.  It’ll likely take weeks, and even months to fix a habit that we’ve been doing for so long. So make sure to be patient with this one, and it will pay dividends.

3. Taking Unnecessary Gun Fights

Continuing off of that, a big habit we see low elo players doing is focusing too much on winning raw aim duels. We get it, everyone wants to be that star player that frags out of their mind and drops a 30 bomb to carry their team.

As a result, players will try to peek out and challenge every player they see, hoping to win the raw aim battle. If we’re at a low rank, the reality is we’re just not good enough to be that kind of player.

Especially if we’re just simply raw peeking at everything and hoping that we’re better than each player we face.

If you’ve been at the same rank for a while,  your aim is probably just about as good as the players on the other team. You’re essentially taking a 50/50 duel with these kinds of peeks, which isn’t favorable enough for you to constantly do.

At the very least, you should use utility to help you take these duels. You could smoke out certain areas of the maps to avoid getting into a crossfire during the duel. You could also flash out to blind the enemy and drastically increase your chances of winning the duel.

You could also have a teammate tag along with you so that you double peek and put the enemy into an unfavorable 2 versus 1 situation. These are just a few examples to name,  but there are several more possibilities.

The next time you’re thinking about taking a fight,  brainstorm ways you can turn the odds in your favor before engaging the enemy.

Try to get the odds better than just a 50/50  RNG fight. This will win you more duels,  thus giving your team man advantages and greater chances of winning rounds.

4. Don’t know what to do in a round

Here we go, this is arguably the worst habit low elo players have. And that is, not knowing what to do.

This is when players quite literally are not sure what they should be doing during a round. Perhaps you’re unsure of where to position yourself on defense. Or perhaps you don’t quite know how to push a site, or where you should be after the spike’s been planted. Or maybe you don’t really know when and how to most effectively use your abilities

If you have a high ranked player at your disposal, they could probably tell you what to do. But you won’t really learn from just following instructions if nothing’s explained.

You have to eventually learn to make decisions for yourself. Here is a very simple way to figure out what you should be doing at any point in time during a round.

When you’re unsure of what to do,  ask yourself what the current goal is and how you can best contribute to achieving that goal. Let’s break down an attacking round again to highlight this. On attack, one goal you’ll have is to push a site.

Once the spike is planted, your new goal is to defend it. You also have the goal of trying to take away the man advantage the enemy has.

Next time you’re not sure about what you should be doing, think about what the main goal is at the moment and what the best move you can make to take steps towards accomplishing it.

5. Economy Management

Alrighty, people are going to roll their eyes at this one, but it’s so important. Low elo players just don’t take care of their economy very well.

Having good credit management can literally change the way an entire half goes. If you spend too many credits, or not ENOUGH  credits, during rounds where you need to,  you’re going to be giving yourself the trouble later on in the game.

Let’s go through the start of a half. You just won the pistol round, so what do you do?

Some players at low elo decide to save up their credits so that they can buy a  phantom or vandal the following round. It’s a  good thought, but unfortunately, it’s wrong.

Whenever you win a pistol round, you should ALWAYS buy up on the second round. Yes, you can’t afford the big boy guns, BUT  you can still afford more than the enemy can. After a pistol win, you can buy a specter plus heavy armor along with a majority of your abilities.

Now compare this to the enemy who at best could afford a cheap weapon like a frenzy or sheriff. You have a clear advantage here. As long as the enemy doesn’t get lucky, you’ll win the second round if you buy.

From there your economy can start to grow. The third round is really just a bonus round. If you win it, fantastic. Your economy will be in a REALLY good spot. If you lose it, no big deal, you have money to buy anyway the following round.

Now let’s say we didn’t buy the 2nd round. We’re now putting ourselves on an even playing field, where the enemy has a good chance of winning the round since they have a similar level of weaponry. We lose the chance of getting a free round with minimal effort.

The thought of saving up for a vandal or phantom sounds good initially, but it risks long-term damage to your economy, while also giving up rounds and economic advantage to the enemy.

To keep the rules simple, buy up when you win a pistol, and save when you lose the pistol. Now let’s get to the rest of the rounds. 

After the first 3 rounds, the goal is to get as many rifle rounds as possible. If you’re strapped for cash and need to save, you should always make sure you have at least 3900  credits for the next round along with however many credits you need to buy all essential abilities.

This gives you the best equipment possible to win rounds. To take that a step further, you should always try to look at your economy and look for ways you can earn or keep as many credits as possible.

If the enemy is saving and your whole team is low on credits, it’s probably best to not chase them down and risk losing your weapons, in which you wouldn’t be able to rebuy the next round.

Or to give another example, you should always try to get the spike down even after all enemies are eliminated. It gives you 300 credits to each player and can make a big difference in your and your team’s future purchases.

Conclusion

That’s all we have for today’s guide. Now get out there and start converting those bad habits into good ones. As we mentioned earlier, these habits have likely been present for a long time.

Likewise, it’s going to take a  good amount of time to break them,  so please be patient and trust the process. Have anything to say? tell us in the comments!