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For some reason learning aspects about the game outside of aiming/mechanics is not coming as natural to me and thus I would like to know how to approach learning strategy and tactics. Valorant is my first tac FPS so I would like to learn some basic tac FPS guidelines to at least have some direction in my games and have impact outside of just raw aim. I've also seen people say that "there is more to valorant than just aim" but my low-elo brain is struggling to see that so someone please educate me lol.

Here are some general examples that I would like to learn but don't know how:

  • Perhaps a stupid question so apologies, but when people say to watch radiant streamers/pros to learn, what exactly am I looking for?
  • Are there any educational streamers that explain everything they are doing and why? Back in my league days, I learned the most from streamers that would explain everything (like Bwipo or Alois) but I haven't found a valorant equivalent.
  • How do I know what decisions to make?
  • When do you play aggressive/passive?
  • How do I know when to peek, when not to, etc?
  • What does it mean to take "good fights?" I do understand things like not peeking Haven C long with a spectre against a vandal, but is that it?

For sure the answer to some of these questions will simply come with time, but at least I would like to get started with learning the basics of the game outside of grinding the range/DMs/aimlabs etc.

Thank you for your time and I hope the post made sense lol.

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Perhaps a stupid question so apologies, but when people say to watch radiant streamers/pros to learn, what exactly am I looking for?

Generally watching streamers you'll pick up on how good players communicate or work the map. Honestly, even in high rated ranked play people generally still play pretty loose and rotate really quickly and just go straight to the action.

Are there any educational streamers that explain everything they are doing and why? Back in my league days, I learned the most from streamers that would explain everything (like Bwipo or Alois) but I haven't found a valorant equivalent.

There are some but generally video content is better for this for valorant. It is very hard to explain everything you're doing live in an FPS game where you need to be focused on your crosshair.

How do I know what decisions to make?

If you play actively and think about what you're doing and what you could have done better, your decisionmaking will naturally improve over time as long as you're analytical about it. Were you alone and trying to shoot a sova drone on a map setup where no ally can help you or save you? Was your team setup to even succeed in the first place?

When do you play aggressive/passive?

Generally a good rule of thumb is that you should try to scale how aggressive your team should play on defense depending on how many people are on your side of the map. If you're playing 4 C on Haven defense, that setup is usually bad since you'd be bleeding so much map control and information elsewhere - so you might as well call for a push and try to collapse the map if you don't have time to reposition players before the round starts.

Additionally, knowing how to understand player advantage or your own state of utility is really important. If you're 5v3 you should generally not keep overheating for frags or taking unnecessary risks, but if you're in a clutch situation or lower # count situation you might want to take an unusual timing or risk to try to catch opponents off guard. If you're an agent who naturally gasses out of utility (think Brimstone or Sage) you should try to let your teammates bait you if you're all out of abilities, since if you trade 1-for-1 for an opponent with a ton of utility you're getting high potential return out of your risk.

What does it mean to take "good fights?" I do understand things like not peeking Haven C long with a spectre against a vandal, but is that it?

This dramatically depends on too many variables for a simple reddit comment. In general good fights are fights exposing yourself to a minimum number of potential enemy angles and fights that you need to take depending on round state, the information you have, etc.

If your Cypher's camera spots 4 on one side of the map and you're confident you can peek and take a 1v1 vs the unspotted player, using a single piece of utility to try to peek something for a kill might have high yield since if you kill that player your team can push through the other side of the map and contain your opponents in uncomfortable position or go for fast flanks.

It's about thinking about how much information you have and if the risks are worth it for you personally depending on your agent. If you're playing something like Omen or Cypher, your life is worth a lot more over the course of a long round than a character like Phoenix or Reyna whose primary role is to tax opponent utility or open up sites by taking quick early fights.