I play Valorant. My peak is Ascendant 3 on my main, but now I'm Diamond 2 due to having a job. I got a 14-day ban for toxicity and am currently playing on a smurf. For some reason, playing in Diamond–Ascendant lobbies feels much easier — players are more readable, gunfights are much easier, and bullets literally land on the head on the first shot. My smurf is currently Gold 2, and my performance is extremely inconsistent. Sometimes I can't win basic duels, I'm scared to lurk on defense, opponents are totally unreadable, and yet in other games I drop 30+ kills with a 2–2.5 KD, while other times I barely manage a 1 KD. For context: on my main I'm a flex player, but I mostly play Fade/Killjoy/Cypher. On the smurf, I only play duelists.
Is this normal situation or is only mine problem (maybe psychological or smth). I just can’t play my own game like on main.

The quality of Gold-Diamond is disgusting now. Last month has been unbearble for me, and the only reason I am Gold is because of my teammates. Of course this is a generic "ugh, it's my teammates fault" but genuinely, it is. Before last month Gold-Diamond had 2 teams that were actively trying to win. Now people instantly disconnect if they're not bought a gun, Scream slurs for NO reason when things don't go their way. What is going on???

I wanted to know what your ideal team comp looks like. Our 5-stack could use some improvement in terms of performance and coordination. I believe that the improvement should start from a good team comp. Pls and ty...

Map: Haven

Used to be D3 one game off Asc and used to get accused of smurfing in mainly Ascendant lobbies. I've had just under 3 years away where I haven't had a gaming PC due to starting a family.

I'm now G3 and finishing mid table on my teams, in awful lobbies that are G3-P1 mainly. Old me would've destroyed these lobbies and it's so frustrating. I only get to play 2 games (maybe 3 max occasionally) in one sitting compared to pre family games where it'd be 10+ so how do I reach my old levels with less game time and 3 years of rust?

Any tips, besides the obvious 'just play'? :)

I got to my first full plat lobby today as a gold player, and as usual no one on the team was using my util. This was on haven as sova. After a round, a duelist asked "can you dart and drone?" after I had done both, scanned two on site with the dart, and tagged one with the drone, no one pushed, everyone sitting main waiting for... something. It's that something I'm trying to figure out. They said I used it "too fast". What are they waiting for? Am I supposed to wait until they're already onsite to recon? That seems insane to me. Is there body language I can watch for? Am I just supposed to use util entirely selfishly? My winrate on skye is much higher than sova I think because I can follow up on flash and dog more easily, but maybe I should try to extend that mindset to sova.

That is the one question I have though: if everyone just refuses to do anything on attack, do I just use util for myself, push on site solo, and hope for the best? I have done this and again, they still literally just sit main. It's not literally every game, sometimes there's coordination, but it's genuinely probably over half of games where this is basically every round. Anyway a bit of a rant but yeah. And does this change in, say diamond+ lobbies at all? I am hopeful it does.

TL;DR: An unreleased Valorant gun buddy called "Justice Served" (sitting in the game files since Patch 10.05 / March 2025 and documented on the public Fandom Wiki) appears to have its 3D asset hash flagged by Tencent's automated IP bots on TikTok, resulting in instant permanent account terminations. Meanwhile, YouTube, Instagram, and X treat the exact same content as completely compliant.

The Background

For the past 3+ years, I’ve been working on an investigative research documentary covering the history of Riot Gun Buddies, tracking over 550 owners and cosmetic file anomalies across the game's lifespan.

In the opening 15 seconds of a recent project trailer, I briefly showcased two unobtainable cosmetics sourced directly from the public Valorant Fandom Wiki ("Unobtainable Buddies" page): 1. Lightning Kicks Buddy (Sneaker - in files since Patch 8.04) 2. Justice Served Buddy (Gavel - in files since Patch 10.05)

The Platform Discrepancy

• YouTube, Instagram & X: Zero strikes, zero flags. The video has been live with 100% normal standing.
• TikTok: My entire accounts were instantly permanently terminated under "Intellectual Property Policy" violations (3 accounts in the span of 2,5 years)

The Breakthrough / Root Cause

After investigating and cross-referencing other creators: - Other creators posted full TikTok videos discussing the Lightning Kicks buddy with zero penalties. - The automated IP takedown specifically isolates the Justice Served gavel buddy.

Because "Justice Served" is a newer unreleased asset, Tencent's automated crawler on TikTok likely has the exact 3D render/mesh hash in its database. The automated bot flags the render as an unreleased leak on sight, with zero context that it is sitting on a completely public community wiki page.

Open Questions for the Community

1. Has anyone else who makes Valorant content or datamining breakdowns run into automated IP strikes specifically on TikTok for displaying wiki-sourced assets?
2. How do you usually navigate publisher-level automated Content ID matching when covering unreleased/unobtainable game files?

Was looking at the Ascent comp stats and noticed Phoenix was ahead of Reyna in all three of these comps

- KJ: 53.13% vs 51.15%
- Brim: 51.29% vs 47.56%
- Cypher: 53.61% vs 51.32%

I expected Reyna to do pretty well in ranked, so I was a little surprised to see Phoenix ahead in all three.

Do you think this is just variance or does Phoenix actually fit these Ascent comps better??

This is a very hot take apparently, but smoking certain ways or areas is situational and preference. I often see videos arguing that one smoke is good but another video will call the same smoke bad for reasons that are also valid. If two people smoke one area differently, and both have valid points in doing so, it is down to team preference and situational awareness.

As a controller main (viper or miks/brim if I have to solo), I often tell my team at the beginning of rounds which area I think I should smoke. Most often they go with my idea but sometimes they will ask me to smoke differently because they have a plan that may not be conventional to me. In those cases I change my smoke because I trust their judgment.

There are conventional smokes but I will have people straight up call a wall that is used in VCT ass and attack me because I used it. What I thought was a default wall, someone thought was ass because it didn’t fit their play style. He should have worded it better (not my point) but it’s a symptom of a bigger issue that people think their idea of smoking is the only and better option.

I feel like the better I become, the more creative I become with my smokes, mostly with viper. At first glance, what I am doing may look like i’m crazy, but sometimes that’s the surprise you need to secure a round. It seems non-controller players think that what they deem as basic smokes is the only correct way.

Let me know if other agent classes deal with something similar. Let me know if you hate this take and why. I’m curious because I like improving.

Of course I have to give the obligatory:

- yes it’s a team game. if ur team doesn’t want u to do something stupid, prolly don’t do it idk?? time and place for everything. don’t be selfish. communicate always

- smokes are meant to help the team. regardless of how they are done, they should always be to help.

- communicate what your doing so ur team doesn’t assume they are going to have a basic smoke and then die because it wasn’t smoked.

here's to hoping my request gets approved. if it does though, will it be by the time the store is reset? yes i know i can't draw lmao.

I have been searching for any details for this ever since the ticket details for the group stage came out. Is there any chance i missed some obscure announcement on the finals weekend pricing? For the 2nd venue of the event. Im praying that it is close to the prices for the 1st venue

I litterally aim good on one game and bad on the next and some times even one week very average or below and the second week i play very good

Iam stuck plat any tips

I play at 2 sensitivities

0.125 at 1600 (Arm aiming)

and

0.25 at 1600 (Wrist/Forearm)

Now, Obviously, we have the default pros and cons, i.e, low lets you hit headshots more, and high lets you hit flicks easier.

For me, i do well in both,

Low sens:

My arm gets tired after playing on low for long

There are instances that I am not able to place my croshair on time or adjust during combat

I do end up hitting crazy flicks sometimes and have good holding abilities.

I am able to track corners while scaling, but again tires my arm.

High sens:

I'm able to place my crosshair and move around 100% better

I'm not able to hit headshots as often especially in mid to long range fights.

I can reset my crosshair much often and easier than low sens and do end up performing well

I can track corners welland flick if needed.

I feel like it seems biased towards high sens.

Now, like everyone with radiant dreams, i want the opinion of asc/immo/radiant players, should i play with a low or high sens.

The game should be able to detect all your accounts that you have and ban your main if you troll on an alt from the same computer/IP address or phone number.

A simple solution to the Alt Account epidemic that is in Valorant where people (including me) have multiple Valorant accounts and some may feel the need to act toxic on these accounts when they would never do it on their main. Faceit in CS enforces a hard NO multi-account abuse and they will ban your main account if you have a Smurf account. Obviously Valorant allows Alt Accounts (which I am fine with if used properly), but Valorant should be able to detect someone’s main/alt account through IP addresses or computer hardware and ban someone on their main if they are abusive on their alt.

I’m not saying NO to alt accounts if used properly. I think alt accounts are good for combating ranked anxiety or climbing properly on a different account, just playing the game normally. Just that if an instance someone starts being a freak on their alt account (very common in Immortal+), their main account should be identified by the system and banned too.

Am i going crazy or is there a severe correlation between starting on Defense andn winning compared to starting on attack and winning?

How do you guys know if what you are lacking right now is mechanic or gamesense? I have looked into some videos but it doesn't have a pinpoint indicator to looked for.

I could make up my own assumption but I'm aware to self-bias which could kept me from identifying the real problem.

Valorant is the only shooter competitive I genuinely enjoy and find interest in its mechanics which is why I want to get better.

I’ve been a little burnt out from life in general and as a result I don’t play as much as I used to. It also doesn’t help that I start university next week so it seems like I won’t be able to play a lot anytime soon. Is there a way you can stay sharp and/or improve little by little even if you’re not playing daily?

the useful part isnt really whether someone has a key at 0.1 or 0.2. look at which keys they treat differently.

movement usually needs a very different feel from abilities, reload, crouch or space. if you make the whole board equally sensitive, accidental presses can become more annoying than whatever speed you gained.

a much easier way to tune it:

• start with movement.
• play for a while without touching anything else.
• if a key keeps going off when you didnt mean to press it, make that key less sensitive.
• only change one thing at a time.

otherwise you end up with six new settings and no idea which one made the keyboard feel better.

Hello everyone.

After 1 year of not playing Valorant I decided to come back and start playing again. I've been enjoying the game so far and the modes I currently play are Swiftplay (I find it more chill and I use it as a warm-up) and Unrated (to get used to the economy, rounds so I can later play Ranked).

The agents I mostly play as of right now are Kay/o and Fade. I really like their abilities and I also think they are helpful to the team too.

There are 29 total playable agents each one of them having their one specialties and abilities as well as strengths/weaknesses.

Out of them all, what single agent do you think is the most annoying/terryfing to play against by someone who has mastered that agent? Like that agents where you feel hopeless and the game is over before it even begins.

Let me know what you think. Thanks!

https://imgur.com/a/5sdxgY1

I'm confused am i missing out on something? Everyone on Tiktok and Instagram cried about teammates being ass and the enemies being really good in gold. What did i miss out on? Thanks for reading :)

im currently b2 and play either raze or viper, the thing is whilst i play viper decent in some games in others i play like total dogshit soo i was just wondering if anyone had tips for her? especially in terms of util and wall usage

BTW, ik viper isnt a great pick in lower elo but i just find her very fun to play, and sorry about the video length i just wanna show how i play her for reference :P

I'm currently Diamond 3 and only two ranks away from Ascendant, but I feel like my counter-strafing is still one of the weakest parts of my gameplay. I'm actively trying to improve it by playing Deathmatches and watching guides, but I haven't found a way to make the movement feel completely subconscious and consistent yet.

I also want to improve the way I clear angles and make my peeks cleaner. I understand the basics of crosshair placement, prefiring, and how to clear common angles, but I feel like my overall movement and clearing could be much smoother and more precise.

For higher-ranked players or anyone who has successfully improved these mechanics, what specifically helped you? Are there any drills, routines, or things you focused on that made counter-strafing and angle clearing feel more natural?

I'd really appreciate any advice! 🙏

Right now I have a small mousepad where I only use my wrist to move my mouse. My friend told me to get a larger mousepad where you use your entire arm to move the mouse.

Which method is better?

I’ve been playing for about 2 months and it’s my first go at a game like this. I’m having a lot of fun regardless of some of the more difficult games. Can’t wait to learn and get better !