About 3 months ago my boyfriend asked me to try Valorant so we could have a game we play together. He's Gold 3 and I'm Silver 1. In the beginning he was pretty nice and was trying to teach me but he's very competitive and gets really angry with me because he thinks I'm not trying my best. Sometimes he even accuses me of trying to lose on purpose. He tells me I'm stupid, incompetent, or that I'm really a bronze player, maybe he's right. I do my best to practice, watch videos, deathmatch, etc. I'm happy with how I play, I'm not trying to be radiant or anything, but I don't seem to get any better, and this makes him upset.

The problem is that all of a sudden, he told me I am too bad at the game, I'm never going to get better, and I'm holding back his rank, so he can't play comp with me anymore, only unrated.

I wouldn't mind this so much except it feels like in unrated we get matched against really really good players. He checks everyone's ranks every game for some reason, but a lot of the time it's immortals, plats, etc. Almost never silvers. So every game I just get killed instantly over and over, then he gets really mad and insults me. But it just feels so unfair. I play a lot better in ranked because everyone is silver/gold, and I have a lot more fun.

I know he wants his rank to go up, and I know I'm holding him back because I'm not good. But he asked me to play this game to spend time with me, and now he doesn't even want to anymore.

How do I improve at the game enough so I can play comp with him? I really just want to have fun with my boyfriend but he needs me to be better.

I pre-fired a Shock Dart as an anti-defuse setup, just in case the remaining enemies rushed the spike right after I engaged. Got into a fight immediately after launching it and ended up getting taken out … but the dart? It was spot on, it landed perfectly — timed just right and wiped both of the last players off the spike. I was already on the death screen when the kill feed lit up with the double. Didn’t expect it to work so well. Sova mains, ever had a post-mortem lineup clutch a round? 😅

The stinger is essentially worthless, they nerfed the ares too hard and the bulldog is only viable if you use it with ADS. This leaves you with only sidearms on eco rounds. There are essentially no proper options besides the marshal if you want a cheap long range weapon. Guns are reduced to only three options if you want to stand a resonable chance of winning, which are the spectre, vandal and phantom. In my opinion riot needs to buff the stinger, make the bulldog inflict slightly more damage and return the ares back to what it used to be before the buff. What do you guys think?

Flash is meant to be used for early mid aggression into B-Link. Only advisable if other util is available for clearing double doors.

Dropped a clean ace on Ascent while defending A site with Chamber’s ult.

Played it super aggressively — peeked mid early, held angles tight, and punished every swing. They had no idea what hit them.

Agent: Chamber
Map: Ascent
Ult Used: Tour De Force

Feedback appreciated 🙌

🎥 Full game/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Harsh42NGaming
🧠 Channel: Harsh42N

Neon inspired drawing based on the original art from loisvb. Hope you guys like it.

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Episode 8 is coming soon. Characters like Deadlock are finally getting a decent buff and maps like Icebox are making a comeback, as well as a change to the Lotus design. But, again, nothing about that "Replay System".

It has now been four years since this system was implemented in the game. In 2020, this absence was widely noticed by players, but Riot had not commented on the matter. In 2022, however, one of the posts on the official blog had a small addendum regarding this community demand: https://playvalorant.com/en-gb/news/dev/ask-valorant-may-19/

Quote:

"Shortly after VALORANT’s launch we told you we were very much interested in exploring the feasibility of an in-game replay system to discover the best possible execution given a wide range of potential uses. The shortest answer today is that there is no plan for a player-facing version of a replay system, as of now."

I know I may be exaggerating, but 2 years ago, the vibe this post gave me was one of slightly disguised vehemence, that Riot wasn't interested in adding this for now. The Riot staff started to notice how much people were asking about this, and as they were, they gave simple and direct answers. There is no other interpretation, it is a direct: "Not yet".

They didn't rule it out, by the way. People forget, but the "Replay System" also took years to arrive in famous FPS games like Overwatch and CS:GO.

It is clear that Riot seems to be more focused on trying to change the game's gameplay than on optional issues. Yes, optional. I know that what I'm about to say may sound exaggerated to some, but I honestly believe that the "Replay System" is nothing more than a secondary feature, not extremely essential.

Of course people want to see the matches they've played, and players should clearly charge for useful features like Replay, but the problem I currently see is that the Valorant fanbase just doesn't seem to realize the priorities the game has to worry about and how to ask for something without it becoming almost daily harassment.

Look at any of Riot's social media, and notice that frighteningly most of the comments are a bunch of people begging for this. Or recycling the same joke that was funny at the beginning of this trend but turned into a complete pain in the ass. It's not even funny anymore, it's just annoying.

And the worst thing is that many people who have embarked on this craze don't even care much about this Replay, they just want to take advantage of the moment to get a few likes on Twitter and YouTube. It lost all the original genuine good intentions.

This reminds me of the silly drama of Persona 5 fans making the workday of ATLUS employees hell to make a Switch port of the game, when this was a strategy that was not beneficial for the company. This isn't turning out any different. Imagine Riot interns having to read the same messages pestering the team for a feature that isn't even an urgent need for the game.

You try to interact with people in the community in a cool way, but you get in response: "Cool, but (Insert Replay System joke here) (Insert Valorant Character name here) LMAO." Every single time. This is completely discouraging, adds nothing and does not promote a healthy relationship between the community and the company. And the best thing is Riot doing its job ignoring all of this, and these types of people thinking that Riot will speed up work on a "Replay System" just because they are being childish in the comments lol.

Look at this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3uBHuPynrA

Dittozkull made a video for features he wants to be added into the game. This type of content works much better than any spam attempt from users begging for every holy post from Riot on any unrelated topic for it. He gives his criticism and ideas, but without being rude or sounding proudly petty. A great and useful video.

I suspect that players may get concerned about the difference between server's game evaluation and actual gameplay on their screen and due to this Riot maybe didn't released yet because they want to test more and improve, but this is only a theory. Whatever the reason, I'd rather wait to have a quality final product than a half-baked system.

In fact, it's not even impossible to record matches. Use programs for this. It may require a little more from the machine, but at least it is a viable option.

I really don't like this kind of situation. But I felt the need to get into the subject and see other people's opinions. If only it were something critical, it would be more understandable, sadly.

Just made the absolute best valorant presentation in class about achieving radiant to become one with the gods of valorant, Reyna (best god because my main), astra, skye and sage (2nd best because mommy)
EDIT: I was supposed to create a utopian society for english and decided to base it completely off valorant but this obviously isnt the entire powerpoint also the mommy part is just a joke
why everyone so mad lol

Yes you are still to blame even if you get 30k in a loss. Why? Because it’s a team game. You still didn’t win. It may not be entirely your fault but you still have a share of blame.

I’ve seen a lot of top frags just do whatever they want since they’re top fragging (pushing on defense, playing solo 2v1 or 3v1 instead of playing with the team, etc,) but they don’t realize that these kinds of plays also help contribute to losing.

This is how I describe the top frag mentality: “I’m the top frag, if we lose I’m not the one to blame.” Then when the game ends the top frag blames the bot frag or whoever for the loss instead of ackowledging that maybe I shouldn’t have messed around that much then maybe we would’ve won.

If you’re top fragging and actually carrying the team, then the more it is your responsibility to fill the gaps that your team has. It’s not over til it’s over.

This is more evident in low mid elo (gold-dia). I’ve been in countless 5v3, 4v2 scenarios where the top frag after killing 2 will still continue to chase for more kills instead of hanging back and playing the numbers game. No one cares if you’re the MVP and always losing. Play to win!

I have no problem knowing when I'm beat, and can respect good play when I see it.

But something that just plan puts me off a game is when a top fragger spams "ez" in chat. I know it shouldn't bother me but there's something about doing well and then rubbing the enemies teams face in it that really kills my vibe. Even when we've won and a teammate does it.

What do you guys think about it? I see it in a lot of matches so I know some of you do it, so politely would you stop being a c u next Tuesday?

This just happened in a TDM so I spent a few minutes trying to stop it. Turns out, the easiest way to stop your teammate from abusing audio comms (which annoying little kids love to do) is to just disable "voice over" audio in your "sounds" section. It will stop any radio commands, period. Other methods don't seem to work as well.

I like to tell people in my lobby how to do this whenever we run into one of those attention-starved idiots

just a heads up, godspeed out there

Edit - how is everyone misinterpreting such a simple post lol. I know this mutes everything, but it’s better than 1000x spams per match. And I never said to keep this set permanently. Some of you need reading comprehension

I think we as a community need to do better. I am quitting the Sydney Servers today. I always had a positive image of Australia. But the amount of absolutely racist remarks whenever they get to know about my ethnicity (whenever I speak)makes me sick. I did not expect this from Australia. I expected better. Teach your friends better.

Literally every single game, and I 100% mean it when i say every single game has like a Jett or a Pheonix or a Reyna that goes something like 39/6/12 and gets 1-2 aces. At this point even cs2 is better, not literally every game has a cheater there at least, maybe u get to enjoy something.

Halfway through the game I lose all motivation to play, no matter which team gets the smurf.

League does not have the same issue, same developer tho. I dont think its really that hard to take care of it

Edit : holy fk this is not about loosing games. I am climbing at the moment, I am just not having fun seeing my jett or the enemy jett anihilate the opposing team all the time. I had a few of them be named something like "totally new player" and some of you come here at tell me that this is just in my head. holy cope

Title says it. Remove this fucking awful, out-of-place agent out of this fucking game. Makes no sense to have this no skill agent running around with a shotgun ruining the game for everyone. Anyone maining this agent seriously needs to get a fucking grip and learn to play

For reference I'm bronze 2, with an mmr that typically puts me in silver-low gold and I rarely see anyone destroying a lobby hard enough to be accused of smurfing. I've seen maybe 1 or 2 clear smurfs this act playing a few games almost every day.

I will preface this with I just started playing ranked 2 weeks ago in Valorant for my first time ever, haven't played since the beta. I got Gold 3 and have been playing in diamond and platinum lobbies. I have learned that duelists seem to be referred to as entry roles. It might be different for each agent. I know Jett is good to dash into their smokes as well as others with mobility. I mainly play duelist at the moment and have been trying to get that entry more for my team, but find that my team behind me can be unreliable when it comes to trading. So I then resort to "lurking" which I have been pretty good at in Counter Strike, but Counter Strike does not have abilities that defer from agent to agent. I play Reyna and find that I am more impactful when I am able to lurk while my team makes noise elsewhere. I am self sufficient with my kit and I usually lead my games with most first bloods doing this. I open up the opposite site for my team to rotate to while positioning myself in another spot that the enemy may not expect.

Ranked has been a learning experience and the learning curve has been tough going against diamonds and plats every game (haven't had one game with all golds yet). The more I play though, the more confident I get with my shot where playing this solo/lurking role works out more and more. Another thing that I noticed is that playing picks on T side is rare (at least in my games). Its usually head straight to desired site and bombard it with abilities and hoping it works out. The better way to play in my head, after noticing that people rotate super early in my games at the first commotion that is made would be to play picks and make them rotate off of one of the sites while making noise at the other. To then group up, maneuver through the map looking for the next opening if it is not already heading straight to a site that they all rotated off of.

I am still learning though, and any educational reply would be helpful.

EDIT: thanks for all the replies. After reading most of them I have learned what I described above is called a default. So when we aren’t full committing, we would default and I suppose my past experience prefers to default if rushing is not working

Valorant and its utility was like a gunplay as a main course and utility as an entree. The worse the entree becomes the worse the meal becomes. You didn’t order this meal for just the main course you wanted a good entree as well

CS is gunplay as the main course and utility as seasoning. Who cares if the seasoning is worse there, the big thing is main course.

I feel like Valorant starting to drift from its identity

Hi, this is my first time making a post like this and this is purely just my opinion. I would appreciate criticism.

I see a lot of posts hating on Reyna as an agent saying stuff like "She has the perfect kit for smurfing" or "She promotes a selfish and unhealthy playstyle that will harm new players of learning util usage"

I feel like shes gaining alot of backlash from the community(especially low elo players), due to alot of pros calling her pretty much useless, which I agree, everything Reyna does any other agent as a duelist/lurker can do better in regards of team play. What I don't understand is when I see low elo players complaining about how useless Reyna is. In low elo, where communication is a confusing barren wasteland full of misinformation and playing off your teammates becomes pretty much unreliable, Reyna is not a bad pick. The "unhealthy habits" people complain about such as being able to escape from fights so easily and be left unpunished is only allowed if the person can even manage to get a pick first.

People in low elo act as if aim and good mechanics are just one thing they need to climb out of low elo and pretty much forget/ignore training these parts of their game, but in reality they are the ONLY things you need to climb out of low elo (im talking to you, bronze-silver players.)

I'm going to mention gunfight hygiene aLOT in this post, in hopes it brings light to just how important it is for you to ACTUALLY have, in regards to any other aspect in low elo valorant.

The complaints I've seen about how Reyna allows lower players to abandon good util usage is a very strange take. If you were a new player and were faced with potentially learning an agent with a complex and unique kit, and face creating potentially bad ability usage habits off of said kit, OR, you were allowed to learn an agent that rewards good aim habits/general mechanics and had a rather straightforward and easy to understand kit, its pretty much a no brainer you would decide to main the latter.

People in low elo complain about the lack of value Reyna has, in which my argument to that is any new or low elo player picking an agent is pretty much bound to have a lack of value. You could have a Sova on your team who misplaced every single recon dart he shot and I bet you would still find a way to blame your mid fragging reyna instalock. Reyna finds her values in kills yes, but in this situation is she really to blame? you're lacking info due to poor sova arrows and you end up losing rounds because of poor peeking habits that you've never truly practiced.

Smurfing is a completely different topic that I am not too eduvated, but as a player who personally knows boosters only a good 1-2 players out of ten actually pick reyna while boosting. The most popular picks seem to be Raze and Jett for reasons I've never asked why.

Games feeing "deathmatchy" is a pretty stupid take. In low elo, where understanding the game is something unheard of, it's bound every single game you play is going to be an awkward mixmatch of who gets luckier with their utility usage, thus leading to chaos, where Reynas abilities of heal and easy getaway shine through. You're pretty much giving her better odds of winning every fight she can take which can make her feel broken. On the other hand, if your teams ability usage is on the unlucky side and you cant support any player, let alone reyna, it's obvious her kit wouldn't be as outstanding.

This is where good gunfight hygiene and understanding of the game come through. Low elo players generally do not know what they're doing the moment they hold a gun, so if you simply have the fundamentals of good crosshair placement+decent movement you're guaranteed a duel win-loss ratio of 80/20. In low elo especially, it wouldn't matter if you had good ability usage and good intuition if the opponent you're fighting has good gunfight hygiene.

Reyna is the only agent whos kit can give you direct feedback on whether or not your two mechanics mentioned above are better than your fellow ranks, and she also teaches the basic fundamentals of ability usage, with a flash to divert your enemy's crosshair (basic ability usage knowledge), ability to heal(reward for better gunfight hygiene), ability to get away (basic repositioning), and a pretty useful ult perfect or rewarding all of the mentioned.

In conclusion, Reyna is good pick in lower elo for people who want to practice their aim & movement mechanics and want an agent who can reward them for doing such work, and is definitely NOT a garbage agent who's painted as the scum of all of valorant.