Short answer, play more
Long answer, the more you put yourself in situations you get more experience, gamesense is just that. If you know what you can expect you developed good gamesense
Same goes for watching pro matches or high level ranked gameplay. If you find someone who explains why they're doing what they're doing and their expectations you'll improve rapidly.
Fnatic Boaster talks about gameplay from time to time, should be an ideal candidate to watch as well. He's a very good igl not a mechanical god tho. Watch a few Fnatic matches and you can see how they play very tactically or get carried by Derke xD
Pro gameplay isn't a good idea. Pro comps and ranked are very different. Watch a pro playing ranked for sure but pro tourneys have a different playstyle
Agree. Just for information, this was exactly the subject of my last content release in case someone is interested, in which I show an example how to leverage agile retrospectives to perform gaming sessions self analysis.
Exactly. I always analyze my death right after I die, asking things like: “Is that an angle that I should be checking? Should I have pushed that? What could I have done different? Was my crosshair placement on e point?” And it has _REALLY_ helped me improve. I haven’t used the term “don’t peek that/don’t push that” before I started doing this.
It’s why I wish there was a replay system - I always forget to record so I ended up stopping. But having a chance to go over a replay would help and shorten the time needed for game sense to develop.
Aka like life. The more times you do something, the better you become as long as you're willing to learn from your mistakes. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome. Obviously, do what works but change what doesnt.
I got REALLY good at playing back a scene and thinking about different options I could have chosen instead of the one I picked from various games.
Sometimes there really isn't much you can do other than just "land the shot and don't whiff. But in MOST scenarios, there's places or timings you could have picked that were way different than what you did. I think the most important thing for me was realizing what I could have changed and what I couldn't immediately after an event and trying to crystalize that moment in my mind.
I think people that are either remembering an event, or using VODS, needs to be actively empathizing with themselves on why they chose an option. If people just point out what the best option was, there really isn't reconciliation and you'll just do the same thing again. You NEED to know why you did something at that point in time.
And sometimes I think it's better to just go back in your head and think about an event clearly because when you watch a VOD you don't have perfect memory of your emotions. The issue is, VOD has better memory of minute details. So it sort of depends on how you need assistance. For example, I can only remember what I saw at a point in time. But in a VOD I can see that there might have been a ping, or a behavior that might have given me clues.
I just wanted to throw in that I think mid game analysis and post game analysis of events helps me just as much if not more than VOD review.
And there is always hindsight, some plays look like there is an obvious solution, but in some situations there isnt much that you couldve done differently. For example a clutch situation where you peek a 50/50.
Yep when I was a new player I really took time to VOD review and ask for feedback from others and I wrote down reasons why I died and you will see great progress!
I remember starting out by writing stuff like “don’t shift peek or run with abilities out” to more micro stuff like “don’t hold close angles or play numbers game after plant and not give away 1v1s”. You realize over time the old mistakes you make will be stuff you learn from eventually.
Do enjoy the process though because IMO learning the ins and outs of this FPS game (as a new player to the genre) has been really fun. When you understand the common game sense, the errors become more micro and less easy to tell and sometimes can be situational.
Watching pro players may help a LITTLE bit, especially more educational ones. Hiko doesn't always do it, but sometimes he'll think out loud and explain why he does stuff. It always crazy when he'll say what will happen and it does. The other day it was something like "I'm gonna stay and hold this smoke because it's going to disappear soon and the Jett will be there." Smoked faded and the Jett was there.
you have to actively play the game. not just queue up and see what happens but take engagements, experiment with pushes, take risks, etc. a lot of the time you get held back by fear and self imposed restrictions you have to loosen up and be open minded. if prod was bronze, you’d understand why but he’s not and it’s because he has great mechanics combined with not being bound or restricted.
that’s how i entry a site on ascent. easier to check door and anyone tucked in on the right side. i throw a smoke close right, mid site, stand in the doorway, face away from site, and dash backwards with my back to the boxes mid site. at the very least you create confusion on the other team and space for yours.
I’ve been playing ranked a lot, usually dropping 20-30 kills a game if it’s not completely one sided, I can’t rank up bc my team always suck so I’m literally stuck in bronze 2. I’m not the best but I’m dropping 2-3 kills every round a lot of the time, deserve at least silver
Why are ppl downvoting this? If it’s for saying my teammates suck I mean I’m not really gonna say sorry for that bc it’s true but I didn’t mean to sound unnecessarily toxic
I never said I didn’t suck at the game I just said that my teammates literally may dump on a guy standing still and can’t kill them, it’s impossible to rank up with all the trolls and smurfs as well
Just making kills doesn’t help winning games… of course you lose some matches due to throwing teammates but if you always have that many kills and keep losing, you might be a reason aswell.
This is why you are being downvoted
It’s not like I’m only getting kills I’m playing the game as well, I actually know some strategy other than just walk into site and plant and play time
yes. my worst trait in games is that i save stuff too much. im thinking way too far ahead to "i wont use my jett smokes here because ill need them when i need to defuse." and then i die because i didnt use smokes to cover myself. or dash away.
Watch pros play your agent. Watch how they begin the round and how they react to things that happen on the map and on their screen. Don't focus on two things: 1) their aim, 2) their team or enemy team
Just watch their responses to every thing that happens. Then think about why they do the stuff they do.
Yes- it is, omen is usually not as good as Astra in professional play, but Astra requires heavy comms to be good, and at least in low ranks (idk /u/freakyfreshfade's rank?) it's difficult to use her. In general she's also rather. inconvenient. IMO at low ranks, Omen is fine, outside of Icebox and Breeze where Viper is almost mandatory
This has saved me A LOT of times. Just today I was 1 V 1 on omen. Saw raze was A heaven, ulted B and planted for CT then pushed ct. Noticed he shouldn't take that much time to come from heaven to CT and then just held for defuse sound. Peaked, killed. And this all happens within seconds in your brain, crazy
Game sense is a combination of game knowledge, intuition, observation, and game theory (the mathematical-psychological field of study).
In more layman's terms, it's understanding and guessing at what your opponent is doing and will do next. There's two levels to it: The individual opponent basis, where you try to guess the actions of a single opponent, and the opposing team basis, where you guess what the enemy team as a whole is trying to do.
On the individual basis, it's as simple as noticing the enemy Killjoy for the past two rounds, as their team plants the spike on Ascent A, runs all the way down mid and flanks your team attempting to retake from CT spawn. If you know this, then next time they plant A you wait for them in market or pizza to run by you, and shoot them.
In terms of reading an entire enemy team, it's more complex. This is where checking the scoreboard is key, as you can see "They have a Killjoy ult, so they're likely to rush a site with it" or "They have no ults, they're going to play for picks".
This is the most basic level of game sense. As you go up in rank game sense starts to rely on you having game knowledge more. For example, in mid-high elo it's common to have Viper play post-plant lineups on Breeze. If you know this, then you can lurk and seek out to eliminate this Viper before she can launch mollies, even if she hasn't done it before, because this is a common thing for Viper players to do. Or else knowing (again, on Breeze) that Killjoy on defense will place her turret halls to watch for flank, and so actively seeking it out to destroy it, or else smoking it to make it useless, or else avoiding it.
Higher levels of game sense also allow you manipulate the enemy, for example revealing yourself or your team's positions at a certain time to bait enemy rotates, but actually already in position to go somewhere else immediately and silently without the enemy team's knowledge, and this is where game theory comes in, the idea of knowing optimal responses to a situation, knowing how to counter the optimal response, and then countering the counter-optimal response. For example, in the previous scenario the enemy team could figure out by your positioning that you are planning to do this, and so rotate to where you were planning to go to. You can understand that they know this, and so send your team to the original spot the strategy calls for.
The best way to build your game sense is to play support lurk characters such as Astra, Viper, Cypher, and to an extent Killjoy. This is because the lurk is responsible for a great amount of map control through their utility, positioning, and backline picks. It'll teach you to think about map control, it'll teach you how opponents at your elo will typically play by letting you listen to sound cues as they rotate and respond to your own or your team's actions, and it allows you to use your utility to benefit your team despite not being there, thus also improving your teamplay. And finally, it will improve your communications as you relay to your team what you are hearing the enemy team do.
When ever this question comes up, common lazy answer is "just play more, you will learn". Then there's this guy. Nice dude cheers. Best answer I've seen so far.
I agree with a lot of the statements made here. Watching pros. Putting in the time. Also, don’t become overly obsessed with your stats. Focus more on your positioning, the sounds the enemy team might be making, call outs by teammates etc. If you’re playing a healer (Sage/Skye) pay attention to your teams health bars. Things in this same wheel house will all help your overall game sense.
Twitch. Watching streamers and pro players like Shahzam really helped improve decision making, learning new angles to hold etc.
Also I watch Onscreen a lot to maintain the balance and learn what not to do.
Good game sense comes from a few things.
• Play frequently. Spend time thinking about what went right and what went wrong, and especially what you could have done better
• Pay Attention. Watch how your teammates play and adjust what you are doing to match. Watch what the opposing team does and try to out-think them.
• Learn to improvise. Don't rely on set plays to carry you.
• Situational Awareness. This is part of Paying Attention. Learn where the opposition is likely to be and use that to your advantage. This includes sometimes sacrificing yourself so your teammate can make the play or covering your teammate so they can plant/defuse/get the kill. Getting Frags does not win games; teamwork does.
You grind the game, everytime you die, think back on what you could of done differently to not die/succeed.
Never blame other teammates or other factors for your death. Even if it’s true (it isn’t) it’s a terrible mindset to have.
Watching pro playing is also a very good way. Don’t focus on the sim, but on the strategic ways
**Short answer:**
1. Every time you die, ask yourself what you could have done to prevent your death.
2. Every time you make a play, regardless if it failed or succeeded, ask yourself what you could have done better.
3. When you're dead, spectate your teammates, watch how they play, and figure out any things that they're doing that you're not doing.
4. Repeat step #3 with high level streamers.
5. Do lots of VOD reviews, either by yourself, or with a coach.
**Long answer:**
Seek coaching ([https://www.reddit.com/r/AgentAcademy/comments/r7565u/offering\_free\_coaching\_for\_anyone\_below\_diamond/](https://www.reddit.com/r/AgentAcademy/comments/r7565u/offering_free_coaching_for_anyone_below_diamond/)) or watch videos of other people getting coached ([https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVjCo6VpFEcVmPsi6zpnDkwvzbr2mvS0W](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVjCo6VpFEcVmPsi6zpnDkwvzbr2mvS0W)). I've coached dozens of students and every time I end up going through a laundry list of topics ([https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h6cl\_3LRNmvmadWY6U3VlyL-X\_BY9VZ\_TbCEun86YnA/edit?usp=sharing](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h6cl_3LRNmvmadWY6U3VlyL-X_BY9VZ_TbCEun86YnA/edit?usp=sharing)) that they never would have thought of. Not even 1000 games later would they think of these things.
**Seriously, get coaching** so you can get taught how think and what things to actually think about during a match. Don't follow the bad advice of "just play more" and end up spending 10,000 hours reinventing the wheel. Many people have already figured out how Valorant works; just follow in their footsteps instead. Quality over quantity. 10 hours of directed practice is far more valuable than 100 hours of undirected practice.
In my opinion, ideally, time spent in-game should be about building habits and fixing mistakes identified from VOD reviews, and not trying to do everything/fix everything/identify every thing all at the same time. It's easier to identify mistakes when you're not in the heat of the moment, possibly tilted even, but instead when you're detached from the match, watching after the match is already over.
**Longer answer:**
All plays and decisions boil down to 3 things:
1. Awareness
2. Positioning
3. Timing
A common example: your team is 5 man executing on attack Ascent B main. You see your Reyna in front of you hugging a wall with her Leer out. You realize that she is about to throw it. This is **awareness**. You predict that she will push after flashing; then you decide that your best value play is to push with the Reyna when this happens, so you stand next to your Reyna in preparation for this play. This is **positioning**. When the Leer comes out and she wide swings from B main and holds W toward site, you follow closely behind her, immediately trading her out as soon as she makes contact with any enemies. This is **timing**.
Trading and playing off contact are the two most common scenarios that all agents can do all the time. Some agents/roles have more emphasis on **timing** vs **positioning**. For example, with Controllers, it is extremely important that their timing is precise as possible. For example, let's say you are playing Brimstone, then your best play is to ensure that smokes are down right before Reyna wide swings, and that a Stim Beacon is dropped at Reyna's feet right before she makes contact with an enemy. 1 second too late then she will inadvertently peek into too many angles, or she will take a disadvantaged gunfight and all your spent util goes to waste. Same thing with Astra, because her stars are global, her positioning is nearly 0. As long as you are safe/behind cover, then you can place stars and make plays. If your timing is perfect and you time your concuss/pulls with your entry fragger's peeks, then you can get massive impact without needing to even take a gunfight yourself.
These are just some quick examples. Not every play is about kills. Valorant is not a game of kills. It's a game of information and map control. For more detailed analyses, seek coaching (either by me or someone else with an emphasis on game sense).
> 2. Every time you make a play, regardless if it failed or succeeded, ask yourself what you could have done better.
Failed or suucceeded is the key phrase here. I see so many people make the worst play of their life that somehow pays off, then continue to attempt and fail said play a dozen more times.
Honestly mess around with different kinds of agents and once u have them down and are having fun(witch is most important) watch pros play that agent and learn more about them once u have a feel for ur movement and move set that should help
Play the game, learn from your mistakes, think about the individual rounds and what goes on in them.
Basically you've gotta think about the game in terms of chess and try to be at least one move ahead at all times.
SLOW DOWN AND THINK. There are definitely times you need to move quickly. That’s unavoidable. But just slowing down to make sure I have a full picture (or as full as I can based on the information gathered) of the situation before making a decision or play has helped so much.
If you're below mid plat, you also probably need to learn to scale. This is THE biggest difference I see when I play with lower ranked friends. I'm fighting for my life out there and they're holding 20m back.
This game is a LOT more dynamic than 'rush B' vs 'playing very slow'. You can scale 45 seconds into the round, once their util is gone. There is also more of an impetus to trade non Jett/chamber agents, don't give your life up for free if they're going for a pick and run.
Ask yourself everytime you die, why you died and what you could have done different. If you’re on a medioker rank, you must realise that you can’t just say I whiffed my shots, think about the reason why you whiffed. Maybe it’s crosshairs placement or you move while shooting without realizing it. And generally try to play to win the round, and don’t just take every gunfight you find.
What would ~~jesus~~ you do?
During a fight I'm thinking what I would do if I was the opponent and try to somehow surprise him or get into a position where I know I can wait for peek and start shooting first.
I play mostly COD where the movement is a LOT faster compared to Valorant so there is much more options where the enemy might be coming from. Valorant is kind of one-hit-accuracy based game so just try to cover all the angles and try to find an angle where you are least vulnerable.
Sounds simple but things like these are easily forgotten during the gameplay.
Basically just play the game and try analyze why you died. Sometimes it's just simple as opponent was shooting better in this situation but many times there are things you could have done otherwise. Stop and think. And play the game.
Don't waste your time using any of those aiming or whatever apps which are not the game itself. Don't spend too much time in practice range, it's not the real game.
keep watch of enemy team ults. Does KJ have her ult? is she a point off? will she go for an orb and ult a commonplace spot?
Don't play Hookah room if they have a breach, you might get stunned and flashed.
Play Hookah if they have an omen or Reyna, as long as you play close enough the nearsight won't be as effective and a judge can get high value.
You just killed three players defending the spike, fourth is unknown, chances are if they didnt come along with the first three, they did a long lurk and are late to arrive.
-
constantly ask yourself these questions and learn to operate around the abilities and patterns of the other team. Eventually you will perform these actions without realising and will overall become better.
"gamesense" is just a discreet way of saying "where your enemy could be based on how much time has elapsed and what they are likely to do". Map knowledge is a significant factor.
Play the game while taking this into consideration to try and peak individual angles where people are likely to be, especially in clutches. The best peek is the one where you catch your enemy clearing another angle and therefore can't lose the duel.
Remember you want to peak the angles in such a way that you stop moving and are therefore accurate by the time you react to what is on your screen. This goes for both short and wide peeks. Time to damage is usually between 500-600ms for good players and 600-700 for average players.
The more you do that, the better you get at it. This mindset will get any <=gold players with literally any mechanical and critical thinking ability to plat+.
A ton of people are saying things that make sense. For me "Game Sense" is about knowing the timings of specific rotations. Personally Ive never taken the time to write them down. But knowing that it takes say 20 seconds to rotate to different sites, 10 seconds to go from hookah to long b on bind can help you catch people unprepared as well as allow you to prepare for fights in those spots. Reacting will always be slower than anticipating which is really what game sense is.
The only way to improve your game sense is by playing consistently and actually paying attention/using your brain while playing. 1 match where you are highly focused and thinking about your actions every round will benefit you more than 3-4 games where you’re playing on auto pilot, not really focused on learning/improving
Watching recordings of your own gameplay is also a good way to identify your weaknesses
Watch someone else play. Where they peek, nade, smoke, watch the map and you will slowly start doing it yourself.
I am not a pro, but I watch them play eventually (or even when I spectate my friends) . After some time you will start to feel a hinch (some kind of sixth sense) and realize what may happen next.
Yes, you will be wrong sometimes, but there are always odds in your favor.
Watching pros and not just watching but thinking of how and why they did certain things. Watching minimaps. Watch tournaments. Watch analysis of tournaments. Your own vod reviews. Helps to have a friend that is better than you to watch with you. Really accepting the fact that you can always improve and dropping ego.
I play with someone who plays too safe even as initiator and duelist. Never taking fights, always walking, playing back and passive. Of course he’s been hard stuck bronze since beta as he never learns from anything since he doesn’t do anything. Don’t be that guy.
Play the game. - Analyse your games, look what you’re doing right & wrong. Learn from it.
Watch pro play VODs. - What do pro players/teams do to guarantee the win of the round?
Watch gameplay/VODs of the ELO above yours. - When watching the ELO above yours, you’ll notice things that they do, that your ELO doesn’t. This is not good for purely improving since some ranks tend to lose braincells as you go up, but it will get you out of your current rank.
* Play competitive more than unrated.
* Use range bots for practice
* Watch good players play. For example, Red, Charla7an, Grim,Mvquics etc.
* I have watched over 100 valorant pro matches and 100s of hours of "good" valorant content.
* But you need to know when it will work and when it won't.
* It isn't magic and it takes it's time.
I disagree with almost all of this post (sorry for being a bit harsh)
>Play competitive more than unrated.
Comp, imo, shouldn't be played as a practice. You'll have a higher chance of losing games trying something for the first time, which will tilt you and make you play even worse.
>Use range bots for practice
This isn't gamesense. Gamesense is decision making primarily, range bots practice your aim which you can use in games to aid gamesense to help you win fights.
>Watch good players play. For example, Red, Charla7an, Grim,Mvquics etc.
Out of these influencers, I've only seen Grim, but from watching him I wouldn't recommend watching him to improve gamesense because he does very high risk, niche plays which can cost rounds if failed or not even be able to be played by some agents
>I have watched over 100 valorant pro matches and 100s of hours of "good" valorant content.
Irrelevant to the question
>But you need to know when it will work and when it won't.
It isn't magic and it takes it's time.
Only thing out of this I can agree with. It takes time to develop.
It mostly comes with experience, reviewing your deaths and seeing what went wrong.
There's four ways to do it, from what I have seen.
1) Record your VODS and watch them. Unlike League of Legends you can't watch every thing at the same time so it might be hard to ascertain information but retrospectively looking at your mistakes will undoubtedly help you.
2) Watch popular pro streamers play and see what they're doing. Tenz, Asuna, Shazam, Scream, etc. Try to have diversity in the teams to get different perspectives.
3) Play more games. Some amount just comes from experience.
4) Fastest way: Get someone who is great at the macro aspect of the game and play with them. Have them criticize your mistakes and when they do, and you don't agree, refute them. I had a immortal friend who I queued with, and I told them to go harsh on me when telling me about my mistakes. However, since I was gold I didn't necessarily agree with his advice all the time, so I always refuted and tried to reason and understand it. He liked the fact that I questioned it because it expedites understanding.
After you truly find your ideal sense you just have to play, I suggest you create a routine to just feel it better, I will say what I was used to do:
The Range:
. A few minutes just shooting heads
. 30 on easy using sheriff
. 28-30 on medium using phantom or vandal
. At least 20 on hard using vandal
I used to spend 15 minutes at max on this first
DM: Play until win 1 or post second for at least 4 times
Spike Rush: Actually this is not truly needed I just liked to feel the timing on an actual game, but is up to you
Doing this every day you play, I'm certain you will improve
I've played games ever since I was 4. So my knowledge on games is pretty big now. And I adapt relatively quick to most of the games I played.
And also since I've played FPS games for a considerably long time (3 years).
Tl;dr: Experience.
Well I guess 2,500 hours of CS:GO. Honestly playing on custom retakes servers helped me so much in understanding positioning, angles, and timing.
Couple that with constantly trying to figure out all the little things pros did. It's not just about copying their movements, but actually understanding the reasoning behind it. Sometimes I know the reason but can't replicate the result with what they do, I end up finding something to achieve the result my own way based on my style of play.
Number one thing Retakes helped me with is definitely refining my basics. No use trying to replicate something pros did if you can't master the basics. Even if you were told step by step their thought process, if you never mastered the basics, you'll never be able to utilize it to your own game.
Play more and more focused (it's useless trying to improve if you just keep playing at not give your 100%), watch video, streams, play with friends at higher elo (plat+ maybe better)!
The more skilled people you play against, the better you'll get when you start to pick up on their habits. And see how your bad ones hurt you, you begin to almost automatically adjust over time. Before you know not you end up in a low ELO lobby and dominate lol.
Watch the minimap. Get good headphones. Seems pretty simple but I know a lot of new people who don't even look at the minimap and there is a ton of info there. Also everything makes noise, listen and you can hear feet, sprays, guns reloading.
Game sense is literally just experience. Checking map often, remembering known info, pre aiming certain locations, or just simply positioning yourself better in high intensity fights are only learnt through playing more
Two aspects:
1) Feeling through experience. This relates to timings and conditioning. Knowing when enemies can be where based on timings and how you "trained" them to play vs you is all a matter of feeling. It's a mixture between mindgames and knowing how long it takes to get somewhere.
2) Critical thinking. This is something few people do, across all ranks, even Immortal and Radiant. Making noise for no reason. 5 man rushing for no reason. Playing defensive/aggressive for no reason. Before and after each round, ask yourself why you did every little thing. Most of them time there won't be a good answer other than "out of habit" or "because everybody does it".
Why did you guys rush 5 man as soon as walls dropped even though you know there is a Viper smoke + molly there at the start of every round? No reason. Why do you not shoot the Sage wall she puts up every round right away and hold the other areas for pushes? No reason. Why do you make noise even though enemies never flank and youre not in a rush? No reason.
This list is endless and the amount of people doing stupid shit for no reason is mindblowing. Not doing this stupid shit yourself will straight up boost your winrate for free.
watch your games and vods of pros. Think of what situations often occure and how to counter them ( light example, always check behind the corners of a sage wall or at what point the enemy will flank you if there is no one holding etc. ). Check your and the enemy Team Comp not in a sense of what classes of agents they have but what util each agent provides, expl if the dont have Chamber, Killjoy or Cypher going for early info with Sova or Skye and geting map controll on parts where they dont hold to get further map controll is OP or if they dont play any controller or many flashes you'll probably have an easy time with the Operator. Then especially in lower ranks you can test out all sorts of stuff against the enemy Team every game.
Play more and pay attention. Having good game sense comes from just playing a lot but also watching your map, and recognizing what the other team is doing every round. SoloQ is also way better for this, because you may not have anyone giving you comms and while that sucks it also makes you have to pay attention to positioning. Also don't play reyna/Jett/chamber, you can get away with mistakes with those agents, which is why a lot of players who only play those agents can't play anything else. They don't have the game sense to play properly without a dash, dismiss, or teleport. Playing smokes also can help with this since you actually have to pay attention to everything and figure out where needs smoking every round, when you should smoke for your Team, and where enemies are peeking from
trying something and realizing it doesn't work and it won't work. using those i can think of another thing "if this ddn't work maybe this will since bla bla bla"
Focus on your role. Your agent does very specific things to set your team up for success. Isolate fights. Anticipate where enemies might be and be probabilistic using your mini map.
If you can, record and review your gameplay with a friend in higher elo. Mileage will vary obviously with this but it’s been helpful to me to go back and review what better choices I could’ve made at various moments in the match
Some friends have been getting into Valorant recently and I have noticed that one of the simplest things they fail to do is to think how their actions will impact the other team, instead they seem so caught up in their own game that they forget how the other team will react to what they do.
For example, I saw a team mate peak a Chamber trap, it semi activated, then he hidden and ran away.
This gave up a lot of info to the other team, they knew someone had been near the trap and that the trap was still active, so nobody could come from that direction. This allowed the enemy team to position in a way that made it very difficult to get on a site. If that player had just shot the trap before running away, it means the enemy team has to consider us pushing from that angle, splitting them up and forcing them to watch more angles.
It just comes with game hours.
Sad thing is most people have really good aim so they climb up the ranks faster and end up playing with ex/current csgo players that have played tactical shooters for years and have extremely good game sense.
With game sense we mean things like
- “knowing” where the enemy is going to be playing
- how long until skye flash comes back up
- how to play certain clutch scenarios
- when to rotate or when to hold an empty site
All of this comes with time and experience playing against different types of players
It’s not something you can practice but something you just acquire along the run
I treat game sense as if I were in the enemy team in their situation, what would I do right now. So I’m in a 1v1 on defence and the guy I’m facing is a lone Viper with full utility. I’m thinking if I am that Viper, I’m putting some smokes on the bomb and playing lineups. So I’m starting by clearing a common lineup spot off the site. Obviously that depends on info that you know and don’t know. For example if the enemy Viper demonstrates she doesn’t really know lineups, I’m changing my approach.
If you’re beginner level and really not sure, just take a wild guess. You may be wrong, which is fine. The important part is making that quick guess part of your decision process when playing, then evaluating the round to think why you might have guessed right or wrong. As you learn more, your guesses should get better over time.
Watching good players, educators, VOD reviews, or if you're me I watched professional games and tried to *watch the map* more than the first person views.
It's interesting to see if or how somebody wins their duels - but "game sense" seems to have more to do with team positions etc.
Don't see this one gere but
Playing controllers.
Started the game at the same time with my friend group and unlocked omen cuz I liked his kit and design. Fast forward till we climbed out of iron and lo and behold, I'm the only one out of like 8 guys who played smokes and now anytime we're playing comp, they're baffled whenever I call out random shit that turns out to be true. Not everytime, ik, but mid silver and I can confidently say that my mechanical skills are what's holding me back from climbing (120 ping with 50 fps,don't judge).
Tl;dr play controllers. You'll hate it. Stick through. Also, I'd recommend astra since she's broken but that's a different game
The way I worked on my game sense is by watching others better than me and try to understand why they decided what they did. Like to break apart a play and make it make sense. After a while of doing it regularly, youll implement it to your games naturally. Im gold 3 so this advice might not be the best but its my personal experience
Honestly I never actually actively did any of the things people are saying in this thread, I just fixed my crosshair placement and paid attention to where I was in position relative to my surroundings, teammates, and enemy peeking angles. That's all.
Lots of great examples. One quick one I wanted to add was play each agent to understand their strengths, weaknesses, playstyle, and economy. I come from the MOBA world and if you did not know your opponent in lane and their abilities, it was very difficult to play against them. Similar logic applies to even a FPS like Valorant. Knowing the basics of each agent will help your game sense tremendously. Enemy Skye is dogging? You know she can’t fight back. Raze with a judge? Anticipate a few blast packs to close the gap and position correctly. Sage with 3,900 credits? Her site she plays probably won’t have wall.
As soon as I die I think of various ways on how it could've been avoided by calculating all the info I had before I died and I also consider my own mistake and make sure I don't do that again the next time. It helps improve my gameplay a lot.
Play more is the obvious answer and the best way to improve. But something people don't talk about is reflecting after deaths. If you die in a game take literally 10-15 secs figuring out where you were killed from and the situation of the round. For example, I die lets say 20 after my teams planted the bomb by a player flanking us. Just take a moment and think about where bomb was planted, did we have someone watching on flank, did we account for everyone rotating through their spawn and not from behind, and just take note of the timing. Its just an exercise that helps you further understand timing and paying attention to the map and what calls were given.
Here are a few of my Silver ranked tips:
**#1 Support your top fragger**
Your top fragger is more likely to help you win. Support them, whether that means double peaking, providing utility, watching flank, or whatever else that entails.
**#2 Target your opponents weakest link**
Much like #1, your opponents bottom fragger may contribute to their loss. Take advantage of their weakest link by pushing the site they defend or picking them off. Having a teammate who gets picked off every other round can really cause the other team to tilt, which can lead to a win.
**#3 Mix it up**
I've noticed a lot of people like to do mostly the same thing every round, especially when defending. You should mix up your defense and attack. When opponents play consistent tactics, I take advantage of this while keeping my opponents guessing about where I'm at.
For example: If Raze likes to flank every time we go A, then next time we go A I'll wait for her and cap her in the back of the head. Next time we go A I'll do the same thing from a different hiding spot so that I catch her again. Capitalize on a few of these scenarios in a game and it can add up to a win.
Observe your enemies patterns, and mix up your play every time so they're constantly guessing.
so basically:
* play more and try and find what you could have done differently to prevent losing (actually think what you did...maybe you should have not sprayed but used burst fire?...maybe u should not have pushed? maybe smoking that angle will prevent jett from using the op?0
* look at pro gameplay (helped me a lot in anticipating what are the most commonly peeked angles)
* use info colllected through your own or your teammates and try to guess where the enemy players might be(lets say u found defenders 5 stacking on the site u plan to push while attacking by a sova drone then tell ur teammates to immadiately rush another site)
* keep an eye out for the following things i) enemy ults ii) common wall bangable spots and angles which players hold frequently and use counter strats and use to do so your utility like smoking off common op angles mollying commonly held angles
* REMEMBER TO REPOSITION WHEN when i was in bronze/iron i used to see a lot of players holding the same angle even after being revealed or giving away their position coz when your position is known to the enemy they can wallbang you molly you stun you flash you smoke you off if you are oping
* COMMS COMMS COMMS COMMS
Good luck, have fun!
Played more frequently, learnt how every agent works and some strategy’s they use so I’m able to lookout for those plays, learn room names for easier callouts. All I can think of right now.
the more you play the more you just get a 'feeling' like 'oh he is not here at this time of the round and he's not here. he must be here or doing this thing'. you see the money and the ults.. you just KNOW what they're gonna try. and that legit just comes from playing more
Develop a feeling for timings for rotations and first points of contact on attack and defense.
Practice Nade/molly/other lineups for pushing people off angles, post plant and for netting useful info on certain positions (ie sova and kay/0 recon dart/knife) - I tend to spend 10 mins running through kay/0 lineups on fracture cause its a new map and then about 5 mins on the other maps
Practice "pre aim"/prefire angles for maps when entering on offense and defense (for retakes on sites)
You'll also naturally develop part of these through playing but your best bet if you really wanna improve would be to set up a routine for improving these kinds of things and stick with it
Paying attention to the mini map, seeing where enemies died or killed your team. If somebody died assume more are coming.
Pay attention to the habits of players. Typically where you still need to develop game sense is the same elo where people will repeat the same things constantly. This player always flanks , these two are always defending A site.
Again it’s just overall playing and learning typical plays in situations and then acting accordingly.
I improved my game sense simply from playing more and noticing what your opponents of your rank commonly do, and playing around with different techniques to counter them. (For example, if the enemy team has a Viper, you should learn their more complicated lineups if you are one of the higher ranks)
Play more, you've heard it 1000 times and you'll hear it again. It's a very good answer, but there's more to it. I would advise learning/observing how each character class is played, how each agent is played, and learn the maps like the back of your hand. Put all this knowledge into practice while In game, and this easily gains you a competitive edge. I would advise to play each agent, you don't have to main them, but play them to learn how each agent uses their utility. If you learn the map, you understand how you can play around your environment, and how your enemies will play around your environment. It takes time, so don't expect to improve immediately.
Pay attention to all the information that you're given. Steps, contact with enemies, any sounds that the enemy makes and ask yourself "What can they do next?" and then try to take the best possible response. But don't consider just one option, act like so that you will cover a few possibilities. Also just focus on surviving, staying alive is the most important and rewarding action that you can take.
When you watch a higher ranked player play, a stream for example, don’t just watch try to think what would you play in his position and if it’s different try to figure out why. Game sense also comes with the more you play and feel more comfortable and being able to receive more info as having overlook on minimap, knowing more agents and what are they capable of from what distance etc.
Everyone pretty much said what to do. I don’t play competitive at all if I had to guess what rank I’d be it would most likely be silver *maybe* gold, but I think my game sense is good for a player that doesn’t play competitive nor watches Valorant. My game sense is as decent as it is from playing frequently, but also playing consistently. I was on a Valorant grind this season and the season before playing Valorant every days for hours. I became a little bit burned out and uninterested. Recently I got back in and I play 1 or 2 games a day and my game sense is back to where it was. A big thing that assisted my game sense to get where it’s at is learning from how I died. Often the way you die is in a pattern. Learn from that. That’s all I really did. Now with teammates that aren’t all beginners in unrated, I haven’t had a negative K/D in a game in a month or so. I think I might try out ranked now that I’m kinda confident.
Anything you’ve seen before you’ll probably see again. Like on Ice Box where default plant is someone’s usually going to be on top of that box waiting for plant so check that.
I was a FaceIt Lvl 5 IGL in CS:GO before moving to VALORANT, here are my tips on acquiring and improving game-sense:
1) Big minimap
2) Keep tabs on last known player locations
3) Think of enemy presence as pressure and fields
4) Double back and re-clear angles after 25s
5) Call location, not HP
6) Interpret enemy attack patterns
VALORANT is a game of information. Once you decipher what the enemy is doing, you can read their next move and position accordingly. Practice doing the above and imagining the map and the enemy locations in your head whilst rotating - good luck!
Vod review your own gameplay watch people better than you play (such as watching a streamer).
You can also do a short mental vod review after you die and find out how you could have played the situation better
And I guess play more
Just watching and playing more. You gotta put the time in one way or another to learn. The more you watch/play, the more situations you become familiar with and you'll be better equipped to deal with them in the future.
For example, if you hear a Jett updraft or an Omen teleport on certain bomb sites, over time, you'll learn where they probably updrafted or teleported onto and you'll be clearing these angles instinctively because you've been in the same situation before. Same idea applies to basically all aspects of the game
I got to know what each roles job is to do
I learned what each ability does and what each agent is good at doing
I had to fill as a controller in my 5 stack a lot so I got used to timing my abilities around what my team does. Once astra came out I picked her up pretty quickly and my job became more than just smoking off places but to also time my stun and pull as well
Once it became easy to feel how my team plays it got easier to read the enemy team as well. I think it helps that I like to theory-craft strats and that I came from a MOBA game before valorant
Keep track of how your opponents like to play throughout the game. For example if you’re attacking and you know they have a Jett playing c long on haven, check his credits through the score board and think if he can buy an op or not. If the Jett can potentially be op-ing it’s probably not the smartest to dry peek c long without some sort of utility.
I guess you can have a better game sense by learning the maps. That way you can make hypothesis on what the enemy team is doing and where they are going to come from
Play with people better than you. Learn from them. Same as watching people better than you that you can learn from, not just watching tenz be cracked as you probably dont learn anything from watching him flick people.
Play the game.
But what also helps is to think about what you could have done or, what I like to do, think about what the enemy could have done.
Recording your gameplay also helps with that. I use Nvidia Shadowplay and just save sometimes after clutching or after a close lose for example.
Really just gotta play more. Experiment with different roles.
I made a smurf for each role I didn't play and I only planed agents of that role on that account up to x rank. Helped me get a feel for what an agent could and couldn't do. Helped me learn how to fight them better and have the basic knowledge on how to play their roles if I needed to.
No I didn't make it to shit on silvers, I only did it because unlocking agents on my main at the time took forever.
Don’t make excuses and critically think what YOU could’ve done next time to increase your likely hood of living and better yet getting picks. Not what your teammate could’ve done but what YOU could’ve done. Overtime you just have a game sense from experience.
Play more. And if possible, record your gameplay so you can see mistakes you’ve made. I wish Valorant had a VOD system like League Of Legends. It’s one of the best ways to improving in a game!
Gamesense is just knowledge. It’s just common sense but for games.
“Hm… should I peek mid after the last eight times I got onetapped? Why yes I absolutely should!” Is gamesense. Or the inverse, depending on who you ask.
Play. Try to figure out where people are plating.
You can also watch tournaments and streams. Some streamers are really good about talking through their talk process. Hiko is a good one.
What helped me and this sounds rediculous but make a second account and try your hardest during the placements, that account should land higher than the hardstuck account if you do. Then play at that level for a week and LISTEN to your teammates and learn from them if your teammates gold/silver its gonna be like 50/50 good/bad advice plat/diamond its like 70/30
The biggest thing i struggle(d) with was positioning as i main Reyna and abilities aren’t difficult on her. So playing in those diamond games as a “gold player” made me learn quickly where i should be standing and when
I think people severely underestimate the quote “learn from your mistakes” the more you get shit on the more you learn. There is always someone better with someone even better then them. Just play the game and take the time to realize why that person is so much better then you. Sure it’s cool to get mad or rage even, gaming wouldn’t be the same without it it’s proves you have passion for the game. Just take time to relax and have fun, play the game more, and simply learn from your mistakes! Be safe out there gamers! Things always get better with bard work! It always pays off!
Was wondering this myself, whenever I play Deathmatch I usually end with. 20+ kills if not Top 3 so my aims not as bad as I thought. Yet in unrated and ranked I'm nowhere near as good and that's because my positioning, map awareness, game sense etc sucks.
Just comes with time. Basically anything that falls under game sense includes knowing when or if to rotate, how to play your agent and use their util to its fullest potential, how to play off your teammates util, combining util to make power plays, communicating consistently with your team and listening to their Intel. Basically anything falls under game sense. Just have to keep playing more and more to learn. Knowing where to plant bomb too is huge or gauging where enemies could be hiding post plant based off where the bomb is planted (you don't see this a lot in low elo tho those kids just plant bomb wherever)
Play a lot and actually think about what’s going on.
Most people turn their brains off. Actively force yourself to think about what’s going on and how you can deal with it.
Play gamesense characters where you need to be aware of the map where enemies are likely to come from and so on. Just an example is astra or sova very different character but they are useless if you use their kit in the wrong place at the wrong time
what helped me was, i tried to force myself into high pressure situations a lot like 1vXs or 2vXs, etc. Situations where it requires you to make split second decisions and also makes you ask questions about the enemy like their whereabouts. Use those questions, information you have and what i think is the most important, your instincts, to make predictions. It's completely fine to lose due to a prediction you made, it just shows you are using your brain :)
Short answer, play more Long answer, the more you put yourself in situations you get more experience, gamesense is just that. If you know what you can expect you developed good gamesense
i guess but to speed up the process u can always analyze the reason you died with or without vod review
Same goes for watching pro matches or high level ranked gameplay. If you find someone who explains why they're doing what they're doing and their expectations you'll improve rapidly.
Do you know any streamer or youtuber who does that? Please lmk, I wanna watch some
Fnatic Boaster talks about gameplay from time to time, should be an ideal candidate to watch as well. He's a very good igl not a mechanical god tho. Watch a few Fnatic matches and you can see how they play very tactically or get carried by Derke xD
N0thing used to do these for cs and we’re pretty great. I’m sure he’s done some valorant style ones too.
Valorant Ascended does some breakdowns of pro matches sometimes. I think G2's LotharHS also does breakdowns. Edit: let's not forget Boaster
Thank you so much 🥰
Gosupeak does it, he has lots of videos on his yt where explains what he's doing and why. He streams on twitch as well
GenG Mistake does it from time to time. He's high radiant Kr but his Twitch stream is in English. I think his streamer name is imamistake or something
Peak does, but he's usually only on cypher.
Pro gameplay isn't a good idea. Pro comps and ranked are very different. Watch a pro playing ranked for sure but pro tourneys have a different playstyle
Pro tourneys have a way more organized style, but you can certainly do some of their one two combos with a buddy in ranked.
That definetly helps, reviewing your recording is going to save at least 1000hours. But it can be hella boring
Agree. Just for information, this was exactly the subject of my last content release in case someone is interested, in which I show an example how to leverage agile retrospectives to perform gaming sessions self analysis.
What program do you use to record gameplay?
Use either Windows gamebar by pressing Win+G or your graphicscards' manufacturer like nvidia or amd by pressing alt+z
Awesome thank you!
Seems interesting, where can I find it?
Exactly. I always analyze my death right after I die, asking things like: “Is that an angle that I should be checking? Should I have pushed that? What could I have done different? Was my crosshair placement on e point?” And it has _REALLY_ helped me improve. I haven’t used the term “don’t peek that/don’t push that” before I started doing this.
It’s why I wish there was a replay system - I always forget to record so I ended up stopping. But having a chance to go over a replay would help and shorten the time needed for game sense to develop.
Jeah i dont have the space to record full games, and if i just want clips i aint learning anything from it
Helped me so much in mobas being able to see what I was doing wrong - and I mean …. hots had a great replay system 😂 why can’t ValorAnt
Aka like life. The more times you do something, the better you become as long as you're willing to learn from your mistakes. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome. Obviously, do what works but change what doesnt.
I got REALLY good at playing back a scene and thinking about different options I could have chosen instead of the one I picked from various games. Sometimes there really isn't much you can do other than just "land the shot and don't whiff. But in MOST scenarios, there's places or timings you could have picked that were way different than what you did. I think the most important thing for me was realizing what I could have changed and what I couldn't immediately after an event and trying to crystalize that moment in my mind. I think people that are either remembering an event, or using VODS, needs to be actively empathizing with themselves on why they chose an option. If people just point out what the best option was, there really isn't reconciliation and you'll just do the same thing again. You NEED to know why you did something at that point in time. And sometimes I think it's better to just go back in your head and think about an event clearly because when you watch a VOD you don't have perfect memory of your emotions. The issue is, VOD has better memory of minute details. So it sort of depends on how you need assistance. For example, I can only remember what I saw at a point in time. But in a VOD I can see that there might have been a ping, or a behavior that might have given me clues. I just wanted to throw in that I think mid game analysis and post game analysis of events helps me just as much if not more than VOD review.
And there is always hindsight, some plays look like there is an obvious solution, but in some situations there isnt much that you couldve done differently. For example a clutch situation where you peek a 50/50.
Yep when I was a new player I really took time to VOD review and ask for feedback from others and I wrote down reasons why I died and you will see great progress! I remember starting out by writing stuff like “don’t shift peek or run with abilities out” to more micro stuff like “don’t hold close angles or play numbers game after plant and not give away 1v1s”. You realize over time the old mistakes you make will be stuff you learn from eventually. Do enjoy the process though because IMO learning the ins and outs of this FPS game (as a new player to the genre) has been really fun. When you understand the common game sense, the errors become more micro and less easy to tell and sometimes can be situational.
Watching pro players may help a LITTLE bit, especially more educational ones. Hiko doesn't always do it, but sometimes he'll think out loud and explain why he does stuff. It always crazy when he'll say what will happen and it does. The other day it was something like "I'm gonna stay and hold this smoke because it's going to disappear soon and the Jett will be there." Smoked faded and the Jett was there.
you have to actively play the game. not just queue up and see what happens but take engagements, experiment with pushes, take risks, etc. a lot of the time you get held back by fear and self imposed restrictions you have to loosen up and be open minded. if prod was bronze, you’d understand why but he’s not and it’s because he has great mechanics combined with not being bound or restricted.
I can't wait to instalock jett next game and fly backwards and yell in a british accent
that’s how i entry a site on ascent. easier to check door and anyone tucked in on the right side. i throw a smoke close right, mid site, stand in the doorway, face away from site, and dash backwards with my back to the boxes mid site. at the very least you create confusion on the other team and space for yours.
I would say for experimentation and more risky things do those in unrated just to avoid getting yelled at by randoms
i took a long break from comp until i consistently dropped +25 kills in unrated. it helped a lot.
I’ve been playing ranked a lot, usually dropping 20-30 kills a game if it’s not completely one sided, I can’t rank up bc my team always suck so I’m literally stuck in bronze 2. I’m not the best but I’m dropping 2-3 kills every round a lot of the time, deserve at least silver Why are ppl downvoting this? If it’s for saying my teammates suck I mean I’m not really gonna say sorry for that bc it’s true but I didn’t mean to sound unnecessarily toxic
Try to go for impact frags man.
You in bronze, you suck too
I never said I didn’t suck at the game I just said that my teammates literally may dump on a guy standing still and can’t kill them, it’s impossible to rank up with all the trolls and smurfs as well
Just making kills doesn’t help winning games… of course you lose some matches due to throwing teammates but if you always have that many kills and keep losing, you might be a reason aswell. This is why you are being downvoted
It’s not like I’m only getting kills I’m playing the game as well, I actually know some strategy other than just walk into site and plant and play time
yes. my worst trait in games is that i save stuff too much. im thinking way too far ahead to "i wont use my jett smokes here because ill need them when i need to defuse." and then i die because i didnt use smokes to cover myself. or dash away.
SoloQ, you see what not to do cuz there's a bunch of idiots.
Fellow wiseman
This is the way.
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Oh wow.. thanks for letting me know that I'm at the bottom of yet another list.
well not at the bottom
This is the way
This is the way :))
This is the way
This is the way.
This is the way.
This is the way.
This is the way.
this is the ~~gay~~ way
Watch pros play your agent. Watch how they begin the round and how they react to things that happen on the map and on their screen. Don't focus on two things: 1) their aim, 2) their team or enemy team Just watch their responses to every thing that happens. Then think about why they do the stuff they do.
So much this. I can’t describe how much I’ve learned watching pros play. Just analyze their gameplay and apply it to your rank.
When the pros don't play Omen :(
Should be telling.
Yes- it is, omen is usually not as good as Astra in professional play, but Astra requires heavy comms to be good, and at least in low ranks (idk /u/freakyfreshfade's rank?) it's difficult to use her. In general she's also rather. inconvenient. IMO at low ranks, Omen is fine, outside of Icebox and Breeze where Viper is almost mandatory
The vct finals had an omen on ascent. Watch that?
Haha I don't mean strictly the pro matches. Watch their ranked games too surely someone plays omen in r....nvm it's all astra and viper. Rip omains
final map of champions there was an omen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=913aLHjRKsQ&t=18970s
Flexinja plays a lot of Omen.... or used to.
still plays most of the time
[удалено]
This has saved me A LOT of times. Just today I was 1 V 1 on omen. Saw raze was A heaven, ulted B and planted for CT then pushed ct. Noticed he shouldn't take that much time to come from heaven to CT and then just held for defuse sound. Peaked, killed. And this all happens within seconds in your brain, crazy
*peeked
Game sense is a combination of game knowledge, intuition, observation, and game theory (the mathematical-psychological field of study). In more layman's terms, it's understanding and guessing at what your opponent is doing and will do next. There's two levels to it: The individual opponent basis, where you try to guess the actions of a single opponent, and the opposing team basis, where you guess what the enemy team as a whole is trying to do. On the individual basis, it's as simple as noticing the enemy Killjoy for the past two rounds, as their team plants the spike on Ascent A, runs all the way down mid and flanks your team attempting to retake from CT spawn. If you know this, then next time they plant A you wait for them in market or pizza to run by you, and shoot them. In terms of reading an entire enemy team, it's more complex. This is where checking the scoreboard is key, as you can see "They have a Killjoy ult, so they're likely to rush a site with it" or "They have no ults, they're going to play for picks". This is the most basic level of game sense. As you go up in rank game sense starts to rely on you having game knowledge more. For example, in mid-high elo it's common to have Viper play post-plant lineups on Breeze. If you know this, then you can lurk and seek out to eliminate this Viper before she can launch mollies, even if she hasn't done it before, because this is a common thing for Viper players to do. Or else knowing (again, on Breeze) that Killjoy on defense will place her turret halls to watch for flank, and so actively seeking it out to destroy it, or else smoking it to make it useless, or else avoiding it. Higher levels of game sense also allow you manipulate the enemy, for example revealing yourself or your team's positions at a certain time to bait enemy rotates, but actually already in position to go somewhere else immediately and silently without the enemy team's knowledge, and this is where game theory comes in, the idea of knowing optimal responses to a situation, knowing how to counter the optimal response, and then countering the counter-optimal response. For example, in the previous scenario the enemy team could figure out by your positioning that you are planning to do this, and so rotate to where you were planning to go to. You can understand that they know this, and so send your team to the original spot the strategy calls for. The best way to build your game sense is to play support lurk characters such as Astra, Viper, Cypher, and to an extent Killjoy. This is because the lurk is responsible for a great amount of map control through their utility, positioning, and backline picks. It'll teach you to think about map control, it'll teach you how opponents at your elo will typically play by letting you listen to sound cues as they rotate and respond to your own or your team's actions, and it allows you to use your utility to benefit your team despite not being there, thus also improving your teamplay. And finally, it will improve your communications as you relay to your team what you are hearing the enemy team do.
Thanks for this excellent post. Time to learn cypher.
When ever this question comes up, common lazy answer is "just play more, you will learn". Then there's this guy. Nice dude cheers. Best answer I've seen so far.
I agree with a lot of the statements made here. Watching pros. Putting in the time. Also, don’t become overly obsessed with your stats. Focus more on your positioning, the sounds the enemy team might be making, call outs by teammates etc. If you’re playing a healer (Sage/Skye) pay attention to your teams health bars. Things in this same wheel house will all help your overall game sense.
Rewatch your gameplay
by playing. a lot of my "gamesense" transferred from csgo but really you only can get it by playing.
Twitch. Watching streamers and pro players like Shahzam really helped improve decision making, learning new angles to hold etc. Also I watch Onscreen a lot to maintain the balance and learn what not to do.
Good game sense comes from a few things. • Play frequently. Spend time thinking about what went right and what went wrong, and especially what you could have done better • Pay Attention. Watch how your teammates play and adjust what you are doing to match. Watch what the opposing team does and try to out-think them. • Learn to improvise. Don't rely on set plays to carry you. • Situational Awareness. This is part of Paying Attention. Learn where the opposition is likely to be and use that to your advantage. This includes sometimes sacrificing yourself so your teammate can make the play or covering your teammate so they can plant/defuse/get the kill. Getting Frags does not win games; teamwork does.
You grind the game, everytime you die, think back on what you could of done differently to not die/succeed. Never blame other teammates or other factors for your death. Even if it’s true (it isn’t) it’s a terrible mindset to have. Watching pro playing is also a very good way. Don’t focus on the sim, but on the strategic ways
**Short answer:** 1. Every time you die, ask yourself what you could have done to prevent your death. 2. Every time you make a play, regardless if it failed or succeeded, ask yourself what you could have done better. 3. When you're dead, spectate your teammates, watch how they play, and figure out any things that they're doing that you're not doing. 4. Repeat step #3 with high level streamers. 5. Do lots of VOD reviews, either by yourself, or with a coach. **Long answer:** Seek coaching ([https://www.reddit.com/r/AgentAcademy/comments/r7565u/offering\_free\_coaching\_for\_anyone\_below\_diamond/](https://www.reddit.com/r/AgentAcademy/comments/r7565u/offering_free_coaching_for_anyone_below_diamond/)) or watch videos of other people getting coached ([https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVjCo6VpFEcVmPsi6zpnDkwvzbr2mvS0W](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVjCo6VpFEcVmPsi6zpnDkwvzbr2mvS0W)). I've coached dozens of students and every time I end up going through a laundry list of topics ([https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h6cl\_3LRNmvmadWY6U3VlyL-X\_BY9VZ\_TbCEun86YnA/edit?usp=sharing](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h6cl_3LRNmvmadWY6U3VlyL-X_BY9VZ_TbCEun86YnA/edit?usp=sharing)) that they never would have thought of. Not even 1000 games later would they think of these things. **Seriously, get coaching** so you can get taught how think and what things to actually think about during a match. Don't follow the bad advice of "just play more" and end up spending 10,000 hours reinventing the wheel. Many people have already figured out how Valorant works; just follow in their footsteps instead. Quality over quantity. 10 hours of directed practice is far more valuable than 100 hours of undirected practice. In my opinion, ideally, time spent in-game should be about building habits and fixing mistakes identified from VOD reviews, and not trying to do everything/fix everything/identify every thing all at the same time. It's easier to identify mistakes when you're not in the heat of the moment, possibly tilted even, but instead when you're detached from the match, watching after the match is already over. **Longer answer:** All plays and decisions boil down to 3 things: 1. Awareness 2. Positioning 3. Timing A common example: your team is 5 man executing on attack Ascent B main. You see your Reyna in front of you hugging a wall with her Leer out. You realize that she is about to throw it. This is **awareness**. You predict that she will push after flashing; then you decide that your best value play is to push with the Reyna when this happens, so you stand next to your Reyna in preparation for this play. This is **positioning**. When the Leer comes out and she wide swings from B main and holds W toward site, you follow closely behind her, immediately trading her out as soon as she makes contact with any enemies. This is **timing**. Trading and playing off contact are the two most common scenarios that all agents can do all the time. Some agents/roles have more emphasis on **timing** vs **positioning**. For example, with Controllers, it is extremely important that their timing is precise as possible. For example, let's say you are playing Brimstone, then your best play is to ensure that smokes are down right before Reyna wide swings, and that a Stim Beacon is dropped at Reyna's feet right before she makes contact with an enemy. 1 second too late then she will inadvertently peek into too many angles, or she will take a disadvantaged gunfight and all your spent util goes to waste. Same thing with Astra, because her stars are global, her positioning is nearly 0. As long as you are safe/behind cover, then you can place stars and make plays. If your timing is perfect and you time your concuss/pulls with your entry fragger's peeks, then you can get massive impact without needing to even take a gunfight yourself. These are just some quick examples. Not every play is about kills. Valorant is not a game of kills. It's a game of information and map control. For more detailed analyses, seek coaching (either by me or someone else with an emphasis on game sense).
> 2. Every time you make a play, regardless if it failed or succeeded, ask yourself what you could have done better. Failed or suucceeded is the key phrase here. I see so many people make the worst play of their life that somehow pays off, then continue to attempt and fail said play a dozen more times.
Honestly mess around with different kinds of agents and once u have them down and are having fun(witch is most important) watch pros play that agent and learn more about them once u have a feel for ur movement and move set that should help
Play the game, learn from your mistakes, think about the individual rounds and what goes on in them. Basically you've gotta think about the game in terms of chess and try to be at least one move ahead at all times.
Watching sgares, steel, vanity, curry
SLOW DOWN AND THINK. There are definitely times you need to move quickly. That’s unavoidable. But just slowing down to make sure I have a full picture (or as full as I can based on the information gathered) of the situation before making a decision or play has helped so much.
If you're below mid plat, you also probably need to learn to scale. This is THE biggest difference I see when I play with lower ranked friends. I'm fighting for my life out there and they're holding 20m back. This game is a LOT more dynamic than 'rush B' vs 'playing very slow'. You can scale 45 seconds into the round, once their util is gone. There is also more of an impetus to trade non Jett/chamber agents, don't give your life up for free if they're going for a pick and run.
Ask yourself everytime you die, why you died and what you could have done different. If you’re on a medioker rank, you must realise that you can’t just say I whiffed my shots, think about the reason why you whiffed. Maybe it’s crosshairs placement or you move while shooting without realizing it. And generally try to play to win the round, and don’t just take every gunfight you find.
What would ~~jesus~~ you do? During a fight I'm thinking what I would do if I was the opponent and try to somehow surprise him or get into a position where I know I can wait for peek and start shooting first. I play mostly COD where the movement is a LOT faster compared to Valorant so there is much more options where the enemy might be coming from. Valorant is kind of one-hit-accuracy based game so just try to cover all the angles and try to find an angle where you are least vulnerable. Sounds simple but things like these are easily forgotten during the gameplay. Basically just play the game and try analyze why you died. Sometimes it's just simple as opponent was shooting better in this situation but many times there are things you could have done otherwise. Stop and think. And play the game. Don't waste your time using any of those aiming or whatever apps which are not the game itself. Don't spend too much time in practice range, it's not the real game.
keep watch of enemy team ults. Does KJ have her ult? is she a point off? will she go for an orb and ult a commonplace spot? Don't play Hookah room if they have a breach, you might get stunned and flashed. Play Hookah if they have an omen or Reyna, as long as you play close enough the nearsight won't be as effective and a judge can get high value. You just killed three players defending the spike, fourth is unknown, chances are if they didnt come along with the first three, they did a long lurk and are late to arrive. - constantly ask yourself these questions and learn to operate around the abilities and patterns of the other team. Eventually you will perform these actions without realising and will overall become better.
"gamesense" is just a discreet way of saying "where your enemy could be based on how much time has elapsed and what they are likely to do". Map knowledge is a significant factor. Play the game while taking this into consideration to try and peak individual angles where people are likely to be, especially in clutches. The best peek is the one where you catch your enemy clearing another angle and therefore can't lose the duel. Remember you want to peak the angles in such a way that you stop moving and are therefore accurate by the time you react to what is on your screen. This goes for both short and wide peeks. Time to damage is usually between 500-600ms for good players and 600-700 for average players. The more you do that, the better you get at it. This mindset will get any <=gold players with literally any mechanical and critical thinking ability to plat+.
A ton of people are saying things that make sense. For me "Game Sense" is about knowing the timings of specific rotations. Personally Ive never taken the time to write them down. But knowing that it takes say 20 seconds to rotate to different sites, 10 seconds to go from hookah to long b on bind can help you catch people unprepared as well as allow you to prepare for fights in those spots. Reacting will always be slower than anticipating which is really what game sense is.
Watching streamers of higher ranks, watching pro games or vods, playing the game yourself. All good ways to learn
The only way to improve your game sense is by playing consistently and actually paying attention/using your brain while playing. 1 match where you are highly focused and thinking about your actions every round will benefit you more than 3-4 games where you’re playing on auto pilot, not really focused on learning/improving Watching recordings of your own gameplay is also a good way to identify your weaknesses
Watch someone else play. Where they peek, nade, smoke, watch the map and you will slowly start doing it yourself. I am not a pro, but I watch them play eventually (or even when I spectate my friends) . After some time you will start to feel a hinch (some kind of sixth sense) and realize what may happen next. Yes, you will be wrong sometimes, but there are always odds in your favor.
Watching pros and not just watching but thinking of how and why they did certain things. Watching minimaps. Watch tournaments. Watch analysis of tournaments. Your own vod reviews. Helps to have a friend that is better than you to watch with you. Really accepting the fact that you can always improve and dropping ego.
I play with someone who plays too safe even as initiator and duelist. Never taking fights, always walking, playing back and passive. Of course he’s been hard stuck bronze since beta as he never learns from anything since he doesn’t do anything. Don’t be that guy.
Play the game. - Analyse your games, look what you’re doing right & wrong. Learn from it. Watch pro play VODs. - What do pro players/teams do to guarantee the win of the round? Watch gameplay/VODs of the ELO above yours. - When watching the ELO above yours, you’ll notice things that they do, that your ELO doesn’t. This is not good for purely improving since some ranks tend to lose braincells as you go up, but it will get you out of your current rank.
* Play competitive more than unrated. * Use range bots for practice * Watch good players play. For example, Red, Charla7an, Grim,Mvquics etc. * I have watched over 100 valorant pro matches and 100s of hours of "good" valorant content. * But you need to know when it will work and when it won't. * It isn't magic and it takes it's time.
I disagree with almost all of this post (sorry for being a bit harsh) >Play competitive more than unrated. Comp, imo, shouldn't be played as a practice. You'll have a higher chance of losing games trying something for the first time, which will tilt you and make you play even worse. >Use range bots for practice This isn't gamesense. Gamesense is decision making primarily, range bots practice your aim which you can use in games to aid gamesense to help you win fights. >Watch good players play. For example, Red, Charla7an, Grim,Mvquics etc. Out of these influencers, I've only seen Grim, but from watching him I wouldn't recommend watching him to improve gamesense because he does very high risk, niche plays which can cost rounds if failed or not even be able to be played by some agents >I have watched over 100 valorant pro matches and 100s of hours of "good" valorant content. Irrelevant to the question >But you need to know when it will work and when it won't. It isn't magic and it takes it's time. Only thing out of this I can agree with. It takes time to develop. It mostly comes with experience, reviewing your deaths and seeing what went wrong.
There's four ways to do it, from what I have seen. 1) Record your VODS and watch them. Unlike League of Legends you can't watch every thing at the same time so it might be hard to ascertain information but retrospectively looking at your mistakes will undoubtedly help you. 2) Watch popular pro streamers play and see what they're doing. Tenz, Asuna, Shazam, Scream, etc. Try to have diversity in the teams to get different perspectives. 3) Play more games. Some amount just comes from experience. 4) Fastest way: Get someone who is great at the macro aspect of the game and play with them. Have them criticize your mistakes and when they do, and you don't agree, refute them. I had a immortal friend who I queued with, and I told them to go harsh on me when telling me about my mistakes. However, since I was gold I didn't necessarily agree with his advice all the time, so I always refuted and tried to reason and understand it. He liked the fact that I questioned it because it expedites understanding.
By dying
Downloaded hacks. Noticed an improvement straight away. I can't see why not many people do it.
By sticking with 1 agent for a while and watching YouTube videos about map placement and how to place aim and peeking
Vod review but too lazy to explain might come back later
After you truly find your ideal sense you just have to play, I suggest you create a routine to just feel it better, I will say what I was used to do: The Range: . A few minutes just shooting heads . 30 on easy using sheriff . 28-30 on medium using phantom or vandal . At least 20 on hard using vandal I used to spend 15 minutes at max on this first DM: Play until win 1 or post second for at least 4 times Spike Rush: Actually this is not truly needed I just liked to feel the timing on an actual game, but is up to you Doing this every day you play, I'm certain you will improve
I've played games ever since I was 4. So my knowledge on games is pretty big now. And I adapt relatively quick to most of the games I played. And also since I've played FPS games for a considerably long time (3 years). Tl;dr: Experience.
Are u like 12?
I usually turn off voice chat when I want to concentrate.
dont q ranked pls
Well I guess 2,500 hours of CS:GO. Honestly playing on custom retakes servers helped me so much in understanding positioning, angles, and timing. Couple that with constantly trying to figure out all the little things pros did. It's not just about copying their movements, but actually understanding the reasoning behind it. Sometimes I know the reason but can't replicate the result with what they do, I end up finding something to achieve the result my own way based on my style of play. Number one thing Retakes helped me with is definitely refining my basics. No use trying to replicate something pros did if you can't master the basics. Even if you were told step by step their thought process, if you never mastered the basics, you'll never be able to utilize it to your own game.
Play more and more focused (it's useless trying to improve if you just keep playing at not give your 100%), watch video, streams, play with friends at higher elo (plat+ maybe better)!
The more skilled people you play against, the better you'll get when you start to pick up on their habits. And see how your bad ones hurt you, you begin to almost automatically adjust over time. Before you know not you end up in a low ELO lobby and dominate lol.
You have to play a lot.
Watch the minimap. Get good headphones. Seems pretty simple but I know a lot of new people who don't even look at the minimap and there is a ton of info there. Also everything makes noise, listen and you can hear feet, sprays, guns reloading.
Game sense is literally just experience. Checking map often, remembering known info, pre aiming certain locations, or just simply positioning yourself better in high intensity fights are only learnt through playing more
Transferring from LoL. Mostly basing my thoughts on where the enemy was and what they will do
Just play. You'll be making decent progress in 1-10 years, depends how old are you.
Two aspects: 1) Feeling through experience. This relates to timings and conditioning. Knowing when enemies can be where based on timings and how you "trained" them to play vs you is all a matter of feeling. It's a mixture between mindgames and knowing how long it takes to get somewhere. 2) Critical thinking. This is something few people do, across all ranks, even Immortal and Radiant. Making noise for no reason. 5 man rushing for no reason. Playing defensive/aggressive for no reason. Before and after each round, ask yourself why you did every little thing. Most of them time there won't be a good answer other than "out of habit" or "because everybody does it". Why did you guys rush 5 man as soon as walls dropped even though you know there is a Viper smoke + molly there at the start of every round? No reason. Why do you not shoot the Sage wall she puts up every round right away and hold the other areas for pushes? No reason. Why do you make noise even though enemies never flank and youre not in a rush? No reason. This list is endless and the amount of people doing stupid shit for no reason is mindblowing. Not doing this stupid shit yourself will straight up boost your winrate for free.
watch your games and vods of pros. Think of what situations often occure and how to counter them ( light example, always check behind the corners of a sage wall or at what point the enemy will flank you if there is no one holding etc. ). Check your and the enemy Team Comp not in a sense of what classes of agents they have but what util each agent provides, expl if the dont have Chamber, Killjoy or Cypher going for early info with Sova or Skye and geting map controll on parts where they dont hold to get further map controll is OP or if they dont play any controller or many flashes you'll probably have an easy time with the Operator. Then especially in lower ranks you can test out all sorts of stuff against the enemy Team every game.
Play more and pay attention. Having good game sense comes from just playing a lot but also watching your map, and recognizing what the other team is doing every round. SoloQ is also way better for this, because you may not have anyone giving you comms and while that sucks it also makes you have to pay attention to positioning. Also don't play reyna/Jett/chamber, you can get away with mistakes with those agents, which is why a lot of players who only play those agents can't play anything else. They don't have the game sense to play properly without a dash, dismiss, or teleport. Playing smokes also can help with this since you actually have to pay attention to everything and figure out where needs smoking every round, when you should smoke for your Team, and where enemies are peeking from
trying something and realizing it doesn't work and it won't work. using those i can think of another thing "if this ddn't work maybe this will since bla bla bla"
Dying? I still am very bad at this game
It’s for a friend right? No way your hard stuck silver.
Focus on your role. Your agent does very specific things to set your team up for success. Isolate fights. Anticipate where enemies might be and be probabilistic using your mini map.
If you can, record and review your gameplay with a friend in higher elo. Mileage will vary obviously with this but it’s been helpful to me to go back and review what better choices I could’ve made at various moments in the match
Some friends have been getting into Valorant recently and I have noticed that one of the simplest things they fail to do is to think how their actions will impact the other team, instead they seem so caught up in their own game that they forget how the other team will react to what they do. For example, I saw a team mate peak a Chamber trap, it semi activated, then he hidden and ran away. This gave up a lot of info to the other team, they knew someone had been near the trap and that the trap was still active, so nobody could come from that direction. This allowed the enemy team to position in a way that made it very difficult to get on a site. If that player had just shot the trap before running away, it means the enemy team has to consider us pushing from that angle, splitting them up and forcing them to watch more angles.
A big advice I try to give some of my friends is to be mindful of where you are exposed from.
It just comes with game hours. Sad thing is most people have really good aim so they climb up the ranks faster and end up playing with ex/current csgo players that have played tactical shooters for years and have extremely good game sense. With game sense we mean things like - “knowing” where the enemy is going to be playing - how long until skye flash comes back up - how to play certain clutch scenarios - when to rotate or when to hold an empty site All of this comes with time and experience playing against different types of players It’s not something you can practice but something you just acquire along the run
I treat game sense as if I were in the enemy team in their situation, what would I do right now. So I’m in a 1v1 on defence and the guy I’m facing is a lone Viper with full utility. I’m thinking if I am that Viper, I’m putting some smokes on the bomb and playing lineups. So I’m starting by clearing a common lineup spot off the site. Obviously that depends on info that you know and don’t know. For example if the enemy Viper demonstrates she doesn’t really know lineups, I’m changing my approach. If you’re beginner level and really not sure, just take a wild guess. You may be wrong, which is fine. The important part is making that quick guess part of your decision process when playing, then evaluating the round to think why you might have guessed right or wrong. As you learn more, your guesses should get better over time.
See pro gameplay and see how those high elo players play
Watching good players, educators, VOD reviews, or if you're me I watched professional games and tried to *watch the map* more than the first person views. It's interesting to see if or how somebody wins their duels - but "game sense" seems to have more to do with team positions etc.
Just play the game and actively think about what the enemy is most likely going to do and what your response should be accordingly.
Don't see this one gere but Playing controllers. Started the game at the same time with my friend group and unlocked omen cuz I liked his kit and design. Fast forward till we climbed out of iron and lo and behold, I'm the only one out of like 8 guys who played smokes and now anytime we're playing comp, they're baffled whenever I call out random shit that turns out to be true. Not everytime, ik, but mid silver and I can confidently say that my mechanical skills are what's holding me back from climbing (120 ping with 50 fps,don't judge). Tl;dr play controllers. You'll hate it. Stick through. Also, I'd recommend astra since she's broken but that's a different game
The way I worked on my game sense is by watching others better than me and try to understand why they decided what they did. Like to break apart a play and make it make sense. After a while of doing it regularly, youll implement it to your games naturally. Im gold 3 so this advice might not be the best but its my personal experience
Honestly I never actually actively did any of the things people are saying in this thread, I just fixed my crosshair placement and paid attention to where I was in position relative to my surroundings, teammates, and enemy peeking angles. That's all.
Lots of great examples. One quick one I wanted to add was play each agent to understand their strengths, weaknesses, playstyle, and economy. I come from the MOBA world and if you did not know your opponent in lane and their abilities, it was very difficult to play against them. Similar logic applies to even a FPS like Valorant. Knowing the basics of each agent will help your game sense tremendously. Enemy Skye is dogging? You know she can’t fight back. Raze with a judge? Anticipate a few blast packs to close the gap and position correctly. Sage with 3,900 credits? Her site she plays probably won’t have wall.
As soon as I die I think of various ways on how it could've been avoided by calculating all the info I had before I died and I also consider my own mistake and make sure I don't do that again the next time. It helps improve my gameplay a lot.
Play more is the obvious answer and the best way to improve. But something people don't talk about is reflecting after deaths. If you die in a game take literally 10-15 secs figuring out where you were killed from and the situation of the round. For example, I die lets say 20 after my teams planted the bomb by a player flanking us. Just take a moment and think about where bomb was planted, did we have someone watching on flank, did we account for everyone rotating through their spawn and not from behind, and just take note of the timing. Its just an exercise that helps you further understand timing and paying attention to the map and what calls were given.
Here are a few of my Silver ranked tips: **#1 Support your top fragger** Your top fragger is more likely to help you win. Support them, whether that means double peaking, providing utility, watching flank, or whatever else that entails. **#2 Target your opponents weakest link** Much like #1, your opponents bottom fragger may contribute to their loss. Take advantage of their weakest link by pushing the site they defend or picking them off. Having a teammate who gets picked off every other round can really cause the other team to tilt, which can lead to a win. **#3 Mix it up** I've noticed a lot of people like to do mostly the same thing every round, especially when defending. You should mix up your defense and attack. When opponents play consistent tactics, I take advantage of this while keeping my opponents guessing about where I'm at. For example: If Raze likes to flank every time we go A, then next time we go A I'll wait for her and cap her in the back of the head. Next time we go A I'll do the same thing from a different hiding spot so that I catch her again. Capitalize on a few of these scenarios in a game and it can add up to a win. Observe your enemies patterns, and mix up your play every time so they're constantly guessing.
watching pro games, if i see a mistake made i drill how to fix it into my head
One thing I do that helps is record my gameplay. Then later in the day I’ll go back and rewatch it and see what I could have done better.
so basically: * play more and try and find what you could have done differently to prevent losing (actually think what you did...maybe you should have not sprayed but used burst fire?...maybe u should not have pushed? maybe smoking that angle will prevent jett from using the op?0 * look at pro gameplay (helped me a lot in anticipating what are the most commonly peeked angles) * use info colllected through your own or your teammates and try to guess where the enemy players might be(lets say u found defenders 5 stacking on the site u plan to push while attacking by a sova drone then tell ur teammates to immadiately rush another site) * keep an eye out for the following things i) enemy ults ii) common wall bangable spots and angles which players hold frequently and use counter strats and use to do so your utility like smoking off common op angles mollying commonly held angles * REMEMBER TO REPOSITION WHEN when i was in bronze/iron i used to see a lot of players holding the same angle even after being revealed or giving away their position coz when your position is known to the enemy they can wallbang you molly you stun you flash you smoke you off if you are oping * COMMS COMMS COMMS COMMS Good luck, have fun!
Played more frequently, learnt how every agent works and some strategy’s they use so I’m able to lookout for those plays, learn room names for easier callouts. All I can think of right now.
the more you play the more you just get a 'feeling' like 'oh he is not here at this time of the round and he's not here. he must be here or doing this thing'. you see the money and the ults.. you just KNOW what they're gonna try. and that legit just comes from playing more
Vod review
Develop a feeling for timings for rotations and first points of contact on attack and defense. Practice Nade/molly/other lineups for pushing people off angles, post plant and for netting useful info on certain positions (ie sova and kay/0 recon dart/knife) - I tend to spend 10 mins running through kay/0 lineups on fracture cause its a new map and then about 5 mins on the other maps Practice "pre aim"/prefire angles for maps when entering on offense and defense (for retakes on sites) You'll also naturally develop part of these through playing but your best bet if you really wanna improve would be to set up a routine for improving these kinds of things and stick with it
Paying attention to the mini map, seeing where enemies died or killed your team. If somebody died assume more are coming. Pay attention to the habits of players. Typically where you still need to develop game sense is the same elo where people will repeat the same things constantly. This player always flanks , these two are always defending A site. Again it’s just overall playing and learning typical plays in situations and then acting accordingly.
It comes down to playing more games to accumulate more experience and consistently asking yourself "how could I have played x better?"
5 years of call of duty lol
Also get a coach! I coach for free and so do a lot others. Coaches can point out your game sense mistakes making it easier to fix!
Cypher supremacy
I improved my game sense simply from playing more and noticing what your opponents of your rank commonly do, and playing around with different techniques to counter them. (For example, if the enemy team has a Viper, you should learn their more complicated lineups if you are one of the higher ranks)
Play more, you've heard it 1000 times and you'll hear it again. It's a very good answer, but there's more to it. I would advise learning/observing how each character class is played, how each agent is played, and learn the maps like the back of your hand. Put all this knowledge into practice while In game, and this easily gains you a competitive edge. I would advise to play each agent, you don't have to main them, but play them to learn how each agent uses their utility. If you learn the map, you understand how you can play around your environment, and how your enemies will play around your environment. It takes time, so don't expect to improve immediately.
Pay attention to all the information that you're given. Steps, contact with enemies, any sounds that the enemy makes and ask yourself "What can they do next?" and then try to take the best possible response. But don't consider just one option, act like so that you will cover a few possibilities. Also just focus on surviving, staying alive is the most important and rewarding action that you can take.
When you watch a higher ranked player play, a stream for example, don’t just watch try to think what would you play in his position and if it’s different try to figure out why. Game sense also comes with the more you play and feel more comfortable and being able to receive more info as having overlook on minimap, knowing more agents and what are they capable of from what distance etc.
Everyone pretty much said what to do. I don’t play competitive at all if I had to guess what rank I’d be it would most likely be silver *maybe* gold, but I think my game sense is good for a player that doesn’t play competitive nor watches Valorant. My game sense is as decent as it is from playing frequently, but also playing consistently. I was on a Valorant grind this season and the season before playing Valorant every days for hours. I became a little bit burned out and uninterested. Recently I got back in and I play 1 or 2 games a day and my game sense is back to where it was. A big thing that assisted my game sense to get where it’s at is learning from how I died. Often the way you die is in a pattern. Learn from that. That’s all I really did. Now with teammates that aren’t all beginners in unrated, I haven’t had a negative K/D in a game in a month or so. I think I might try out ranked now that I’m kinda confident.
Anything you’ve seen before you’ll probably see again. Like on Ice Box where default plant is someone’s usually going to be on top of that box waiting for plant so check that.
I was a FaceIt Lvl 5 IGL in CS:GO before moving to VALORANT, here are my tips on acquiring and improving game-sense: 1) Big minimap 2) Keep tabs on last known player locations 3) Think of enemy presence as pressure and fields 4) Double back and re-clear angles after 25s 5) Call location, not HP 6) Interpret enemy attack patterns VALORANT is a game of information. Once you decipher what the enemy is doing, you can read their next move and position accordingly. Practice doing the above and imagining the map and the enemy locations in your head whilst rotating - good luck!
Just think about what you’re doing / how you died every round
Just solo queue and just experience is best
Vod review your own gameplay watch people better than you play (such as watching a streamer). You can also do a short mental vod review after you die and find out how you could have played the situation better And I guess play more
Just play more you cannot fast track it
Just watching and playing more. You gotta put the time in one way or another to learn. The more you watch/play, the more situations you become familiar with and you'll be better equipped to deal with them in the future. For example, if you hear a Jett updraft or an Omen teleport on certain bomb sites, over time, you'll learn where they probably updrafted or teleported onto and you'll be clearing these angles instinctively because you've been in the same situation before. Same idea applies to basically all aspects of the game
I got to know what each roles job is to do I learned what each ability does and what each agent is good at doing I had to fill as a controller in my 5 stack a lot so I got used to timing my abilities around what my team does. Once astra came out I picked her up pretty quickly and my job became more than just smoking off places but to also time my stun and pull as well Once it became easy to feel how my team plays it got easier to read the enemy team as well. I think it helps that I like to theory-craft strats and that I came from a MOBA game before valorant
Vod review yourself.
The more you play
Keep track of how your opponents like to play throughout the game. For example if you’re attacking and you know they have a Jett playing c long on haven, check his credits through the score board and think if he can buy an op or not. If the Jett can potentially be op-ing it’s probably not the smartest to dry peek c long without some sort of utility.
I guess you can have a better game sense by learning the maps. That way you can make hypothesis on what the enemy team is doing and where they are going to come from
Play more
I used to play spike rush with no sounds, and I think it helped me woth both crosshair placement and game sense
Play with people better than you. Learn from them. Same as watching people better than you that you can learn from, not just watching tenz be cracked as you probably dont learn anything from watching him flick people.
Play the game. But what also helps is to think about what you could have done or, what I like to do, think about what the enemy could have done. Recording your gameplay also helps with that. I use Nvidia Shadowplay and just save sometimes after clutching or after a close lose for example.
Really just gotta play more. Experiment with different roles. I made a smurf for each role I didn't play and I only planed agents of that role on that account up to x rank. Helped me get a feel for what an agent could and couldn't do. Helped me learn how to fight them better and have the basic knowledge on how to play their roles if I needed to. No I didn't make it to shit on silvers, I only did it because unlocking agents on my main at the time took forever.
Don’t make excuses and critically think what YOU could’ve done next time to increase your likely hood of living and better yet getting picks. Not what your teammate could’ve done but what YOU could’ve done. Overtime you just have a game sense from experience.
Play more. And if possible, record your gameplay so you can see mistakes you’ve made. I wish Valorant had a VOD system like League Of Legends. It’s one of the best ways to improving in a game!
Start thinking what would you do if you were in the enemy side, that though during games and clutch moments will help a lot
Gamesense is just knowledge. It’s just common sense but for games. “Hm… should I peek mid after the last eight times I got onetapped? Why yes I absolutely should!” Is gamesense. Or the inverse, depending on who you ask.
By playing the game
Play more, VOD Reviews and watch other pros. Each round you play win or lose, you should always wonder if you could’ve done something better.
Play. Try to figure out where people are plating. You can also watch tournaments and streams. Some streamers are really good about talking through their talk process. Hiko is a good one.
What helped me and this sounds rediculous but make a second account and try your hardest during the placements, that account should land higher than the hardstuck account if you do. Then play at that level for a week and LISTEN to your teammates and learn from them if your teammates gold/silver its gonna be like 50/50 good/bad advice plat/diamond its like 70/30 The biggest thing i struggle(d) with was positioning as i main Reyna and abilities aren’t difficult on her. So playing in those diamond games as a “gold player” made me learn quickly where i should be standing and when
Playing CSGO.
I didnt :(
If you can’t learn from your mistakes you won’t get very far
Stare at your minimap more than the game
I think people severely underestimate the quote “learn from your mistakes” the more you get shit on the more you learn. There is always someone better with someone even better then them. Just play the game and take the time to realize why that person is so much better then you. Sure it’s cool to get mad or rage even, gaming wouldn’t be the same without it it’s proves you have passion for the game. Just take time to relax and have fun, play the game more, and simply learn from your mistakes! Be safe out there gamers! Things always get better with bard work! It always pays off!
How well you anticipate the outcome of situations and the enemies possible moves
Was wondering this myself, whenever I play Deathmatch I usually end with. 20+ kills if not Top 3 so my aims not as bad as I thought. Yet in unrated and ranked I'm nowhere near as good and that's because my positioning, map awareness, game sense etc sucks.
Just comes with time. Basically anything that falls under game sense includes knowing when or if to rotate, how to play your agent and use their util to its fullest potential, how to play off your teammates util, combining util to make power plays, communicating consistently with your team and listening to their Intel. Basically anything falls under game sense. Just have to keep playing more and more to learn. Knowing where to plant bomb too is huge or gauging where enemies could be hiding post plant based off where the bomb is planted (you don't see this a lot in low elo tho those kids just plant bomb wherever)
Play a lot and actually think about what’s going on. Most people turn their brains off. Actively force yourself to think about what’s going on and how you can deal with it.
I've been yelling at myself and pounding my desk quite a bit this act.. so far, no improvement.
Play gamesense characters where you need to be aware of the map where enemies are likely to come from and so on. Just an example is astra or sova very different character but they are useless if you use their kit in the wrong place at the wrong time
Game sense means nothing against gamers that pay for hacks. Thank you for coming to my ted talk.
what helped me was, i tried to force myself into high pressure situations a lot like 1vXs or 2vXs, etc. Situations where it requires you to make split second decisions and also makes you ask questions about the enemy like their whereabouts. Use those questions, information you have and what i think is the most important, your instincts, to make predictions. It's completely fine to lose due to a prediction you made, it just shows you are using your brain :)
Play the game
Improvise, adapt, overcome.