I've been playing Valorant for nearly 4 Years at this point. About enough to give you clinical depression which i am lucky to have not gotten yet. For maybe the past 3 years of me playing I've dedicated myself to try and become a professional and be the best player that is within the realm of possibility. For a Year and a Half it worked which got me a decent results. Sometimes i would see fast results, sometimes they would be slower, but either way I would always be able to see the improvement at least every 2-3 Weeks. Now it has been 3 Years and I'm unarguably putting more work into trying to get better than I have ever before. Not saying my practices are perfect nor I never skip out on doing my practices every now and then, but I am putting much more effort into trying to be the best I could possibly be. This is where the Venting comes in. Roughly 2 Years ago i had just made it to Gold 2 and roughly Half a year after that I hit Plat 3. Now Two years later I am still Gold 3 - Plat 2, unable to pass into and beyond my Peak. I Feel like i am not just capped, but getting worse. I Have good Moments where i shine every 5-7 games but the others are either mediocre or shameful. This has been slowly degrading my mental health, i really want to become a professional but despite my effort i get only diminishing returns. I definitely know VLR is not the place to post about this knowing all the trolls, but i don't know where else. This is my Dream and its starting to seem less possible the more i try and put effort in. Take care
Venting Session (Come Clown me)
I've heard coaching many times in my time playing but never truly understood its Value. I have watches hundreds of videos talking about Improvement just from YouTube. I have 2 Notebooks full of notes on each Video and how i can apply the strategies presented into to my gameplay and which ones i should prioritize knowing what I have been slacking in the most recently "Even though id argue I'm slacking in nearly everything". Besides I'm a young man at the age of 17 who sees the price tag on these coaching sites and immediately discard it because of the hundreds of free videos I've found online. I am always going to be real and I know i should try something different since nothing I've been doing has worked, even if taking that many notes over deep dived improvement videos should be overkill. id just like to know how beneficial it actually is.
I get where you're coming from but I really feel you should be looking for a 1-on-1 with a good coach. The stuff you see posted online is typically very general tips, and while it does help a ton, if nothing is working then you need a personal analysis. Go talk to a few coaches, see what you can afford, and they'll be more than happy to help you solve whatever you're personally struggling with
There are some coaches that would be willing to coach you for free maybe look for a bit or maybe join a team that has a coach and ask the coach to look at you individually or something. Also you say your 17 make sure to still pay attention to school even if you get good at Valorant its never gaurenteed that you will be able to go pro or make a living out of it theres a very limited amount of people in tier 1/2 and sometime it can be a matter of luck. Also who knows maybe what you learn in school can help you work in Valorant esports somewhere else maybe not player. Like Im studying data science n stuff rn and maybe due to my passion in Valorant I might become a pro Valorant analyst as a hard stuck plat and Im already currently coaching a ascendant team
I was going to say "I'd be a liar if i said i would undoubtably compete even if there was no money Involved", which you can still consider true because i did have to think about it for roughly 20 seconds, since those 20 seconds passed id confidently say i would still compete even if there was no money involved. The money sounds nice to anyone's ears but the driving factor of me wanting to become a professional is the thought of being on a stage full of people who are fans of me, who use there money and time just to see me play, to then try my best to perform and get there moneys worth, to meet them either before or after the game, to genuinely get to know them and understand there personalities and background, to hopefully make them laugh, that along with putting in these hours of work to finally lift the trophy that showcases to me that all my effort isn't for nothing, that I can accomplish everything as long as i attach my heart and soul to it. Those things is what makes me want to play. Money is not the influence behind me wanting to compete at the highest level. Its the idea of all of this work finally paying off, and to hopefully make peoples days just that little bit better either from Winning, or just helping them laugh.
Like many said before, consider coaching
That long of a trial and error means you have experience
Maybe coaching is where you will reach your potential
There is nothing wrong with being a coach
Coaches determine where the team will end
Infact coaches have a bigger role on the team than player atleast in valorant
Most people have suggested above that you can be a coach.
If you're really serious about it, you should take into consideration that you are responsible for a lot of things such as VOD reviews, scrims, tactics, and more difficult decisions you are going to inevitably make in the future.
I wish you all the best and a lot of success in the future!
coaching is really good, another personal recommendation is to find a player who has the same agent pool as you, watch VODs of their matches and really keep track of them each round and see exactly how their spacing is, util lineups+setups, when they use it off what info, and how they move around the map. TAKE ACTUAL NOTES so it stays in your brain better and keep those in mind during your matches. besides that and coaching, you also seem to be way too focused on constantly I NEED TO BE BETTER rather than just enjoying the game, which will degrade your performance due to the mental stress and potentially you feeling like you are not improving at the pace you want to be when it should be more about just getting the hours and experience in, which is most important. to master something, you just do it and keep doing it. truly sometimes there are just no tricks. so try just playing the game, if you make a mistake sure you can look back and think about how to do better, but you really should be playing the game to ENJOY it or you most likely won't see the results you are looking for or you will get burnt out very quickly. a lot of people who became masters of their art didn't just look at it and go "yeah I guess I will be a professional at this" and put a ridiculous amount of pressure on themselves until they get depressed and upset about it, they just went "yeah this looks fun!" and kept going at it until they became the best or skillful because they actually enjoyed the process and were able to keep going at it.
I hate to break it to you but don’t try to go pro in this game unless your already imm3-rad or have tremendous talent just enjoy the game bro don’t think so much about “ranking up” as soon as you stop caring you’ll climb up the competitive ladder. Please don’t put your time and effort into becoming pro you should for immortal at least it’s genetic bro if your not born with the talent for this kind of shit it’s not going to happen even if you outwork everyone and that’s the sad truth about getting to a professional level in any sport/game
Your telling the honest truth and i respect the hell out of you for it. The thing is, I have been built for this kind of thing and ill say i have a very impressive reaction time. The unfortunate part is that i broke my monitor a while back and have subbed my Tv in, which to be honest has really impressed me, it might sound crazy but it works very well, just not as good as a top of the line monitor. The 16ms delay a TV has compared to the 0.1-1ms delay a monitor, as well as the 60 FPS cap has slowed down my reactions quite a bit. Another sad thing is that my Aim feels like its deteriorating. The more i practice the worse it gets. I am trying to get to a high enough rank so then i can get on the path to pro, that's why i came here because even though i try incredibly hard, nearly no value comes from it.
If you just wanna rank up, until ascendant (based on my own experience since i haven't reached immo), you just need a duo to queue with (having one or two premades helps a lot), don't be scared to take duels, in fact, take any duel you can while in gold/plat lobby and just try to enjoy them (doesn't matter if you win or lose, however, always keep in your head that your crosshair should be at head level or tell your duo to remind you of that if he's dead-backseating). Once you start ranking up, you'll notice that some duels aren't worth taking, and you staying alive is way more valuable in some scenarios than committing to a losable fight.
Btw, before starting your ranked game, always try to warm up irl (movement with your hands and arms for like 2 3 minutes) and ig (deathmatch or team deathmatch or a bit of in game range). For the aimlab thing, I think it's better to do it after your games, i don't do that tho.
If you wanna become pro, please read #19.
I Appreciate your comment and these are all great tips for a newcomer. You don't know anything about me so ill tell you what i do. I have a Duo who started later than me. He is currently Diamond 1 and made it to Ascendant nearly a year ago. He always plays with me and 90% of my games are with him. Secondly I have realized which duels are worth and not worth taking since I've played for so long and have taken many hours of notes on Vods and Improvement Guides, hell even VCT Matches. I can tell that is one of my potential downsides because I'm in a rank that promotes just swinging. I have a 60% headshot rating (Could be higher) and practice my Crosshair placement at least every other day on a specific map that i feel like I've lacked in. I have an Arm/Wrist warmup that i do before i play. I'm honest and will admit that i do sometimes skip out on my 2-2 Warmup which is 2 TDM's and 2 DM's before a ranked match, if i do skip it i just hit the range for 5 minutes which i never not do.
I want to rank up so then i can start going toward the path of pro, so its really both i desire. Try not to take this as me trying to be rude, I'm just trying to give you a better understanding on where I'm at.
I get you man, I definitely won't be going pro but I wanna get into immo and join a premiere team or something just for the fun of playing at that higher coordinated level
I was hardstuck diamond for about a year and a half, got high asc, then plummeted back down to plat-dia where I've been since like episode 7
Really not sure what it is, but I'd guess it's that bad habits we've formed over time are just way harder to break. I know it's important to not be results-oriented, where you're just thinking about winning games and getting RR, but instead be process-oriented in the sense that you're playing every individual situation the way you'd expect a pro to, regardless of whether it actually goes that way. It's hard to keep that in mind in the chaos of ranked though
Do you VOD review yourself and your own gameplay? And what role/agents do you play?
from what I’m hearing you have burnout and don’t know what next steps to take now that you’ve “peaked”. I recommend a few things (as I’ve experienced burnout before as well):
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Take an extended break. No VALORANT or anything related at all; at least for a week, preferably two weeks+. This helps you refocus yourself on your goals and refines your mind.
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Return to the fundamentals. Aim, movement, positioning, etc. Break down everything you’ve learned thus far and start from the beginning, one step at a time. Being brutally honest, aim should be at least getting you to ascendant.
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Improve yourself everyday, and keep track of those improvements. Reward yourself for becoming better at the game, and don’t treat it as a chore; the more fun you have, the easier it’ll feel to improve. Also, remember there’s always something you can work on. Don’t get complacent.
If you have any questions at all, or just want to talk just send me a message or reply and I’ll be happy to respond. Good luck, Tyler. I know you got it in you. :)
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