Hello, my name is Librarian Husky, and I’m here to guide you through the intricate world of Valorant strategies. Today, we’ll dive into the importance of character positioning and how mastering this skill can significantly improve your game. Let’s break down some common mistakes and tactics to help you stay one step ahead of your opponents!

Understanding the Importance of Character Positioning

In this situation, you have two characters who are excellent at holding ground but lack the necessary tools for a strong retake. If the enemy pushes A, you won’t have enough power to delay the push, and you also lack effective utility for a retake. This is a significant tactical disadvantage.

Critical Mistake: Not Purchasing Equipment

As the round is about to start, one major mistake is visible—you haven’t bought anything at all. This is one of the worst errors you can make in Valorant. The first round often snowballs into further rounds, and not buying leaves you unprepared, lowering your chances of success in the match.

Holding Key Areas and Map Control

In this instance, you had the right idea by trying to take control of Main. However, if both of you are sitting on the point, closing the door without controlling mid leaves you vulnerable. An enemy could easily lurk through mid, and you’d have no way of knowing until it’s too late.

Reacting to Lost Information

The moment your teammate dies, it’s crucial to cover lost information quickly. If you had utility, like an alarm bot, you could place it mid to prevent a lurk. Failing to gather information allows enemies to control the map, putting you in a disadvantaged position for a retake.

Challenges of Retaking Without Utility

Now both of you are forced into a retake situation, and as previously discussed, without any utility, it’s nearly impossible to succeed. The round is essentially lost at this point. The lack of preparation and strategic positioning compounds the difficulties of turning this situation around.

Evaluating Peeking Strategies

The first peek is acceptable, but the secondary peek is quite risky. The enemy will likely step peek while aiming down a power angle. You don’t need to engage here since your turret is still active. Instead, you can peek off your turret’s contact and avoid narrow angle fights, which aren’t in your favor.

Turret Placement and Utility Management

The initial turret placement was excellent, and you should continue to use that position. However, placing the turret in a lane with little cover makes it easy to destroy. Even during save rounds, buying Killjoy’s utility is advantageous and strengthens your defense.

Issues with Overstacking on B Site

Stacking three players with two Sentinels on B site is inefficient, as you lose retake potential. In a situation where you can’t convince teammates to rotate, it would be better to use your utility to control mid or another area, rather than being overly concentrated in one spot.

Understanding Proper Peeking and Information Gathering

In this situation, you’re holding an angle despite having a wall and a turret, meaning enemies haven’t pushed through yet. Challenging this angle without armor and with just a classic pistol is risky. Instead, you should jump or jiggle peek to gather information without committing to a duel, minimizing the risk of dying.

Avoiding Repeated Mistakes

Repeating the same mistake by walking past an unchecked angle is dangerous, especially when you lack information on mid. Instead of rounding corners blindly, jiggle peek or jump peek to gain information safely before advancing. This helps you avoid unnecessary risks.

Clearing Angles Methodically

Rather than swinging wide to cover a large area, you should clear one angle at a time. Set up in a position, step left, and clear each angle progressively. This disciplined approach helps ensure that no enemy surprises you from an unchecked angle, increasing your survivability and control over the situation.

Managing Angles and Reducing Risk

The goal is to avoid peeking multiple angles simultaneously. Rounding the corner without properly clearing each angle leaves you vulnerable. You aren’t fully prepared for potential threats, and challenging numerous angles with an insufficient weapon, especially when the enemy could have a Marshall, is an unnecessary risk with no reward.

Avoiding Unnecessary Risks

Taking long-distance duels, especially with a weapon not suited for the task, only increases the chances of being eliminated without gathering any useful information. When the enemy wins the first round, you should anticipate them having stronger weapons, making risky peeks even more dangerous.

Checking for Lurkers and Map Awareness

Just because enemies are showing presence in A main doesn’t mean there aren’t lurkers in other areas like mid. Walking into a room without proper checking allowed an enemy to kill both players without resistance. Your teammates already have site control, so the focus should be on preventing flankers and securing the rest of the map.

Utilizing Map Control and Playing Safe

At this moment, your team doesn’t need you on point immediately. There’s no need to rush past Catwalk without checking for enemies. Playing around the possibility of an enemy lurking costs you almost nothing, and it ensures that you don’t get caught off guard by a surprise attack.

Using Utility and Committing to Sprays

Now that you have a full kit and a Phantom, it’s important to commit fully to your engagements. In situations where you catch the enemy off guard, hesitation can be detrimental. You seem hesitant, almost scared, and that fear prevents you from committing to your shots, reducing your chances of winning the fight.

Overcoming Fear and Aggressively Engaging

In this instance, you peeked the Raina with the intention of retreating rather than engaging. She didn’t even have her gun out, yet you backed off too early, missing an opportunity to take advantage of her vulnerability. It’s crucial to fully commit to these moments instead of running away mid-fight.

Committing to Fights with Confidence

When you hear the enemy and know their position, you need to peek with the intent to fight, not to hesitate. Your hesitation is affecting your accuracy and control. While committing doesn’t guarantee a win, it at least gives you the chance to engage. Right now, you’re not giving yourself that opportunity.

Setting Up Killjoy’s Utility for Maximum Impact

We’re placing the alarm bot on the left side and the turret in a strategic position. The idea behind using the alarm bot on the lane, paired with mollies, is to confirm when enemies are committing to that lane. Once triggered, you can flush them out or even kill them with the mollies, securing control.

Understanding Site Control and Positioning

We lack the necessary setup to deny the enemy’s approach. The opponent swings through, and we are unprepared because our utility isn’t positioned correctly. Without lane control and with no cover, we’re left vulnerable. Instead, we could be playing behind a box or using a location that allows us to jiggle peek, giving us more control over the situation.

Commitment to Fights and Crosshair Placement

By standing in the open, we’re committing to anyone who challenges us in the lane, but without the proper utility setup, this is a dangerous position. Our crosshair placement is also a major issue—it’s too low. We need to have it ready to engage at head level if we’re serious about taking the fight.

Movement and Decision Making During Fights

When fighting, you need to commit. Running and gunning won’t yield consistent results. It’s important to decide whether you’re fighting or running. If you’re engaging, your movement should be intentional, focused on maintaining control while still aiming to win the duel. Avoid leaving the outcome to pure chance by refining your fight-or-flight decisions.

Anticipating Enemy Movements

As you prepare for the next move, don’t rush through areas without considering the possibility of enemies waiting. You need to imagine the angles they could be holding and adjust your tactics accordingly. Planning your movements carefully can help avoid unnecessary deaths and improve your chances of success in the round.

Effective Crosshair Placement and Challenging Angles

As we walk through this area, we’re peeking without proper crosshair placement. If there’s an enemy here, we’re not prepared to fight. When approaching a power angle, like near the box, we should be positioning our crosshair where the enemy might be, giving ourselves a fighting chance instead of just running across the angle blindly.

Using Turret and Utility for Information

Your turret provides the necessary information about enemy presence. What you need next is a trigger for your mollies in the lane, not more information about whether someone is mid. The current setup allows the enemy to easily neutralize your utility because it’s not optimized.

Maximizing Killjoy’s Sentinel Role

Killjoy’s role as a sentinel is to lock down a site independently, making it difficult for enemies to rush and punishing them if they try. However, if the utility isn’t set up correctly, we aren’t fulfilling this role effectively. Randomly thrown mollies are not contributing to the proper site control we need to achieve as a sentinel.

Improving Setup Consistency

We’re seeing inconsistent setups, with a lot of trial and error, which is natural for development as a player. However, it’s important to understand what your utility does and how to position it effectively. Rather than randomly placing it, think critically about what each piece of utility can accomplish and how it contributes to controlling the site.

Smart Use of Utility for Peeking

Instead of challenging an angle without utility, you could have waited for your turret to come back. Your turret could help clear the main area and give you crucial information about an enemy’s position. This would allow you to act more confidently rather than risking a direct engagement.

Committing to Fights and Weapon Management

You made a good decision to engage in a duel. However, once you run out of ammo, try to develop the habit of switching to your classic to continue fighting if necessary. This can save you in critical situations, especially if you don’t have time to reload. In this case, you were lucky to survive, but creating better habits will improve your performance in the long run.

Crosshair Placement and Map Awareness

As you walk through this area, your crosshair placement needs to be higher and aligned with potential enemy positions. At this point, it’s placed too low, and if someone jiggle-peeks, you wouldn’t be prepared to engage. Proper crosshair placement is crucial to winning duels and surviving in tight situations.

Recognizing Team Frustration and Tilt

It’s clear that the team, including yourself, is tilted, and things are falling apart. However, the issue goes beyond emotional tilt. The game was difficult to win from the start due to several setup and strategy mistakes, particularly the double Sentinel setup on B, which didn’t counter the enemy’s consistent pushes on A.

Consistent Utility Placement and Weapon Choices

Your turret positioning was often ineffective, and there was no utility protecting the lane. Additionally, repeatedly force-buying the Guardian wasn’t helpful because you never engaged in situations where it could be fully utilized. If you’re going to play a double Sentinel setup, the utility needs to be more strategically placed, such as using Sage’s slows or positioning alarm bots mid to control critical areas.

Struggling with Commitment in Fights

Throughout the game, it became clear that you were hesitant to commit to fights, especially during retakes. You often started running away mid-fight instead of fully engaging. Aside from a single instance against Neon, you consistently avoided committing to fights, which hurt your overall performance and led to missed opportunities.

Unnecessary Risks and Poor Angle Management

There were many situations where you took unnecessary risks by walking into dangerous angles or failing to challenge potential threats. Simultaneously peeking multiple angles without clearing them properly also left you vulnerable. This led to repeated mistakes that could have been avoided with better planning and awareness.

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