How to Climb Ranked in Valorant

Since the release of Valorant in 2020, Valorant has become a popular first-person shooter game that has taken the gaming world by storm. To climb the ranks from Iron to Radiant, the game’s competitive mode will be very helpful. Radiant rank is considered as the ultimate goal and highest achievement in this game and many Valorant players desired to reach there.

Having an in-depth understanding of various aspects of the game such as mechanics, map layouts, agent abilities, and teamwork will be used to make progress from Iron to Radiant. In this article, I will provide some useful tips that will help you dominate the current map rotation and make you climb the highest rank in Valorant. If you’re curious to know the Trade in Valorant do check the article as it will clear all your doubts.
Valorant players need to understand is how each agent’s abilities work as it the important thing while playing Valorant. During a match, you have to use the unique abilities of that agent. To get an edge over your opponents understanding these abilities’ strengths and weaknesses is super important.
The other crucial thing that every player must know while playing a match is map knowledge. Knowing each map’s layout will help you to plan better movements better and make informed decisions during matches.

Valorant Ranks: An Overview

Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Immortal, and Radiant are the total ranks in Valorant. Through player’s performance in matches, each rank shows a certain skill level that players have achieved. Among all the ranks, Radiant is the highest rank in the game and only a few players can achieve this rank.

The Ranking System

The ranking system in Valorant depends on the Elo rating system. Players gain or lose points based on their performance in matches. If one team wins against players with higher ranks than themselves then they will achieve more points than if they were to win against players with lower ranks. if they lose against a team with lower ranks than themselves, they lose more points than if they were to lose against a team with higher ranks.

Valorant Rank Distribution

The distribution of the rank in Valorant is not evenly spread out among all the different ranks. According to data from Riot Games as of August 2021:

⦁ Radiant makes up around 0.03% of all ranked players
⦁ Immortal makes up around 1% of all ranked players
⦁ Diamond makes up around 4% of all ranked players.
⦁ Platinum makes up around 10% of all ranked players.
⦁ Gold makes up around 22% of all ranked players
⦁ Silver makes up around 26% of all ranked players
⦁ Bronze makes up around 28% of all ranked players
⦁ Iron makes up around 8% of all ranked players

Which Rank Players Can Play Together?

If the players are within two ranks of each other then they can play together in Valorant. For example, a gold player can play a match with players who are ranked anywhere between Platinum, and Silver. This means that you will need to either improve your skills or wait for your friends to do the same if you want to play with friends who are at a higher or lower rank than you.

How to Climb Ranked in Valorant from Iron to Radiant

Some days it might like no matter how hard you’re grinding you just can’t seem to get better. If this is you, you’ve come to the right place. In most cases when you’re not improving, it’s probably because you’re practicing the wrong things or maybe you’re not really practicing anything at all, and just hoping you improve over time instead.
Don’t worry though, that’s why I as a Valorant Booster at Immortal Boost going to help you out a bit and show you the right path to climb ranks in Valorant.

Focus on Impact Rather Than Kills

Something incredibly common to see is players getting caught up in fragging out and trying to drop 30 bombs. While getting kills is certainly fun and exciting, it’s not a realistic goal to have in every game. If you’re close to the rank you deserve, you won’t be able to constantly drop 30 every game.
Instead of thinking about trying to get kills, try to focus on the impact you’re making in the game. You can have an impact in the game, without getting any kills. Make your utilities count to help your teammates execute better.
There are more ways to contribute than just fragging out. For example, the purpose of playing duelists is not actually to get killed. Their purpose is to create space for the rest of your team to push in. If you’re able to throw a smoke and dash into Site to distract the enemy, you’ve done your job. With the enemy’s crosshair mispositioned, the rest of your team can more safely push in. Just like that, you’ve made your teammate’s lives, infinitely easier.
In most cases, the impact you make is what gets you and your team killed which is most important. Think about ways you can make an impact with your agent, whether that’s blocking off choke points, distracting the enemy, or even something as simple as just staying alive.

Focus on Team plays

One way to think about impact is with team-based plays. Many players at low ranks try to charge in by themselves, but this is rarely the right decision. It’s a 5v5 game, not 1v5. By communicating and creating a strategy, you’ll find yourself having much more success on kills in your games.
For example, you can coordinate where you want smokes thrown during a site hit, or where you want your team to throw a flash. This will block the enemy’s vision and blind nearby players, making it so much easier to push into the areas than if you had to push in dry.

Lower your Sensitivity

If you want to play well, you likely want to consider lowering your sensitivity. Valorant is all about precision, so a lower sensitivity is going to help you accurately shoot down enemies. The sensitivity of the pros from 600 eDPI to as low as 100 eDPI. eDPI is calculated by multiplying your in-game sensitivity by your mouse’s DPI. I recommend playing somewhere in the middle of these 2 values.
You can use 800 Dpi and an in-game sensitivity of 0.326. This may seem low for most players, but it’s necessary if you want to aim better. This is just one decision you’ll have to make if you want to be a better player but you got plenty more decisions to make.

Pick One Role To Focus On

You must pick a specific role to focus on. You have to keep in mind, that the role you pick is partially going to determine your playstyle. If you’re on a duelist you want to be in the front line pushing aggressively.
If you’re on a Sentinel, you’ll want to be further in the back and more passive. This way you survive longer and can heal yourself or your teammate if need be. If you’re used to one role and playstyle, then switching over to another role that requires an entirely different style is going to throw off your play. This is why I recommend you stick to one role that you generally prefer.

Have a Backup Role to Fill

It’s important to have a backup role to fill. Unfortunately, players are going to instalock agents and sometimes they’re going to force you to play a role you’re not used to. Every player wants to play duelists, so if that’s your main goal, you want a backup plan.
You can take any role you like, but I highly suggest controllers as they’re usually the ones that end up on the back burner. They’re easy to play and probably are one of the most impactful roles in the game. Especially on a map like Breeze, you do not want to skip out a controller or you’ll have a very rough time on the attacker’s side facing a thousand different angles.

Consistently Changing Your Position

Be sure you’re consistently changing up your position during different rounds. If you play the same spot or push the same choke point over and over, the enemy is going to catch on. The most common one I see is pushing through the garage on defense, every single round.
Eventually, the enemy is going to counter you, whether that’s with more players or abilities of their own. You don’t necessarily have to change the choke point you’re hiding, but just going into a different spot can make you less predictable and help keep your enemies guessing.

Learn Tricks with Your Agents

Also, remember that every agent has a few tricks to mix things up. For example, raze has her double satchels that you can do to cover an insane amount of distance and outplay the enemy. Jett also has a few cool combinations, such as on Ascent. You can updraft Jett and dash over the rooftop on B and get into the Site quickly. This is best for catching enemies off guard, especially if you have Jett knives available.
There are so many things that you do when you’ve mastered your agent. You can learn more tricks even on Viper as you can walk through some of the best tricks to win more games, and it helped me a ton with my play.

Learn Lineups with Your Agents

If you’re playing any agent with mollies, you’re going to want to learn lineups for it. These lineups can be the difference between you winning 2, sometimes every 3 rounds, every single game.
One of my personal Favorites is the mollies lineup with Brimstone. To perform it, you line up yourself up to the vertical line on the back wall. Aim the left side of the arrow icon on top of Molly’s ability with the corner on the pipe. Once that’s done, fire away and you have a default plant spot on A Site.
These lineups add a ton of stalling power for your team, it’s super important that you add them to your arsenal.

Don’t Be Completely Afraid of Utility

On the topic of abilities, it’s important to not be completely afraid of them. That doesn’t mean that should run through every ability in the world, but the context matters. In a case where you’re fairly certain that the enemy will not see you coming, it can be okay to go through utility.
For example, if Viper just popped her ultimate down b. Knowing that it takes a few seconds for it to fully bloom, then you can decide to sneakily push through it as it’s forming. This catches the viper off guard and gives them an incredibly easy kill, and might have even saved the round.
For normal smokes, a flash through them, or push while the enemy is planting the spike is another viable scenario.

Know When to Push and When Not to Push

Knowing when to push and when not to push is super important when it comes to improving. Most players have the habit of over-peeking when they shouldn’t be, and it ends up getting them killed and losing so many rounds.
This most commonly happens after the spike has been planted. If you’re on the attacker side and ahead in numbers, then generally you want to be pretty passive. Just hold the angle with your teammates, and wait for the enemies to come to you.
When you’re down in number though, generally you want to try to push the initiative and isolate the enemies as best as you can. For example, you can notice that if the player is in a 1v2 and surrounded by players in Arcade and B Main. He has to push those points to even the odds before the 2nd player gets to him, otherwise, he’ll be overwhelmed. Instead, he can wait in a corner, and the round in a loss.
As a general rule of thumb, remember when your team is down in number, you might want to play aggressively to isolate your enemies as best as you can. Play aggressively and try to even out your number with the enemy’s team number.

Learn How to Strafe Jump

Movement is crucial in Valorant. And one of the most crucial moves you need to learn is strafe jumping. Strafe jumping is when you jump in one direction and then quickly move in the other direction. You perform this by moving your mouse over to the opposite direction mid-jump.
This allows you to check an angle for any enemy, without exposing yourself to be killed. Particularly, it helps you check if there are any of those meddling operators that are waiting for you to peek into their crosshairs. This strafe jump will save you time and time again from getting sniped.

Finding Good Teammates

Another good way to deal with operators is with good teammates. Solo queue is like RNG, there’s no telling what kind of teammates you’re going to run into. The best way to minimize that RNG is by finding players to consistently play with.
You have fewer random players and also have a better idea of the roles and playstyles of your teammates. This will allow you to communicate and coordinate plays a lot more efficiently. I suggest you play with 1 to 2 players if you’re looking to climb rank.
This gives the perfect balance of having teammates you know but not too many that you end up playing against another premade five-man team. Five men can get sweaty as everyone knows each other and can pull off more team-based plays. It becomes a team difference at this point, however, if you feel confident in your five then go for it.

Call Out Enemy Positions

You should try to make sure you’re calling out the enemy’s positions as much as you can. That way your team can react to it. Don’t ever assume your team saw what you saw. Maybe they did, maybe they don’t, but does it make sense to risk it? Particularly if you’re good at engaging an enemy and get eliminated, you want to call out where the enemy was last found so your teammates can immediately trade them.
Many players get killed and don’t communicate where the enemy is. As a result, your teammates swing out without a clue what’s going on, and they get another free kill that could have been avoided. Communication with your team is key to winning rounds. More information against your enemy will be an advantage and more potential in winning every round.

Always Watch your Flank

There aren’t too many things in Valorant that feel quite as bad as getting shot in the back but it’s preventable. If your team has been fiddling around a few areas and left an opening, you want to make sure to check that opening to avoid getting flanked.
This is why having Sentinels like Cypher, Killjoy, and Chamber are so useful. You have traps or a turret that can watch the flank for you. This way, your team can confidently move forward in other parts of the map without worrying about getting knifed from behind.

Know What Every Agent Does

This just comes down mostly to knowing what each agent does, this is particularly for the new players out there, but you must learn what every ability in the game does. While focusing on your agents is great for mastering their abilities, you want to still know what other agents can do. That way, there aren’t any surprises that come your way.
Everyone is going to be playing that agent, so you better know what that agent does or else you’ll be in for a big surprise. Even better if you know what kinds of tricks each agent can do. There are also shocks dark lineups on Sova and many players on Jett will use a dash updraft combo with her ultimate to get the high ground during a fight. Learning what the agents do is incredibly important to be able to shut them down.

Form Crossfires with Your Team

Something else important for stopping the enemy team though, is learning to form crossfires whenever you’re able to. A crossfire is when you and a teammate are holding the same choke point but from opposite angles. By doing this, it guarantees that if a player pushes through that point, they’ll at best get one kill before getting traded out.
There’s no way the enemy can flick over to the 2nd player’s position unless they are pro-payers, but then you likely have a bigger problem.

Look Out for Enemy Ultimates

Every round, you should be checking the scoreboard and see what ultimates the enemy has available or almost has available. By doing this, you can be more prepared for what sort of plays the enemy will make. If you see a Killjoy ultimate for example, they’re probably going to use it right away to push one of the Sites.
If you know Brimstone’s Ultimate is up, you know that you have to fake the spike plant and then move away to another position. A big one is Sage’s ultimate. If she has that up, there’s a solid chance she’ll try to revive a dead teammate. As such want to camo that body so they can’t get that rez off for free.
This is a great way to nullify the effects of the enemy team’s ultimate, and in many cases, even use the ultimate to your benefit.

Review Your Own Game

If you want to improve and climb in Valorant, you need to review your games. Many players don’t realize the mistakes they’re making when they are currently playing in the match, it’s only when you look back at your gameplay that you realize those errors.
I recommend you to record your matches. Look through certain rounds that you lost or get eliminated and see what you could’ve done better. Perhaps you over-extended and got picked off. Or maybe you had abilities that could have helped out. One thing I recommend as well is reviewing your games with other people. This way, you can get a different perspective and further break down areas for improvement.

Mute Toxic Teammates

This is a small move but can play a big part in your mental game. If you run into a toxic teammate, just mute them. Nothing kills you inside quicker than a teammate that’s just yelling or trolling. You’re probably not going to fix them, so the best move is to just ignore their comments and continue forward.

Conclusion

You have 20 quick tips to get you climbing up the ranks. Implement these into your next competitive matches and you’re sure to shine bright like a diamond. Or even an immortal or radiant if you catch my drift. Don’t hesitate to try each tip during the match as it will lead to making progress to achieve the highest rank in Valorant. Be smart and advance your gameplay if desire to get a higher rank in the game.

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