Sound is without doubt one of the most essential components in a recreation like VALORANT. Jiggle peek too huge, or stroll ahead too lengthy, and instantly your enemy is aware of precisely the place you might be. VALORANT is primarily a recreation of knowledge in spite of everything, and the extra information you give to your opponents, the much less doubtless you might be to transform a spherical in your favor.
But there’s such a factor as being overly cautious in VALORANT. Case in level: Two VALORANT coaches simply revealed how gamers can rethink their flank mechanics by utilizing operating sounds to their benefit.
Last week on Twitch, VALORANT coach Woohoojin teamed up with professional VALORANT participant and coach Jonathan “Silenx” Huntington to assist Woohoojin’s Radiant pupil JeyG safe a constant place on the Top 100 leaderboard. During an Icebox VOD evaluate, Silenx and Woohoojin revealed that JeyG, taking part in as a Jett whereas on Defender aspect, flanked Attackers far too slowly throughout an A website push. An enemy Sova dart scan initiated a push by the opposing staff, which gave Jett the right alternative to tug out her knife and run down mid for a fast flank.
This may appear unwise to gamers who’re fearful of making a gift of an info benefit. Theoretically, operating knife out would make a sequence of stomping sounds that will inform Attackers that Jett was coming from mid. But because the coaches revealed, the A website push created a sequence of loud noises that masked Jett’s footsteps. By shift strolling, Jett gave up the right alternative to make use of sound masking to her benefit.
As Woohoojin defined, when your opponents are operating onto website, the “heat of the moment” makes it significantly troublesome to note operating sounds from behind flank. Between stomping sounds, utility utilization, comms, and gunfire, it’s simple to overlook a lone wolf approaching from behind. This can land a flanking participant a free kill if executed accurately.
“As they’re running into site, making all that noise, I’m making noise as one of them scaling behind them,” Silenx stated.
“Yeah, because your noise is masked,” Woohoojin stated. “There’s a lot of clips from my old VOD reviews where I’ll be like, ‘dude, you can just run knife out’ […] Like, yeah, you’re in their audio range. But in the heat of the moment? Dude’s not gonna be like, ‘one flank.’ And if they are, that kinda plays in your hand anyway.”
By the way in which, sound masking isn’t simply helpful for flanking. It’s excellent for taking a website as properly. Woohoojin proceeded to indicate a clip from Alexander “Zander” Dituri the place he makes use of sound masking to his benefit to flank and kill an unsuspecting Reyna.
“So they’re hitting a site on Breeze, and you’re gonna notice Zander goes uncomfortably fast for your low Elo eyeballs,” Woohoojin says. “Just full clomping on this guy, and she’s not even looking at him. It’s ’cause there’s so much noise going on around her, that she doesn’t even hear him.”
This makes the method a unbelievable strategy to construct off the momentum established by an entry fragger like Jett, who will initially steal the enemy’s consideration — and kick off the precise “heat of the moment” that landed Zander a kill.
“I know we talked about this as a flanking concept,” Silenx defined. “But this should double-down for most people as a site-hitting concept, especially if you’re not the first guy going in.”
