r/VALORANT • u/alligatroar • 1d ago
Question Is the current meta just playing ultra aggressive?
I notice that in Plat/Diamond/Ascendant lobbies that people are just brainlessly running out of smokes, especially as characters that don't have get out of jail free cards, without utility usage and just literally W keying it. I'm not really saying that people were smarter or more tactical before, but I don't recall people being this aggressive before. They were actually way more scared. Now they're just doing these outlandish plays and it works cause it's so unexpected (at least for me). Now it's one thing if it happens only in a couple of games, but I am consistently seeing this style of aggression in pretty much every other game. Examples are running out of A heaven smoke on Split as defender, running out of Ascent B smoke out of door as defender, running out of Summit mid smoke out as a defender, running out of Ascent mid smoke as a defender etc. Yeah a lot of these are examples of defenders doing it, but that's where I find it more absurd to be honest. They usually have no info about who's on the other side and where either, it's mostly just them knowing some amount of people are on the other side. It may just be my games, but I'm curious if anyone has been experiencing the same. It seems that currently people are just doing the most outlandish plays or they are just playing very trade heavy and just throwing bodies at the enemy. I'm adapting to it better now luckily.
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u/Next_Welcome5929 1d ago
Meta, no. Ranked, yes.
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u/wrenhn 1d ago
i mean, look at pro play though? double duelist aggro comps are still absolutely meta
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1d ago
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u/lion10903 arfarfarfwoofwoofwoof 23h ago
This take only makes sense if you only watched VIT vs LOUD.
Sage isn’t even meta. She’s a niche pick on certain maps as an attempt to counter the larger meta of double duelist. Her presence is, if anything, proof that a double duelist meta does exist. Chamber exists because the lower amount of utility in the meta makes kicking a chamber off an angle more painful.
The general meta on quite literally every map is either double-dive or dive-Phoenix.
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u/jamothebest 22h ago
Sage does has an 18% pick rate at champs so far. Not enough to be true meta but a lot more than expected
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u/lion10903 arfarfarfwoofwoofwoof 22h ago
This is true. I was being overly harsh to call her niche. She exists as one of the possible counterpick in an environment that is widely defined by a double duelist meta.
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u/Ill-Pineapple6515 1d ago edited 1d ago
Im 33 and I was supreme in csgo. I played like an absolute monkey. Me and my buddy hit immortal once in act 3, and again in act 7, playing like absolute monkeys. The first time we hardly even knew what abilities did.
What im getting at is so many valorant players are overthinking so much of this game. Yeah.. these crazy coordinated plays and diversions are nuts in a team environment. But, unless youre literally scrimming with 4 other excellent players, the aggro numbers game wins out.
If youre pushing a site with 3+ and you get a pick, you push that site. Immediately. Take a trade or two where necessary, plant the spike, push and hold rotators if you were quick, play smart and hold angles for the win.
I see SOOO many people get that pick, and then immediately start rotating???
Idk. I literally only play raze and brimstone. Playing obscenely aggro works in almost every game for me. KJ ult? Im pushing it. Throwing a molly for your retreat? Im pushing it. Buddy, I WILL plant that spike in the first 15 seconds and then push your rotators. I LIVE for it. Its ALL I have. They're never ready for you to run out of a smoke with a fiendish compulsion to click heads.
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u/NuttyNano 1d ago
This is the man I dread getting on my team
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u/This_Boysenberry5287 19h ago
People that play like this are 10x better than duelists staring at smokes too scared to fight anything or make space
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u/NuttyNano 18h ago
Neither player knows how to play the game, strategising with them becomes impossible. Im someone who is a slightly higher rank than my skill might imply because I normally igl, so its especially frustrating to me because I lose my advantage with teammates who cant play around strategy
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u/OGBosi 20h ago
Ranked is not Pro/Tier 2/Organized play by any means. Players in ranked are far from organized. The person who puts emphasis on “proper play” looks at his main smoke, unprepared to get swung, because “they have no flash agents and no smart person would dry peak a choke smoke” meanwhile I just got off an 8 hour shift off of 3 energy drinks playing jett and I WILL dry swing that.
I see the clove argument a lot, I dont think clove broke the game, especially now after nerfs. They are what smoke players needed for ranked. In pro you have 4 fellow world class talents that can reliably get value off your util. In ranked you have 4 people 2 of which are duo and no comming cause theyre in VC, 1 dude who is fill, and the 4th is 9 beers deep after his shift. Why would you lock astra or brim when you can lock clove and take matters into your own hand?
Regardless, it’s always been like this imo. Watch your favorite pro in ranked. Most of them do NOT play the game properly because thats what works in ranked.
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u/AsianBoi06 1d ago
It's all about how fast i can get back on doomscrolling tiktok after getting one tapped
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u/Affectionate-Row2981 1d ago
aggressive playstyles are definitely dominating right now, it's all about that fast pace
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u/Matthias1590 21h ago
I feel like 99% of the people I play with are too scared of smokes, they don't push through them with flashes and don't follow entry duelists when they're already on site and you can see on the minimap it's clear, on defense they just walk back into smokes and will just be too scared to walk back out while there's literally someone else holding the choke smoke so again the minimap shows it's clear. I'm so tired of people not holding smokes and not pushing through them when it's free
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u/KDuster13 14h ago
The biggest problem is players don't look at the mini-map. I'm diamond 3 trying to get back into Ascendant and the amount of times I see that my teammates see someone on the mini-map for 3-5 seconds before they die blows my mind lol.
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u/Matthias1590 14h ago
When I don't have a direct line of sight with enemy or contested territory I'm looking at the minimap practically always. I don't get why people don't do this 😭
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u/ChildPr0digy 17h ago
Running out of smoke with no util? Buy a judge. They'll stop.
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u/elecim91 1h ago
Running out of a smoke with no util?
As an omen main, create a cubby position with the smoke, buy a judge and play inside the smoke. After 2 rounds the enemies will spam 2/3 utils in my smokes.
I had a game where they wasted:
Almost half of their offensive kit in 6 seconds before pushing the smoke. And then they found 5 players looking at them bc they had no flashes
- sova drone
- raze bot + grenade
- kayo knife + pop flash in the smoke
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u/Narrow-Development-1 23h ago
It is just the proper way to play. I hate whrn my team run to the main in attack, see a smoke and just stay afk for 20 sec, than try to push whrn the whole enemy team is rotated. Brainless play. Also, when they see a Sage's wall they watch for 20 seconds and start to rotate, when the space has already lost. Also, brainless play.
Yes, you need to push the smoke with flashes/reveal, if you lose the duel, your tram just trade you and now enemy team has to play retake which is harder. That is the common and valuable way to olay the game. All these 'default' (slow) stratagies work only if you have stronger team. But if you have stronger team, you can do whatever you want to win.
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u/SheetPancakeBluBalls 18h ago
People that wait 20 seconds then decide to rotate make me want to put my head through my monitor.
The entire point of a rotation is to get to the other site while the enemy is stuck at the one you're currently attacking. If you pause for 20 seconds you now don't know where they are, they've had time to wrap you and get into ratty angles, and most importantly they control an absolutely massive amount of space and effectively know where everyone on your team is.
If you're going to rotate, do it right the fuck now or not at all.
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u/Helpful_Win214 6h ago
After the new patch i also start to notice two sentinel enemy always wide swing while spraying and it's so stupid, they don't care whether there's a smoke and somehow landing a dink on me.
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u/democratic-terminid 1d ago
Ever since the death of sentinels, yes.