I regret to inform you that Bind, by far the worst map in the game, has returned. Pearl is certainly approaching that status with the tactically shallow B site and only marginally better A site, but at least Pearl has a mid. Pearl B long might be the worst designed area of any map in Valorant, but hookah has to be close behind. Despite your best efforts, including but not limited to a paranoia, dog, boombot (RIP), or nade, you will seemingly inevitably run into someone with a shotgun, or two people with shotguns, making you never want to go there again. What if there were another way?\
These are the smokes used in 90%+ of B site takes in your ranked games. Nothing is inherently wrong with these smokes, but let’s see if we can do better.
The smoke CT is only necessary if we attempt to take the site from hookah, so what if we just didn’t? Taking site control exclusively from long removes the need to smoke CT, as many of the angles provided by B site into CT are advantageous. Neglecting to smoke CT gives us an extra smoke to use, why not use it on those cringe weirdos sitting hookah?
These smokes will allow us to take site control without having to worry about players hookah or elbow seeing us, and site control will give us strong enough angles for CT that we can leave it unsmoked.
These smokes can be augmented with a few extra pieces of utility for a simple site take. Not only would I argue that these smokes are strong on their own merit as an alternative to the traditional elbow and CT smokes, but their novelty is a merit in and of itself. Exposing your opponent to situations they’ve played against infrequently makes them less likely to have an instinctive response, which in turn gives you an advantage. I don’t mean to suggest that you should never use the traditional smokes when taking site, nor do I think you should elect never to pressure hookah, but this is at minimum an equally valid method of taking site control, made even better by an enemy team that refuses to conceded hookah control.
Today’s recommendation is 2007’s Bioshock. The original title holds up incredibly well both in terms of gameplay and story, and has been remade for each subsequent console generation, which is how I would suggest playing the game. The game explores political philosophy and free will as it submerges you in a beautifully haunting location with a conspiracy to unravel and deeply unsettling enemies to contend with. If you’re looking for a way to spend 10 hours in disturbing solitude you’d be hard-pressed to do better than Bioshock.