Your favorite semi-annual niche Valorant newsletter has returned.
I’m not sure if I’ve written about it before but the first game I played competitively was Call of Duty. While I no longer waste my money on their yearly release, I’ve found a few of the concepts I learned then useful in their application to Valorant.
This is, in my opinion, the best designed map in cod, Raid. While it was incredible for both search and hardpoint, today we will be taking a look at how one concept from ctf can help us better support our teammates in Valorant.
Suppose we (orange) want to capture their flag (green) and decide to pull it ring. The pathing that our flag carrier takes dictates which chokepoints become important for us to contest, and when they become important.
These are the paths that an enemy player in mid or connector can take to kill our flag carrier. As the flag progresses along its path, the relevant cutoff moves with it, from art stairs to art, to pillars, and eventually kitchen, directly next to our flag.
If the other team pulls our flag pool, these are the cutoffs their players will focus.
I find this concept useful in understanding both micro and macro in Valorant. To start with the latter, when we take a piece of map control our power over enemy rotations comes from holding the equivalent of a cutoff in ctf.
Taking mail, vent, or both on Split denies defender rotations through mid from one site to another in the same way that controlling pillars on Raid protects our flag carrier from enemy pressure mid.
Skye dogging B here is more effective in pulling rotates from A because of Cypher’s presence in vent, allowing our team to more easily take A.
As she dogs, the cutoff is vent.
As our team moves into A the cutoff becomes mail to mid.
Suppose our Cypher heard all A players rotate off and took A heaven, he could then hold spawn while our Skye picks up the mid rotate.
A simple example of how the concept applies in the micro lets look at a common retake scenario on A site Ascent.
In this scenario bomb has been planted gen (please stop planting gen), our Omen is defusing, we are heaven, and their Jett is hell. Many players in this scenario seem to want to drop and fight the guy hell while our omen sticks, but it’s fully unnecessary.
The attacking Jett must enter this area to stop the defuse, and our positioning grants us an advantageous fight anywhere their Jett tries to exit hell. Rather than drop and take the 50/50, why not just sit heaven and force their player to clear us before being able to contest the defuse?
To bring it back to Raid ctf, you could choose to push into mid to deny the enemy rotation to pillar, but you could also deny pillar by sitting on a headglitch ring, only worrying about one angle with the majority of your body protected by concrete.
Having an understanding of not only which cutoffs are important and when, but how to give yourself the highest percentage chance of winning the fight for control over the cutoff will win you more games.
Today’s recommendation is Baldur’s Gate 3, maybe the best game released in the last decade.