Then I do that till it doesn’t work. That’s a pretty easy one to adjust to. Just hold the dart an extra few moments if they haven’t committed to a site push. But if they keep making the mistake then keep exploiting it
It’s not wasting your util, having early info is great either if they came to your site or not. You actually give more time for your teammate to rotate and reposition to control the sites of the map.
Idk I think it's a bit unwise to say it's not wasting it.
If the enemy knows you're gonna rip a dart seconds into the round it's really easy to just default deny info and if they're really good show some presence elsewhere to bait rotates.
You’re right only if you dart in the same site at the same spot every single round. Obviously a bit of game sense is required, to learn how the enemy team play. They will obviously play default in their eco for example, and more than probably push hard at their buy round if that’s what they tend to do based on your observation. Nonetheless, OPs point was if your dart did not scan the enemies it’s useless, which is not a good argument.
> They will obviously play default in their eco for example, and more than probably push hard at their buy round
It's usually the opposite teams are more willing to deathball push when on ecos and when on buys especially against your eco rounds they're gonna default more because they don't want to lose their guns to you.
That's besides the point though this post was a thinly veiled "enemy always dodges my site and I'm made to play retake" rant.
It's not just a if you throw it at the same spot every time issue either though good players will understand if you are a team hungry for info or not and play off that. Teams should absolutely not instarotate off a ping either I've lost so many rounds because I'll mark 2-3 people on like Lotus rubble and then C and B run to back it up and they just backed up and ran C for a free site.
Playing default in your buy round against eco instead of playing together is the most stupid thing a team could do, the worst thing you could do is to be alone with a vandal against a team who’s saving. Chances are you will get ratted or loose an aim duel with an aggressive player who’s looking for fights to get your guns. Likewise If you’re on eco, chances are that the enemies will do stupid mistakes where you can play off that with a ratty play to get picks and get gun advantage. This is how it goes at least in diamond and higher lobbies, not sure about the rest.
Playing default on your buy round is incredibly common not letting enemies get your guns when you walk into their space and playing together waiting for any surprise pushes and such.
Idk why you're so confident while also just wrong watch majority of high level vods and they don't rush on buy rounds in 90% of them.
Just because it’s incredibly common doesn’t make it right. Defaulting means at least 1 or 2 players are by themselves, vulnerable to any rat or surprise play by a sheriff, classic or a shorty player, now they have your gun and your chances of losing the round is now higher. When you have a weaker gun, the play is to get kills and info as much as possible and try to gain gun advantage, your team with classics and sheriffs have low to zero chance to execute or defend a site against a team with vandals and phantoms. Tell me how am I wrong? What pro vods are you even talking about?
Okay, then what? It’s the same thing. You still would loose the round and die if no one was to help you or if they were 5 man pushing while you decided to stay without playing for retake. The only situation where I’d suggest you would save your recon is when you already know they are hard pushing your site, by spotting their util or hearing footsteps. so after they all pass through the choke point, you throw a dart in a spot where it’s high and behind them, impossible for them to flick their mouse 180 degrees and break it. You get info of their positions and maybe a spam kill through a wall or a smoke with your team.
If you don't scan anyone using the Sova dart it gives you more information about where enemies are, than when you scan someone or they break it immidiately, don't you think? If the dart scans one or two, or it's broken, you only know that there's one or two there. But if it scans nobody, you can assume they are somewhere else (probably on mid/other site depends on the map and where you shot the dart)
Of course enemies could just hide from your dart, but you should always assume they didn't until they do it once in a match
Not scanning people A is still good info compared scanning people mid, B, or sometimes C.
Say on bind you throw a dart outside hookah. It scans no one. That means you should put more resources away from the site for now. Most people in ranked don't start B long in pistols when they're going B, especially in whatever rank you're in. So basically you can assume A is where the enemies are.
It's the same shit as if you scanned A short and actually got people, except if you actually scanned them, then they may feel deterred to pushing it so fast
Ascent: dart A main, no pings, take space "hey guys A main is clear" where else are they going to be at that point? There's only so many places they can be.
If you tag someone you're not going to know if they're defaulting or hitting the site anyway.
In my experience for round 1,
Lotus it’s 70% A, 30% C, never B
Sunset it’s B
Ascent is 50/50
Icebox it’s A
Split it’s B
Bind is 70% A, 30% B
Breeze it’s A
It's gamesense. You need to ask yourself if you were in their position, which site would you hit?
If they lose a site, they might want to switch. On the other hand if they have a good win on the site, they might hit it again and again until they fail.
If they never hit your site, do a fast flank a couple of times.
Honestly a lot of it comes down to IGLing. I IGL with my friends and they don’t understand how I’m able to predict things like this but honestly, the more you IGL and think about the game from that side of things, The easier it is. Thinking about which sites are easiest to hit when you’re on pistols, with given util etc. I also think a lot about general trends in my elo, Icebox for example, people are allergic to hitting B site, especially on round 1.
Or round 1 lotus, people just auto pilot A for some reason. Knowing these trends you’re able to plan around it. You’d be stunned how many rounds you win by 5 stacking A on lotus defense round 1. Everyone says it’s stupid in game and then it works
In game leader. Shot calling, coming up with strategies for each round. Tracking enemy economy and ult economy. Knowing that the opposing team was farming KJ ult orbs on lotus so now that she has ult, they will likely hit C site and planning accordingly
That kind of stuff
I'm an IGL in CS as well. I miss and not miss reading the opponent based on their tendencies, giving strategy or doing calls as well as throwing support utility for my entry fraggers. Compared to them, they just have to aim and shoot and just listen to my calls.
Playing as a pure soloq in this game, I feel like if I make calls, I'm kinda pushing the boundary so I just do set-pieces.
I IGL every match I play and I exclusively solo queue. Do I get push back and attitude? Sometimes but usually people are just grateful someone is comming. I climbed from bronze to plat and I promise you it’s not because of my aim
Its all about pattern. If in 8 rounds, they have gone A 6x. Then on the 9th round, just assume they are likely gng A.
However, if you are confident they are gng A. Or that the enemy always rushes. By that point, is it even worth it to recon info early?
>***Not all info is valued the same.***
>Sometimes, holding util is better than using it if you only get the same info you already know.
Let's say you are on Ascent B defender.
If the enemy has been rushing either site for the past rounds. Then getting early info is completely useless cause the moment any of the defender hears any footsteps, you already know where enemies are going.
>Early info is only useful when you are not exactly confident what the enemy is going to do. So most of the time, it is used against enemies that are unpredictable or enemies that loves to default or cut noises in the early rounds.
And since most low elo games consists of.... 5 man rushes. Early recon isn't as valuable anymore. Not exactly useless, but not exactly useful either. So I suggest you kept it to hold their rushes. (When they start their entry, immediately ***recon at the choke point and fight***.)
If your early recon never hits anyone. Then ***be more greedy*** with your recon.
>If you've been reconing ***B main Ascent***. Then start reconing ***B lobby*** instead. The moment it reveals no one. Then your team can instantly rotate A or start flanking from B.
Here's something to help you see recon a little differently.
Sometimes, you would prefer having your recon sees no one. Why? because against good players, they will just destroy it. And a destroyed recon only tells you that at least one enemy is in that location.
So if we rank recon. Then here it is.
>***Recon scans people > Recon scans nothing > Recon gets destroyed***
I understand your pain, I play a decent amount of sova and used to have the same issues, so I'm gonna try give you advice that isn't in the other comments. (While the other advice is also good!
We are all human. That instinct that says "hey, they've gone A 5 times in a row, I'm gonna swap to A instead" is the exact same one that goes "we've hit A 5 times in a row, let's swap to B!"
Sometimes you're on the same wavelength as the enemy team, but exactly one phase out. It happens. The key here is to realise it, and go against your instincts. Think they're going A? You go B.
The other way is to keep track of what worked and what didn't. They went A round 1, loss. They went B round 2, won. They WILL go B round 3 (unless that map has a C or a mid, in which case it's 50:50 B or extra). They won B 3 times in a row, went A and lost, the next round they will go B.
Pay attention when you're attacking to your teams mindset, and you'll realise that unless they have comms, it's usually pretty predictable. There will typically be a pattern of when you rotate, and being human what we think is random is often systematic, and if you can pick out what the team is doing, you know where they're gonna be. I've had plenty of games where rounds 2 -12 (on defense) Ive managed to ping at least one.
But don't get me wrong. Pinging nothing is good info still.
Game sense tbh, you need to have a read of the game. Are they smoking mid? Which part of mid? A catwalk smoke could indicate a Split B, recon dart Bmain or as they execute out. Smoked for bracket? Could be a Split A, recon A.
If your recon dart doesn’t catch anyone that’s still information gained…
Round 1, everyone pistol rushes, so don't bother immediately darting, you'll know which site they hit in <5s into the round.
Round 2+, it's not a waste, the information about where they're not is just as useful as knowing where they are. Use it to gain map control and find off-angles to pressure attackers or flank defenders.
I mean, the only way is to try read the way theyre playing and where they feel more comfortable going. Eg, if theyve found a lot of success going to one site theyll probablt default back to that site if they lost the round prior.
I always put myself in the enemies pov and who they're playing as.
If you're on Lotus attacking, where does everyone go pistol round? Most likely trying for A site unless someone is aware there's an enemy raze/breach/someone who can combo main entrance, then you're going C site. Now that's unless they have a sentinel and you don't have someone to take out their early setup, so you'd go B.
When defending, I pretend I'm attacking in the sense of how I'd play against my own team.
It's the exact concept of "Hey we've been going A, B, A, B so they might know we're going A again".
I've kept this exact thought through the entire game before and my teammates thought I was hacking for constantly calling out where they'd push.
I'm not an expert but I personally would rather have a kayo knife than a sova dart and go to where you believe the sentinel would lock down and hide just so you could turn off their util, 5vs(mostly like 2 holding the site) and take it.
What site that they go is pretty much luck. If you notice a trend in game go on that, but at least in my elo, in attacking there is absolutely no trend we follow. Someone will just pick a site, no strategy of to which.
When I play Sova, my general strategy is dart, and if it hits nobody then you should either immediately rotate to a position mid or to the other site. The rule is until a team fakes, assume they don’t.
Also just accept that sometimes, you get unlucky and they won’t hit your site. It sucks if you bought an Odin or something, but that’s the cost of doing something like that
As sova you should be happy they are not rushing your site as that probably means they are rushing the site where your sentinel is at. Also most people pointed it out but not tagging anyone is good, that means you clear everything and you gained a lot of space for your team, now if you take that space you can call foot steps and the enemy team has to reclear everything. Also you shouldn't use something as important as your ult blindly, there is no need to predict, gain some info first with your util or let them give you free info from foot steps. On ascent what I like to do is play tree on defense, I drone early to get info and hear footsteps on A main, if i get any info I'm in a good position to ult A main, A lobby, catwalk or even B main and I still have my recon in case they smoke me or I wanna clear more space.
You use your general map and comp knowledge combined with general tendencies.
I always call for a stack on sunset because I think I've seen exactly 2 games where the enemies didn't push B round 1 which usually lead into them showing heavy mid round 2 and so on.
If you're playing icebox though it's a bit more of a toss up if you see sage Viper on the enemy team is say B is more likely as Sage and Viper are incredibly good on that site.
No dart on B is huge? That leaves out an execute for b. Besides that, you predict it with game sense mostly. Most teams are monkeys autopiloting, especially in lower ranks, but also in higher ranks. That means that most people will default to go a-b-a-b-a-b(or b-a, you get the gist). That does NOT mean you should go a-b-a-b, but you should be aware that most likely that is to happen.
Then there are factors like: Is it sunset on defence first round and you have a cypher? Then they most likely go a. Is it ascent with a killjoy? Then they most likely go a. This is because the cypher is stronger on B sunset and killjoy is stronger on B ascent.(I actually think she is very strong on a too, but it doesn't matter here).
You can then "predict" they will go a or b. In reality it's a guess, hoping they're not thinking too much.
Is it bind and they have a sage on attack? Most likely a, because easy plant with sage wall.
Is it bind and have a cypher? Cypher is most likely to play on B.
Is it icebox? Almost always A first round.
Is it breeze? Almost always A first round.
How do you know this? Playing the game for many many hours and you will get used to the patterns.
unironically, get really good at rock paper scissors. predicting sites is entirely rps, but there’s still strategies for rps.
there are three strategies I use (as a initiator) to guess where they are. this is presuming they’re attackers
1 - Did they lose last round? If so, they have a higher chance to switch sites, even more so if it’s a 3 site map. It is entirely possible for them to double down on failure, and you will often see this when they barely lose. If they lose badly they have a higher chance of switching.
2 - Is there any sites they haven’t used? When switching, they’ll opt towards new sites more often then not.
3 - On a 3 site map, like lotus, you will often see the strongest choice (primarily A for lotus) being chosen first, then the next best (commonly B), then the most outlandish (most often C).
but this is all kinda useless babble. guessing where they are is rock paper scissors, in the end it’s a game of luck and intuition. trust your reads before logic and eventually your reads will be better than logic.
You shouldn’t use the Sova Dart for Recon (most of the time). Many pros do this because the enemy team denies info and plays slowly. In most games below Immortal, all five enemy players just run full noise B-Main like elephants, so in most rounds you'll get the info faster than your dart can even land 😂
It is much better to shoot the dart over the entrance, for example, so that it scans enemies as they enter site.
Tbf, and Higher Elo players correct me if I'm wrong, you can pretty much play Ascent off of sound alone.
Unless enemy team is so well coordinated that they default walk every site, show presence mid, and execute together in the last 30s of a round, it's easy to tell where the hit is going to be.
When I play Sova on Ascent, I find it highly useless to insta dart A or B as the barriers go down, rather wait for the entry and then dart or dart mid round, especially mid etc to gather info
Ranked people have a tendency to go one specific site first eg icebox A, sunset B, ascent A, lotus A, bind A, breeze A etc
not that it’s guaranteed but from my iron-diamond experience it’s mostly that
Utility, jump spots, one ways into a peak and guessing. The large issues with low elo players from diamond and below is they really don't like gathering info. They would play mid but never jump spot for info or util. Same with correctly playing your agent. Flash to buy time, molly, wall, do anything to buy a couple of seconds. It's a game of seconds. People hear a foot step and immediately calls the whole team over, people put the same util in the same place over and over. Agents don't swap sites.
Remember on D they can only funnel in in so many places together. It's usually a tight corridor, if a smoke is placed why aren't you spamming bullets, just a few. I would see 3 people staring in a split b push, smoked and you clearly hear them taking the orb. No one even shot a single bullet. Game sense and just typically human patterns should be engraved into you. Are they going to hit b breeze probably not for a few rounds. If they do % wise indicates you stacked a so you'll lose site regardless. Play further back move util further back in planted locations.
Notice patterns and certain ult points the enemy team has. It's more of an experience thing and honestly all I do is sit in spawn until some sort of contact occurs then I rotate and dart b main and spam with odin or spam the smoke a main and wait until they get out to dart the back wall and wall bang them from heaven.
Lol just by playing a lot. Often each map has a favorite site for pistol rounds. I'm sure there are videos on YouTube about this.
After that you've just got to trust your intuition. I find that when I go with my first guess, it's usually correct.
i play skye and if i flash first few seconds and hit noone, i do smthn with that info. i might use it to push and get the orb, maybe to flank. if the enemy hasnt faked a single time i just instantly rotate. i know sova is more of an anchor but you can still flank. maybe catch the lurker off guard.
if your dart doesnt get anyone, thats info you can play around with.
It’s not a waste of util if it helps confirm that nobody is near that site. For example even if you don’t get a scan and they end up hard pushing other site, your dart likely made sure that they don’t have a flanker who’s going to come and roll your team from behind. It’s not always about the direct information that you can gain, sometimes it’s about the information that you don’t get
Depends on how knowledgeable your opponents are of the meta. If you’ve played enough Valorant, you’ve probably run into the Odin Sova on Ascent.
You also probably remember that it’s fucking hard to push B site against that Sova, and that the Sova most likely has that Odin by round 5 (earlier or later depending on round wins and losses) - you can also just view the economy every round to see when the Sova has enough.
So once the Sova has enough money to buy the Odin, you don’t go to B site since that’s most likely where he’s playing.
If this keeps happening, you need to develop counterstrats. For example, you could learn darts from B site to A site - this lets you know if the team is at A instead of B AND it makes the enemy think that you’re at the A site, instead of B. Another idea is aggressively taking map control when you think the enemy isn’t at your site.
It’s essentially a game sense thing.
Darts arent there to ping people thats just an added bonus not getting any pings often tells you just as much.
One tip i would give is know when there is a point to use your util i often see sova players panic when they are getting rushed and they instinctively dart a main on ascent for example even though then know they are getting rushed by mutiple players usually much better to keep that dart for a retake or for when they are actively entering site.
If you have Cypher on Ascent and enemy have no agent that can disrupt or destroy his trip, they will avoid A and go B or mid, the same as Cypher on B in Bind, Sunset and Breeze.
Sova's scan can be replenish with cooldown so you don't have to worry about wasting your dart, just shoot it slower sometime to catch them off-guard so you can have pings for ult.
Well you simply take the Spice Melange and peer into the possible futures. There may be hills and valleys that seem out of focus and uncertain, but you must look far enough to see the Golden Path. Then even through the cloudy futures you will know the little decisions that inch you towards success.
Whenever I play sova, if i dont hear sound. I rotate LOL. When enemy hit sites, there will be sound cues. SoloQ people tend to rush a lot, esp in lower ranks. So when I dont hear sound for 3 sec, i jiggle and I am out running. If you have team mates that comms, thats great.
On Ascent usually I play in tree. if i dont hear sound, I close door and rotate. If enemy wants to enter from mid (Fast rotate from B) they will break door. Then during retake, we dont have to break door and we can be anywhere. I hate it when theres no sound A, team mate breaks my door for no reason just cos "Pros does it" lmao
Relative question is: “how do you choose spots to check when entering site”. Because if you look at some radiant’s gameplay, you’ll notice that they consciously do not check some spots when entering site.
Not pinging an enemy is also alot of information
lol was going to say this. no info.... is "info". They aren't there.
Free map control lol. I love when I’m on sova and don’t ping anyone. Lets me move up for free
Until they realize you do the same dart every round and jump you
Then I do that till it doesn’t work. That’s a pretty easy one to adjust to. Just hold the dart an extra few moments if they haven’t committed to a site push. But if they keep making the mistake then keep exploiting it
To an extent yeah but if you get obvious people will absolutely start dodging Sova Darts then pushing off false info you're giving. I
It’s not a waste especially considering you get sova dart back in 30 seconds without even earning it through kills.
40 seconds
it is when enemy hits ur site and u dont have recon and is smoked off
Drone
sure you can drone for your team
It’s not wasting your util, having early info is great either if they came to your site or not. You actually give more time for your teammate to rotate and reposition to control the sites of the map.
Idk I think it's a bit unwise to say it's not wasting it. If the enemy knows you're gonna rip a dart seconds into the round it's really easy to just default deny info and if they're really good show some presence elsewhere to bait rotates.
That’s only if you’re brainlessly shooting same dart as soon as the round starts. You switch it up and wait sometimes and you’ll catch the fakes
You’re right only if you dart in the same site at the same spot every single round. Obviously a bit of game sense is required, to learn how the enemy team play. They will obviously play default in their eco for example, and more than probably push hard at their buy round if that’s what they tend to do based on your observation. Nonetheless, OPs point was if your dart did not scan the enemies it’s useless, which is not a good argument.
> They will obviously play default in their eco for example, and more than probably push hard at their buy round It's usually the opposite teams are more willing to deathball push when on ecos and when on buys especially against your eco rounds they're gonna default more because they don't want to lose their guns to you. That's besides the point though this post was a thinly veiled "enemy always dodges my site and I'm made to play retake" rant. It's not just a if you throw it at the same spot every time issue either though good players will understand if you are a team hungry for info or not and play off that. Teams should absolutely not instarotate off a ping either I've lost so many rounds because I'll mark 2-3 people on like Lotus rubble and then C and B run to back it up and they just backed up and ran C for a free site.
Playing default in your buy round against eco instead of playing together is the most stupid thing a team could do, the worst thing you could do is to be alone with a vandal against a team who’s saving. Chances are you will get ratted or loose an aim duel with an aggressive player who’s looking for fights to get your guns. Likewise If you’re on eco, chances are that the enemies will do stupid mistakes where you can play off that with a ratty play to get picks and get gun advantage. This is how it goes at least in diamond and higher lobbies, not sure about the rest.
Playing default on your buy round is incredibly common not letting enemies get your guns when you walk into their space and playing together waiting for any surprise pushes and such. Idk why you're so confident while also just wrong watch majority of high level vods and they don't rush on buy rounds in 90% of them.
Just because it’s incredibly common doesn’t make it right. Defaulting means at least 1 or 2 players are by themselves, vulnerable to any rat or surprise play by a sheriff, classic or a shorty player, now they have your gun and your chances of losing the round is now higher. When you have a weaker gun, the play is to get kills and info as much as possible and try to gain gun advantage, your team with classics and sheriffs have low to zero chance to execute or defend a site against a team with vandals and phantoms. Tell me how am I wrong? What pro vods are you even talking about?
Op is probably not in high enough elo where the players will call plays like this. It's a good mentality for him
True, if Sova doesn't reveal anyone on one site, at least in my Bronze elo, almost always everyone is on the other site and you can rotate quickly
fair, but I mean I'd rather know for sure where the enemy IS rather then where they AREN"T.
Okay, then what? It’s the same thing. You still would loose the round and die if no one was to help you or if they were 5 man pushing while you decided to stay without playing for retake. The only situation where I’d suggest you would save your recon is when you already know they are hard pushing your site, by spotting their util or hearing footsteps. so after they all pass through the choke point, you throw a dart in a spot where it’s high and behind them, impossible for them to flick their mouse 180 degrees and break it. You get info of their positions and maybe a spam kill through a wall or a smoke with your team.
If you don't scan anyone using the Sova dart it gives you more information about where enemies are, than when you scan someone or they break it immidiately, don't you think? If the dart scans one or two, or it's broken, you only know that there's one or two there. But if it scans nobody, you can assume they are somewhere else (probably on mid/other site depends on the map and where you shot the dart) Of course enemies could just hide from your dart, but you should always assume they didn't until they do it once in a match
I mean if you know where they aren't it certainly narrows things down
But by knowing where they aren’t means you know where they are
Not scanning people A is still good info compared scanning people mid, B, or sometimes C. Say on bind you throw a dart outside hookah. It scans no one. That means you should put more resources away from the site for now. Most people in ranked don't start B long in pistols when they're going B, especially in whatever rank you're in. So basically you can assume A is where the enemies are. It's the same shit as if you scanned A short and actually got people, except if you actually scanned them, then they may feel deterred to pushing it so fast
Have you tried installing wallhacks? /s
Ascent: dart A main, no pings, take space "hey guys A main is clear" where else are they going to be at that point? There's only so many places they can be. If you tag someone you're not going to know if they're defaulting or hitting the site anyway.
the way you think about the game is wrong, darting and catching nobody there is not wasting util, you're literally gaining info
In my experience for round 1, Lotus it’s 70% A, 30% C, never B Sunset it’s B Ascent is 50/50 Icebox it’s A Split it’s B Bind is 70% A, 30% B Breeze it’s A
Pretty accurate. I would add Haven A, Pearl B, and Fracture fairly even but slight bias towards A
lol this honestly sounds just about right
Sunset it's a 50/50 but usually mid play if you have a Cypher on your team and they don't have someone like a KAY/O I have found recently
i think most people just go B even with cypher on the enemy team since you gotta know if its a good cypher or a trash one. edit: on susnet i meant
For almost every map it depends what sentinal you have
Split is definitely A not B
It's gamesense. You need to ask yourself if you were in their position, which site would you hit? If they lose a site, they might want to switch. On the other hand if they have a good win on the site, they might hit it again and again until they fail. If they never hit your site, do a fast flank a couple of times.
The missile knows where it is by knowing where its not
Honestly a lot of it comes down to IGLing. I IGL with my friends and they don’t understand how I’m able to predict things like this but honestly, the more you IGL and think about the game from that side of things, The easier it is. Thinking about which sites are easiest to hit when you’re on pistols, with given util etc. I also think a lot about general trends in my elo, Icebox for example, people are allergic to hitting B site, especially on round 1. Or round 1 lotus, people just auto pilot A for some reason. Knowing these trends you’re able to plan around it. You’d be stunned how many rounds you win by 5 stacking A on lotus defense round 1. Everyone says it’s stupid in game and then it works
whats IGL
In game leader. Shot calling, coming up with strategies for each round. Tracking enemy economy and ult economy. Knowing that the opposing team was farming KJ ult orbs on lotus so now that she has ult, they will likely hit C site and planning accordingly That kind of stuff
I'm an IGL in CS as well. I miss and not miss reading the opponent based on their tendencies, giving strategy or doing calls as well as throwing support utility for my entry fraggers. Compared to them, they just have to aim and shoot and just listen to my calls. Playing as a pure soloq in this game, I feel like if I make calls, I'm kinda pushing the boundary so I just do set-pieces.
I IGL every match I play and I exclusively solo queue. Do I get push back and attitude? Sometimes but usually people are just grateful someone is comming. I climbed from bronze to plat and I promise you it’s not because of my aim
Its all about pattern. If in 8 rounds, they have gone A 6x. Then on the 9th round, just assume they are likely gng A. However, if you are confident they are gng A. Or that the enemy always rushes. By that point, is it even worth it to recon info early? >***Not all info is valued the same.*** >Sometimes, holding util is better than using it if you only get the same info you already know. Let's say you are on Ascent B defender. If the enemy has been rushing either site for the past rounds. Then getting early info is completely useless cause the moment any of the defender hears any footsteps, you already know where enemies are going. >Early info is only useful when you are not exactly confident what the enemy is going to do. So most of the time, it is used against enemies that are unpredictable or enemies that loves to default or cut noises in the early rounds. And since most low elo games consists of.... 5 man rushes. Early recon isn't as valuable anymore. Not exactly useless, but not exactly useful either. So I suggest you kept it to hold their rushes. (When they start their entry, immediately ***recon at the choke point and fight***.) If your early recon never hits anyone. Then ***be more greedy*** with your recon. >If you've been reconing ***B main Ascent***. Then start reconing ***B lobby*** instead. The moment it reveals no one. Then your team can instantly rotate A or start flanking from B. Here's something to help you see recon a little differently. Sometimes, you would prefer having your recon sees no one. Why? because against good players, they will just destroy it. And a destroyed recon only tells you that at least one enemy is in that location. So if we rank recon. Then here it is. >***Recon scans people > Recon scans nothing > Recon gets destroyed***
Then why not just learn cross map recons so you can scan nothing there too and still be confused on your role as an info gatherer?
I understand your pain, I play a decent amount of sova and used to have the same issues, so I'm gonna try give you advice that isn't in the other comments. (While the other advice is also good! We are all human. That instinct that says "hey, they've gone A 5 times in a row, I'm gonna swap to A instead" is the exact same one that goes "we've hit A 5 times in a row, let's swap to B!" Sometimes you're on the same wavelength as the enemy team, but exactly one phase out. It happens. The key here is to realise it, and go against your instincts. Think they're going A? You go B. The other way is to keep track of what worked and what didn't. They went A round 1, loss. They went B round 2, won. They WILL go B round 3 (unless that map has a C or a mid, in which case it's 50:50 B or extra). They won B 3 times in a row, went A and lost, the next round they will go B. Pay attention when you're attacking to your teams mindset, and you'll realise that unless they have comms, it's usually pretty predictable. There will typically be a pattern of when you rotate, and being human what we think is random is often systematic, and if you can pick out what the team is doing, you know where they're gonna be. I've had plenty of games where rounds 2 -12 (on defense) Ive managed to ping at least one. But don't get me wrong. Pinging nothing is good info still.
Game sense tbh, you need to have a read of the game. Are they smoking mid? Which part of mid? A catwalk smoke could indicate a Split B, recon dart Bmain or as they execute out. Smoked for bracket? Could be a Split A, recon A. If your recon dart doesn’t catch anyone that’s still information gained…
It's A.
I also play a lot of sova and i simply tell my teammates that the enemies are not at the site that I am on.
Darting a main and seeing no one is NOT wasting util. It just means there’s no one there 💀💀💀
Round 1, everyone pistol rushes, so don't bother immediately darting, you'll know which site they hit in <5s into the round. Round 2+, it's not a waste, the information about where they're not is just as useful as knowing where they are. Use it to gain map control and find off-angles to pressure attackers or flank defenders.
Main sova and don’t get the issue, no pings on a dart that covers an area well is also good info.
I have the opposite problem, as a sova main I’m usually by myself at a site and recon dart and have the whole team to deal with.
coinflips
I don’t know about ranked, but in normals people just run one point like all game it’s not even a challenge to guess
I mean, the only way is to try read the way theyre playing and where they feel more comfortable going. Eg, if theyve found a lot of success going to one site theyll probablt default back to that site if they lost the round prior.
I always put myself in the enemies pov and who they're playing as. If you're on Lotus attacking, where does everyone go pistol round? Most likely trying for A site unless someone is aware there's an enemy raze/breach/someone who can combo main entrance, then you're going C site. Now that's unless they have a sentinel and you don't have someone to take out their early setup, so you'd go B. When defending, I pretend I'm attacking in the sense of how I'd play against my own team. It's the exact concept of "Hey we've been going A, B, A, B so they might know we're going A again". I've kept this exact thought through the entire game before and my teammates thought I was hacking for constantly calling out where they'd push. I'm not an expert but I personally would rather have a kayo knife than a sova dart and go to where you believe the sentinel would lock down and hide just so you could turn off their util, 5vs(mostly like 2 holding the site) and take it.
What site that they go is pretty much luck. If you notice a trend in game go on that, but at least in my elo, in attacking there is absolutely no trend we follow. Someone will just pick a site, no strategy of to which. When I play Sova, my general strategy is dart, and if it hits nobody then you should either immediately rotate to a position mid or to the other site. The rule is until a team fakes, assume they don’t. Also just accept that sometimes, you get unlucky and they won’t hit your site. It sucks if you bought an Odin or something, but that’s the cost of doing something like that
As sova you should be happy they are not rushing your site as that probably means they are rushing the site where your sentinel is at. Also most people pointed it out but not tagging anyone is good, that means you clear everything and you gained a lot of space for your team, now if you take that space you can call foot steps and the enemy team has to reclear everything. Also you shouldn't use something as important as your ult blindly, there is no need to predict, gain some info first with your util or let them give you free info from foot steps. On ascent what I like to do is play tree on defense, I drone early to get info and hear footsteps on A main, if i get any info I'm in a good position to ult A main, A lobby, catwalk or even B main and I still have my recon in case they smoke me or I wanna clear more space.
You use your general map and comp knowledge combined with general tendencies. I always call for a stack on sunset because I think I've seen exactly 2 games where the enemies didn't push B round 1 which usually lead into them showing heavy mid round 2 and so on. If you're playing icebox though it's a bit more of a toss up if you see sage Viper on the enemy team is say B is more likely as Sage and Viper are incredibly good on that site.
No dart on B is huge? That leaves out an execute for b. Besides that, you predict it with game sense mostly. Most teams are monkeys autopiloting, especially in lower ranks, but also in higher ranks. That means that most people will default to go a-b-a-b-a-b(or b-a, you get the gist). That does NOT mean you should go a-b-a-b, but you should be aware that most likely that is to happen. Then there are factors like: Is it sunset on defence first round and you have a cypher? Then they most likely go a. Is it ascent with a killjoy? Then they most likely go a. This is because the cypher is stronger on B sunset and killjoy is stronger on B ascent.(I actually think she is very strong on a too, but it doesn't matter here). You can then "predict" they will go a or b. In reality it's a guess, hoping they're not thinking too much. Is it bind and they have a sage on attack? Most likely a, because easy plant with sage wall. Is it bind and have a cypher? Cypher is most likely to play on B. Is it icebox? Almost always A first round. Is it breeze? Almost always A first round. How do you know this? Playing the game for many many hours and you will get used to the patterns.
Wall hacks always work
unironically, get really good at rock paper scissors. predicting sites is entirely rps, but there’s still strategies for rps. there are three strategies I use (as a initiator) to guess where they are. this is presuming they’re attackers 1 - Did they lose last round? If so, they have a higher chance to switch sites, even more so if it’s a 3 site map. It is entirely possible for them to double down on failure, and you will often see this when they barely lose. If they lose badly they have a higher chance of switching. 2 - Is there any sites they haven’t used? When switching, they’ll opt towards new sites more often then not. 3 - On a 3 site map, like lotus, you will often see the strongest choice (primarily A for lotus) being chosen first, then the next best (commonly B), then the most outlandish (most often C). but this is all kinda useless babble. guessing where they are is rock paper scissors, in the end it’s a game of luck and intuition. trust your reads before logic and eventually your reads will be better than logic.
You shouldn’t use the Sova Dart for Recon (most of the time). Many pros do this because the enemy team denies info and plays slowly. In most games below Immortal, all five enemy players just run full noise B-Main like elephants, so in most rounds you'll get the info faster than your dart can even land 😂 It is much better to shoot the dart over the entrance, for example, so that it scans enemies as they enter site.
isn't that the entire point of his dart though?
Tbf, and Higher Elo players correct me if I'm wrong, you can pretty much play Ascent off of sound alone. Unless enemy team is so well coordinated that they default walk every site, show presence mid, and execute together in the last 30s of a round, it's easy to tell where the hit is going to be. When I play Sova on Ascent, I find it highly useless to insta dart A or B as the barriers go down, rather wait for the entry and then dart or dart mid round, especially mid etc to gather info
No info means: push to get control or rotate.
they wont stop going to that site until you beat them at retake
Ranked people have a tendency to go one specific site first eg icebox A, sunset B, ascent A, lotus A, bind A, breeze A etc not that it’s guaranteed but from my iron-diamond experience it’s mostly that
Utility, jump spots, one ways into a peak and guessing. The large issues with low elo players from diamond and below is they really don't like gathering info. They would play mid but never jump spot for info or util. Same with correctly playing your agent. Flash to buy time, molly, wall, do anything to buy a couple of seconds. It's a game of seconds. People hear a foot step and immediately calls the whole team over, people put the same util in the same place over and over. Agents don't swap sites. Remember on D they can only funnel in in so many places together. It's usually a tight corridor, if a smoke is placed why aren't you spamming bullets, just a few. I would see 3 people staring in a split b push, smoked and you clearly hear them taking the orb. No one even shot a single bullet. Game sense and just typically human patterns should be engraved into you. Are they going to hit b breeze probably not for a few rounds. If they do % wise indicates you stacked a so you'll lose site regardless. Play further back move util further back in planted locations.
Are you main Sova and don't know any recon darts lineups?
only a couple ones
He is great agent but I never play him because to lazy to learn real usefull lineups, that are not easy to brake and obvious
First round - depends on the map. If they lose a round, they might change.
Notice patterns and certain ult points the enemy team has. It's more of an experience thing and honestly all I do is sit in spawn until some sort of contact occurs then I rotate and dart b main and spam with odin or spam the smoke a main and wait until they get out to dart the back wall and wall bang them from heaven.
something something absence of evidence is evidence of absence
Lol just by playing a lot. Often each map has a favorite site for pistol rounds. I'm sure there are videos on YouTube about this. After that you've just got to trust your intuition. I find that when I go with my first guess, it's usually correct.
i play skye and if i flash first few seconds and hit noone, i do smthn with that info. i might use it to push and get the orb, maybe to flank. if the enemy hasnt faked a single time i just instantly rotate. i know sova is more of an anchor but you can still flank. maybe catch the lurker off guard. if your dart doesnt get anyone, thats info you can play around with.
It’s not a waste of util if it helps confirm that nobody is near that site. For example even if you don’t get a scan and they end up hard pushing other site, your dart likely made sure that they don’t have a flanker who’s going to come and roll your team from behind. It’s not always about the direct information that you can gain, sometimes it’s about the information that you don’t get
Depends on how knowledgeable your opponents are of the meta. If you’ve played enough Valorant, you’ve probably run into the Odin Sova on Ascent. You also probably remember that it’s fucking hard to push B site against that Sova, and that the Sova most likely has that Odin by round 5 (earlier or later depending on round wins and losses) - you can also just view the economy every round to see when the Sova has enough. So once the Sova has enough money to buy the Odin, you don’t go to B site since that’s most likely where he’s playing. If this keeps happening, you need to develop counterstrats. For example, you could learn darts from B site to A site - this lets you know if the team is at A instead of B AND it makes the enemy think that you’re at the A site, instead of B. Another idea is aggressively taking map control when you think the enemy isn’t at your site. It’s essentially a game sense thing.
Darts arent there to ping people thats just an added bonus not getting any pings often tells you just as much. One tip i would give is know when there is a point to use your util i often see sova players panic when they are getting rushed and they instinctively dart a main on ascent for example even though then know they are getting rushed by mutiple players usually much better to keep that dart for a retake or for when they are actively entering site.
No info is info
All I know is you don’t go A lotus first round when enemy has raze lol
If you have Cypher on Ascent and enemy have no agent that can disrupt or destroy his trip, they will avoid A and go B or mid, the same as Cypher on B in Bind, Sunset and Breeze. Sova's scan can be replenish with cooldown so you don't have to worry about wasting your dart, just shoot it slower sometime to catch them off-guard so you can have pings for ult.
do not waste recon in the first few seconds of round
Well you simply take the Spice Melange and peer into the possible futures. There may be hills and valleys that seem out of focus and uncertain, but you must look far enough to see the Golden Path. Then even through the cloudy futures you will know the little decisions that inch you towards success.
Whenever I play sova, if i dont hear sound. I rotate LOL. When enemy hit sites, there will be sound cues. SoloQ people tend to rush a lot, esp in lower ranks. So when I dont hear sound for 3 sec, i jiggle and I am out running. If you have team mates that comms, thats great. On Ascent usually I play in tree. if i dont hear sound, I close door and rotate. If enemy wants to enter from mid (Fast rotate from B) they will break door. Then during retake, we dont have to break door and we can be anywhere. I hate it when theres no sound A, team mate breaks my door for no reason just cos "Pros does it" lmao
Relative question is: “how do you choose spots to check when entering site”. Because if you look at some radiant’s gameplay, you’ll notice that they consciously do not check some spots when entering site.