Valorant - How To Peek The Best Angles. Radiant Positioning Guide. 2022
Intro
This article is going to be all about positioning. I'm going to be explaining to you guys the different types of positions that exist and the best position to hold for each situation. In the last article, I announced that I was doing a 10K q a, and I think I was around 5k when I said that, and now we're at like 7.3 K.
Guys, with that whole spiel out of the way, let's get straight into the topic of today's article. Positioning, in my opinion, is one of the most important aspects of valorem. I would even go as far as to say that positioning overrides aim in a lot of situations. The positions that you take and the places that you choose to hold have a way bigger impact on your gameplay than you might think, first and foremost.
Let's talk about the different types of positions that are available. The three types of angles that you can hold are common angles, off-angles, and one and done angles. Let's talk about common angles. A common angle is an angle that's pretty standard that you'd see a lot of people hold. Here are some examples of common angles.
Common and off angles
The first example is the a and b mains of pretty much any map. No matter what map it is, you usually have someone that peaks a main at the start of the round. This is very common and most people expect it, which is why it's called a "common angle." If you're picking your sight from heaven, that is also a common angle.
Most people will expect someone to be posted. Heaven and hell are also common angles. Usually there'll be a person playing hell or basically anywhere on the site that is commonly cleared is considered a common angle. I think that common angles are good, but they need to be played correctly. Typically, someone playing a common angle should be baiting for someone playing an off angle.
This leads me to my next type of angle, which is off-angles. An off angle is an angle that you typically wouldn't see someone hold, and it's something that's unexpected. Going back to the example that I used for the common angle, a main on ascent, an off angle would be if someone was pressed up against the wall on the adjacent side.
This is called an "off angle" because usually you wouldn't expect someone to play there because if they did they'd get instantly traded. Off angles are spots that are unfavorable for the person holding them, but that's the point because it'll throw off the enemy's crosshair placement entirely. And I think that's the main takeaway from this.
That also ties back to my other article that I just made on crosshair placement, because the whole point of off angles is to throw off your enemy's crosshair placement. When a team is pushing a main on ascent, they typically don't really clear this spot. Even in immortal, radiant lobbies, they typically don't even clear this spot a lot of the time.
Off angles are great for agents who can get one quickly and then get out. This includes Jet Reyna and the chamber. Now that we know common angles and off-angles, let's tie the two together to make a bait setup. We can use the agent who doesn't have a get out of jail free card to be the baiter and hold the common angle.
Then we will use the agent who does have a get out of jail free card and can get one and get out quickly. To go, cross to the other side and hold the off angle. In this example, we'll have Astra be the baiter and will have Jet be baited for when the team is pushing a main. When they peak, the first thing they're going to see is Astra, who is jiggling.
They will push up to a further angle so that they can catch the guy when he re-swings. This is exactly what Astra's goal is and why she's the baiter because she's baiting the attackers to make this play where the jet is able to catch the guy completely off guard, who won't even be looking at her. The jet gets one and dashes out, and they both fall back into sight with a man advantage.
If astra wasn't there to bait for jet, they probably would have cleared jet out a lot easier and she would not have gotten that value that she would have without astra. This is why positioning and playing off of your teammates is so powerful, and keep in mind that this advice can help immortals and radiance get better.
If this advice can help the best of the best in the rankings, it can definitely help the people that are struggling to climb out of the lower ranks.
One and done angles
Now I also want to touch on the last types of angles that I haven't mentioned so far, which are one-third and right-angled. One and done angles are pretty similar to off angles, but they're a little bit different. A "one and done" spot is a common angle that usually only grants you one kill.
In other words, it's a spot that people typically clear and give you only one kill, or maybe two if you're lucky. Now you're probably listening to me and thinking, "Well, that sounds terrible." Why would you ever play a spot like that? That's two bad things about it, while one and done spots are the riskiest.
Of the three, I think that they can give you the biggest reward of the three with off angles. You typically catch one guy off guard, kill him, and then get out, but with one and done spots, you have the potential to get way more than one if they don't clear you. One and done spots going back to a main would be to the direct right of a main, either on top of the boxes or right next to the door frame.
Other good ones and done spots that I play a lot are right next to the left side on C-Haven and top plat on Seahaven. There's also a log on Haven, logs on Ascent, there's a million different ones and done spots in Valorent. If you're going to play a one and done spot in Valorent, I do think it's important that you are an agent that can get out quickly, like Jet Reyna or a chamber.
If you have someone who is baiting for you, if the enemies aren't distracted by someone else, you typically won't get much value out of one or two spots. The thing about one and done spots is that if you aren't cleared, chances are the rest of the team won't clear you either, because remember, with off angles, you're just catching someone off guard. You're never really good for more than one with an off angle.
Trigger discipline
But with a one and done spot, if the first guy goes in and doesn't clear you and doesn't get killed, the rest of the team won't need to clear that because they figure that no one is there. This is an insanely valuable concept called "trigger discipline." If someone doesn't clear you and you're playing a one-and-done angle and you kill the first guy that peaks, you'll more than likely immediately get traded out because it's really hard to get out of that position.
