How to Climb From Silver To Gold in VALORANT

Rifat Bin Yusuf
By Rifat Bin Yusuf
11 Min Read
Image Via: Riot Games

Gold is considered one of the most difficult ranks to achieve in VALORANT. It’s even more difficult to get out of Gold. In this guide, we will be assisting you to help achieve your goal. 

In VALORANT, rank often doesn’t represent the true potentials of a player. Sometimes it fails to assess what rank a player should belong to. As a result, players often find it extremely difficult to rank up. The case here in Gold is pretty complicated as a generous amount of players are actually very skillful and deserving of much higher ranks. In order to beat them, a Silver player must have to ready to adapt and follow some common rules set by the eSports professionals.

Read More: How to Climb From Bronze To Silver in VALORANT

VALORANT Silver Rank

A staggering 38.7% of the players were in Silver by the August of this year, making it the most occupied rank in VALORANT. Interestingly, Silver is a very critical rank to surpass due to many factors. Once surpassed the trouble doesn’t fade away since the quality of your teammates might still remain the same in Gold 1 or 2. So, the general difference between a Silver & Gold player might not be too far apart when it comes to the basics.

The Challenges in Silver 

Playing ranked can be quite a frustrating experience in Silver. Sometimes players are either throwing up games or trying solo, it’s really rare to have a proper ranked experience in Silver. There are a plethora of reasons behind this condition in Silver. For starters, teams are either unbalanced or overmatched. As a result, you might go 13-0 in one match and 2-13 in the very next match. VALORANT is not a game where you can run around and get kills all by yourself, it’s important to have faith in your teammates. Sadly, that is exactly where the majority of the Silver players lag behind.

However, it’s important to point out that the poor quality of teammates is just the tip of the iceberg in Silver.

Silver 3 being the “Unluckiest Rank”

If you are currently a Silver 2 or 3, chances are that you might be facing a hardstuck Gold 3 on your next match while your team will be full of recently promoted Bronze 3s. Obviously, it won’t be a balanced matchmaking experience by means but it’s gonna end up hurting your elo a lot. This is exactly where people are forced to call this the most cursed rank in VALORANT. It’s not like matchmaking is an issue in Silver alone, but it’s definitely the most common scenario in Silver. If you truly aim to reach Gold, grinding is only 50% of the picture, the other half relies on your ability to adjust & cope with certain situations.

Best ways to climb from Silver to Gold 

Listen to the Pros 

First, start listening to the Pros. Try to understand how they think, play & execute. Follow them & their advice but don’t copy them, it will only end up worse for you if you try to copy players who have been playing for 10+ years. Watching Tier-1 tournaments is a great way to grasp pro techniques & strategies. Have your eyes fixed on the minimap, watch how they rotate & take control of the map.

It’s even better if you can manage some friends, and watch the VODs together. It will help you to gain further opinions about some certain plays. Such discussions will boost up your learning curve.

Listen first, shoot later 

Since you have already started to communicate in Bronze 3, we now expect you to properly communicate with your teammate. Additionally, you must be able to listen to every small detail that your teammates might provide. A piece of small information about the opponent can help you make big decisions. So, before the round starts, ask your teammates for information if they aren’t providing any. If no one is talking, try to establish communications, even in the chatbox if possible.

Scoreboard is just a widget

Your 32 kills on Ascent won’t mean anything if your team ends up losing. Now, if your teammates aren’t getting enough kills, the best option would be to discuss more options with them. Switch roles, peek together, make an execute plan, eliminate one single enemy at a time, try to take control of a certain area of the map, the results will be self-explanatory. Raging over randoms will never improve their in-game skills, nor your chances of winning.

Open yourself to criticism

Here comes another important part. Previously we have talked about how a high rank doesn’t reflect skills properly. Having the ability to face criticism from random teammates is a very crucial ability that you need to master before proceeding. Even the pros make mistakes, you will too; so when you get criticized for bad performance, it’s best to listen to the criticism and improve accordingly.

Often Silver players involve themselves in arguments in-game. Getting into an argument has no good ending for you or your team. Arguments only force a team to make more egoistic and wrong decisions.

If you don’t make a plan, nobody will 

If you happen to find Tier-1 IGLs on your next rank match, then you probably won’t have to take the responsibility of making top-tier execution plans. However, that might not be the case for the other 99% of the time when you’ll need to step up and lead a team of randoms.

Being lazy about leading a team or making plans won’t help you with anything. Silver players are most likely to wait for someone to call first rather than doing it themselves. It’s time to abandon such habits and take responsibility for the team. Besides boosting team morale, it’ll also help you to understand the game mechanics better.

Pie A Corner

Knowing how to properly slice a corner before exposing your whole body could mean life and death. Most of the time, Silver players have a tendency to peek at an open-wide corner or area without any precaution of what could happen next. That’s where the concept of slicing a corner comes in.

It’s fairly easy to follow considering it has more to do with the keyboard than the mouse. First of all, you need to control the urge of blind peeking corners. Then you’ll be required to master the tactics of slowly pressing A or D key before peeking. For demonstration & easier understandings, try to understand the following picture.

Slicing a corner

Having the patience to slowly peek at a corner in at least 5 steps will be enough to slice a corner properly. The 5 steps here actually mean 5 different peeks in order to avoid full-body exposure to the enemy. Thus you can ensure that the enemy won’t be able to see you before you see them, at least partially. Since VALORANT already offers peekers-advantage, adding this particular ability will decrease your death rates while peeking corners.

Agents to Pick in Silver

Jett

Silver is probably the best rank to get a grip on Jett. Her potentials are virtually unlimited with the Operator. Playing Jett will enable you to understand passive-aggressive playstyles. Such understanding will eventually make you a better entry-fragger.

Killjoy

Killjoy is undeniably one of the most important agents in VALORANT. Playing Killjoy requires a good sense of positioning. Aside from that, learning to place your ability correctly will significantly boost your map reading skills. It takes time to bring perfection to an agent like Killjoy, so it might help you gain consistency as well.

Sova

No matter what rank you are in, playing Sova will always be a default option. Sova’s ability makes him a crucial requirement for any team. Learning to play Sova has many different upper hands. A good Sova Recon Bolt can help your team win an entire round, similarly, a perfectly timed ultimate can win you a post-plant scenario.

Astra

Playing Astra in Silver can be a difficult choice considering the fact that she is a team agent. Since the quality of your teammates in ranked matches can vary, so playing Astra will require you to communicate first. Aside from these factors, Astra is a very impactful agent if played correctly. Her Gravity Well, Nova Pulse & Cosmic Divides are perfect abilities to take early map control.

Reaching Gold isn’t an easy task by any means. However, getting out of Silver will mean that you have reached a certain skill ceiling. Now that you have surpassed the majority, improving your skills will be harder than usual. Upon reaching Gold, the competition will be even higher as the jump from Silver to Gold is a huger one.

 

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By Rifat Bin Yusuf FPS Writer
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A competitive Sova main Valorant player who wants to write stuff and keep people engaged with gaming. I grew up with a parallel passion for writing and gaming.