Does Deathball Work in Valorant?

We have all come to the point where we endlessly search for a way to get better, trick our opponents, and with it gain massive rank-ups!

In this article, we will try to explain why being over Aggressive will help you on your rank-up journeys.

The Secret of Aggressive Plays

Ever since the release of Valorant, we could see multiple meta changes, and as a casual Valo player it is very hard to follow them all.

Depending on your rank, there are countless playing styles, which vary from ultra-passive camping to insanely aggressive deathballing.

Before going on and explaining what you should be doing in your games, we will try to explain the concept of Deathball.

Deathballing is not something exclusive to Valorant, and has some roots from other games, such as Dota 2 and Overwatch. In those games, deathballing basically means to play fast-pace, together with your team and END the game earlier, where you give your opponent no room for reactions.

Comment from discussion Killroyomega's comment from discussion "Help understanding the deathball".

What deathballing means in Dota 2.

Deathball in Valorant

Since we know the roots, let's see how it translates in Valorant.

Deathballing in Valorant means rushing down a site together while using certain tips and tricks to execute a fast-paced push and a quick plant.

Before digging in more, it's good to know the pros and cons:

Pros:

• There are usually only 2 or 3 people defending the site, so you will have the mathematical advantage
• Rushing in faster means less time to rotate
• You have more time to plant and get in position to defend the spike
• In Gold and below, people hardly know how to stop a push
• Skill doesn't matter that much when you have all 5 people on 1 goal, it is a team game after all

Cons:

• Extremely hard to execute on chokepoints
• If the initial push fails, the round is pretty much lost
• If you can't push through the first entry, you might get surrounded by the rotating players

Things To Avoid While Deathballing

This strat is by no means an easy one to execute, since it relies heavily on team communication and good shot calling.

These are the things you should avoid while pushing.

1. Making a lot of noise
2. Chokepoints
3. Splitting up after a failed entry
4. Rushing in mindlessly

Let's try to explain them a bit.

Making a lot of noise will alert the defenders about the oncoming push, thus making them ready to defend and might prolong the initial push.

Chokepoints are a double-edged sword, pushing into them requires a strategy, and should always be led by your best player (or the one that has a good game), defenders will almost always use abilities to stop a push from a choke point, so if you decide to push through them, you should always be attentive and cautious.

Splitting up after a failed entry is something that will give the defenders free kills, never do it.

Rushing in mindlessly is one way to give the enemy player an Ace without much effort.

Things To Do While Deathballing

Rushing sites as 5, and playing a fast-paced tempo, is something you should get used to when playing on the Attacker side. The benefit of playing Attacker is that you are the one that needs to make a move, and splitting up usually doesn't help you that much.

In order to make it all work, there are a couple of things you should always follow:

• Always coordinate your moves and smokes before the push
• Every player should have his own role
• Having an Initiator (Read Sova) to give you information about the site is vital when pushing
• Always try to dodge the site where their best player is
• When the initial push is successful, try to cover all angles
• Always communicate and coordinate your abilities

While all of this sounds so logical and easy, it's not. All of these things are important and connected to each other. This means that if every player has his own role, coordinating the push will be simple and easy. If your initiator does his job, the initial push will go smoothly, and if your initial push goes smoothly and everyone knows his role, you will cover all angles and defend the spike with no fuss.

Summary

The complexity of this start relies heavily on the rank you are playing on. When pushed as 5, lower rank players tend to just die, instead of just waiting out on the rotation. A good wall or smoke can slow down fast pushes, thus making them harder and wasting more time.

Mastering the deathball will take time and practice, but once you master it, Team Ace's will fall like dominoes.