October 5, 2022
Many individuals want to become professional Valorant players because of the game’s popularity and esports scene. It’s a perfect time to grind towards the pro title because many esports organizations want to invest in Valorant. We interviewed Elena “Ellie” Garland from XSET FE to discuss her journey to becoming a professional Valorant and tips to start building a pro Valorant career.
About Ellie
Ellie has been gaming since she was four years old. Before being a professional Valorant player, she enjoyed playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) and stayed at the highest-ranking Global Elite for five years. Despite achieving this ranking, she didn’t have much competitive experience. When the Valorant beta came out, Ellie decided to try the game, and ironically, she disliked playing Valorant. Ellie gave Valorant another chance in November 2020. She placed Gold 3 but grinded her way up to Diamond in the same act. During this time, she met her former MILFS teammate “Clefairy.”Through Clefairy, she met “dnos” (Katie), who invited her to compete with MILFS in November 2020. Ellie really enjoyed playing with MILFS.From there, she played on a free agent team NothingtoLose. Now, Ellie is playing for XSET FE.
Here are the main takeaways from Ellie’s interview about becoming a professional Valorant player.
Focus on understanding the dynamics of Valorant
Obviously, if you want to become a professional Valorant player, you need to play the game a lot and have some aiming skills to win fights; however, there is a misconception that aim is everything when it comes to getting signed. As Ellie mentioned in the interview, the aim varies. People have bad days where they get unlucky in all their fights, but they can still use their knowledge about Valorant and the current game state to contribute to their team. So, what does it mean to understand the dynamics of Valorant? Although Valorant is a first-person shooter, the game’s ability component is complex and exciting. Each agent has its own finite abilities that serve different purposes. Sometimes these abilities are more beneficial on certain maps.
Moreover, specific agents’ abilities work better with each other. Abilities like Omen’s Paranoia and Breach’s Flashpoints can improve aim duels. As a result, teams use these abilities to take space, clear corners, gather information, and pull rotations. As a professional Valorant player, it’s important to understand why particular abilities are used during each game stage (early, mid, and late). In essence, it’s developing game sense.
Develop communication skills
Having precise and clear communication with your team is a crucial skill to develop. If you’re a Raze satchelling out with your Showstopper through Icebox B-site and someone kills you behind Yellow, you need to tell your team the enemy’s location. For example, “Jett Yellow.” If you’re a Chamber and your Trademark breaks on the flank, stating that action happened notifies your team that an enemy could be flanking. If you need support, communicate that. Valorant can be a very chaotic game because of all the abilities. We’ve all been in a position where two Viper’s pits, an Astra wall, and a Raze ult are being used during a retake. During those hectic rounds, communication is key to winning. On the other hand, miscommunication or the lack of comms can make the team lose a round.
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Deepen your agent flexibility
Ellie has played a variety of agents who have polar opposite abilities and functions. For example, she has played Raze, but she is currently playing Sova. Raze and Sova are very different agents. Raze is a duelist who creates space and takes the first fights, while Sova is an info-gathering initiator.Sova can clear corners with his Shock Darts; however, his rechargeable Recon Dart and his Owl Drone are his best abilities due to how much information he can get out of them, allowing his team to decide whether to take fights, push sites, or rotate.
Although it’s important to have agent flexibility, Ellie suggests mastering agents within the same role and function first rather than learning completely polar-opposite agents like Raze and Sova. For example, if you love taking duels, learn agents within the duelist role like Jett, Raze, and even Neon. Similarly, you can also learn Chamber since his kit is more aggressive despite being classified as a Sentinel. Learning different agents within the same role and function may seem pointless, but remember that some agents pair better with others on specific maps. Furthermore, your team will have more options to try out different agent compositions and potentially anti-strat the opposing team through agent picks because of your agent flexibility.
Find a team that synergies well
If you’re an aspiring professional Valorant player, playing in tournaments with a free-agent team is one of the best ways to get noticed by an esports organization. It’s important to find teammates who you enjoy playing with, have the same goals as you, and can take critical feedback. You will be spending a lot of time with your team in scrims. To do well in tournaments, your team needs to work well together.
Building a brand
Having a brand is another way to gain recognition from esports organizations outside of grinding rank to get noticed or build a free agent team. Posting clips of impactful utility or crazy multi-kills to social media may garner attention from esports organizations and land you a trial, especially if you are new. Moreover, as another benefit, building a brand can also give you more financial stability as a professional esports player.
Where can I find a team?
If your friends want to compete, you can recruit them to build a free agent team. Join your university team there, or create one if you’re in college. Otherwise, the best way to find a team is to join scrim Discords. Some Discords have high-rank requirements.
Spotlight – If you click on their website, then the Discord Logo, you should receive an invite.
The best way to find a team for women is by joining one of the many Discord communities dedicated to hosting Game Changers Academy and Game Changers tournaments. The majority, if not all, have channels for those looking for teams.
Galorants – A global Discord for female and non-binary Valorant players; however, they host North American VCT Game Changers Academy.
FSL is a tournament organizer who hosts events for Asian-Pacific (APAC) women participants. They host APAC VCT Game Changers and APAC VCT Game Changers Academy.
ON e-Stadium’s Girls On Fire Discord hosts Brazil’s VCT Game Changers Academy. The Discord link should be posted in the link tree.
Player1 is the host for Brazil’s VCT Game Changers. The Discord link should be available through the link tree.
Girls’ House is a Discord community for EMEA female players.
Although becoming a Valorant professional player seems daunting, I hope this article has given you some first steps! Thank you for reading! If you are interested in more of my articles and esports activities, you can find me on Twitter. I’d like to thank Ellie for the tips as well!