5 THINGS ScreaM DOES to CARRY that YOU DON’T
Today we’re going to be taking a look into the world of one of Valorants best Professional players, Liquid Scream. Scream is an incredible player, most known for his aim, and is widely considered one of the Best Reyna players in the game. We’re not going to be breaking down specific Reyna tactics that Scream uses today though, specifically what we will be focusing on is what make Scream different from other professional players, and how being aware of these differences can help you improve your own play. So strap in as we get into the 5 things that Scream does to carry, that you don’t, but before we do, let’s introduce our question of the day, which is,n “Which Duelist do you think is the best for carrying in Valorant?” Scream seems to prefer Reyna most of the time, but Jett is an incredibly common pick as well.
Maybe some of you even favor Raze, Phoenix, or even Yoru for carrying at times. Moving into the biggest thing that stands out to me the most about Scream, and this is something that for most players isn’t going to come naturally.Scream is an incredible leader when he wants to be, but the big thing that seems different with Scream vs other players that I’ve seen, is Scream seems to set his expectations for his teammates before the round, very clearly.
For many duelists, they will just silently play their part, and get frustrated when their teammates don’t do what they’re supposed to. The thing is, if you don’t tell your teammates how to help you, they have to guess how to help you. And when you watch Scream, when he asks his teammates to execute a strat, he does it with such authority that it feels as though he is setting his expectations for what he wants his teammates to be doing, not only in just that round, but giving them an understanding of how he is going to play, and how they can support each other.
You’ll notice, when Scream asks his Sova to drone out of a position, 2 rounds in a row, the Sova just starts doing it every time they push that spot.Because Scream has set that expectation, that this is what he wants the Sova to be doing when they push. And it’s not even just with Sova players.
He’ll ask his Omen to blind, he’ll ask his Raze to grab ultimate orbs, he’ll have his Breach flash for him. Keep in mind, not only are players bad at using their utility to begin with, but they also are not capable of reading your mind.What is an obvious place to drone for you, might not be obvious for someone else. Most players in Valorant aren’t bad solo players, the thing that holds them back is normally they are bad team players.
If you’re being a good teammate, and leading with authority, it’ll not only help your team work together better, but it will give your team more confidence in the game. The most important thing to remember here though, is you want to lead your team, without coming across as being bossy. You can lead with Authority, while still being respectful of your teammates. Always try to be affirming after rounds, don’t ever try to make people feel bad for losing a round.
Scream has a very dominant personality, and he definitely leads games with authority, but he’s not a jerk, because nobody wants to play with a jerk. Try to set the expectations for what you want your teammates to do. Where do you want them to drone, what do you want them to smoke. If you ask them to do this, multiple rounds in a row, they will start to get the picture, and become more aware of how they can assist you in the future.Moving onto the Second thing that really stood out to me from watching Scream, vs even other professional players. He seems to always be practicing his aim, even between rounds, and just trying to always keep his head in the game. If he’s not practicing his aim, he’s jumping around and practicing his movement, likely trying to just keep himself warmed up, and ready to go.
After spending all of that time before you queue into a game warming up, you’re may just go into a match and literally not see an enemy for the first 3 rounds, and that’s really going to effect how ‘warmed up’ you actually are. Now mostly we were focusing on how Scream practices his aim between rounds, but another thing I really want to comment especially for our lower rank viewers, is practicing your movement pre-rounds.Practicing your bunny hops, and your strafes, is something a lot of lower rank players neglect entirely, but will make a massive difference in your gun fights. When I spectate many low rank players, it’s very apparent they don’t feel confident in their movement, and it’s definitely holding them back. This doesn’t have to do with in game practice, but if you haven’t already attempted to do the jumping puzzle in the practice range, I highly recommend you at least give it a shot. The truth is, you should at least be able to get through the first half of the jumping puzzle, relatively easily, and if you can’t you may want to give it some more practice.
Being able to to confidently master your movement will really help you with overall mouse control, and pick up your pace in games so you’re not constantly walking around looking like a bot. Moving on though, another thing I noticed from our friend Scream, is that he seems to like to force up on 3rd round, rather than playing for a bonus. It’s not like they just leave the Spectre on the ground, Scream gives it to his allied Sage, but I mainly just want to point out the effort made to keep his team ahead. If they all just try to Eco here, although it might be the most efficient move, it also risks hurting their momentum on offense, which is generally not something that you want to do.
Another thing important to point out in this round though is how Scream keeps his distance the whole time. His Vandal is best used with some distance between him and the enemies, and his main goal is to cover for his teammates as they get the spike down, and then play the post plant as best as he can. If he gets too aggressive with his teams only gun, he risks losing it, and really it makes more sense for the spectre players to be the ones closing the gap a bit more. Because of Screams force up here, and some clean shots, he’s able to secure a 3rd round for his team, off the back of an aggressive Vandal buy.
Momentum is a massive deal in Valorant, and I’m not sayingyou should always force up rather than bonusing, but if you’re feeling confident in your shots, and believe you can win the 3rd round as well, it may be best to force, and try to not give your opponents the chance to get back into the game. Moving onto something that you also saw in the last round though that Scream is excellent at, is his tap firing. This is common among many Vandal users, and Scream is no different. The thing that is DOES stand out for Scream though, is just how crazy accurate he is. It only takes one bullet with a vandal to kill a target, so Scream takes his time, and makes sure to have every shot count. Even when he’s fighting close range, he prioritizes tap firing, and counterstrafing to make himself more difficult to hit. It is incredibly rare, to see Scream go into a full spray in Valorant, he prioritizes precision more than anything, and this is something I encourage for almost every player who is learning to play Valorant at a higher level.
The problem isn’t necessarily that spraying is bad, it’s more that spraying for the wrong reasons is bad. So many players commit to a spray, after missing their first few shots, in an attempt to make up for those first few shots they missed. However, the problem with this, is the first few shots in the spray, are the most accurate shots in the spray. So you’re starting out your spray by missing when the shots are the most accurate, and then you’re trying to adjust as they’re becoming less accurate, that’s when you end up spraying 30 bullets and only hitting them 3 times. Generally your goal when gun fighting should be to fire off burst fires at enemies, aiming primarily for a headshot. I would not recommend committing to a spray, unless there are multiple targets clumped up ahead of you, and when I say clumped up I mean practically stacked on top of each other.
As even if you’re fighting multiple targets, it’s normally still better to prioritize counter strafing, to make yourself more difficult to hit. That being said, Scream showcases that it’s not really ever necessary to have to spray, as long as you’re aiming for those headshots, and focusing primarily on burst fires, and counter strafing to make yourself more difficult to hit. Scream is the king of one taps, because he doesn’t panic with his shots. He’s precise, and when he misses, he calmly attempts to correct. Be like Scream. Moving onto the last thing I noticed though. From watching Scream play in competitive, it seemed that he really favored these sorts of Deathball pushes on Offens.
It was very rare to watch Screams team split up, on pretty much any map, and I’ve watched him through a number of different games. The truth is, there’s very little ‘strategy’ or ‘tactics’ that takes place in Valorant competitive, and sometimes the best move is just hitting a site, and hitting it hard. As mentioned before, Scream does an excellent job of making sure his team knows where to use their utility to give his team the best chance, and at times they do opt to run fakes, just to keep the enemies honest, but for the most part they don’t do anything crazy. When playing in competitive, it can be difficult when your teammates start doing their own thing, because most of the time they don’t know how to safely take territory without your help.
Teammates will just walk out into the middle of the map, with no smoke, and get op’d 2 seconds in to the round. This is what deathball strats avoid. Just hard pushing a site as a team, and coordinating who is flashing where will easily avoid any sort of solo deaths on the map, and although it does have it’s obvious weaknesses, oftentimes defenses are far too uncoordinated to deal with this, and it can work out incredibly well, as you see for Scream.Not only that, but another thing that aids Scream really well in this, is it seems he opts to Duo que with friends who also understand how to play the game aggressively, and back him up.
I know it seems like obvious advice to say “hey get a friend to play with” but when you have a friend who can play this aggressively with you effectively, it can be a nightmare to go against. Lastly remember, if you want to Improve that KDA, win more gun fights, and get the rank you’ve always wanted, then be sure to check out skillcapped.com, link in the description below. Scream is a legend of a player in Valorant, and it really shows in his gameplay. One of the things I love about watching Scream the most though is just his personality. Not only is he a strong player, but he can also be really funny at times, so if you haven’t checked out his stream yet, I highly recommend that you do so.
