If my last post was titled "Top 6 Tips For Getting Better At VALORANT" then how to VOD review would have been #6. All professional players and teams will perform some level of VOD review. Professional teams will review their own VODs together to find gaps and areas of improvement, and they will review the VOD of a team they are going to play to prepare for a match.
In this beginner guide, I'm going to cover the basics of VOD reviewing on an individual basis to help you improve your gameplay.
Before we even get into the details of what you should be looking for in your VOD, you need to record first. There are a few options when it comes to recording. Personally, I use OBS and I record locally on my machine. If you're a streamer, it makes the most sense to have your streaming platform save the VOD for you after you've completed your broadcast. If your computer isn't good enough to record or stream, there's a low-resource application you could try called Lowkey (I'm not affiliated with Lowkey but I know of this application through friends).
Here are my recording settings in OBS. I basically found a guide online and copied the settings. These are in no way the most optimal or best settings, but it is what I use.
If you're brand new to VOD reviewing it can be tough because you might not know what you're looking for. When reviewing your VOD, you're not only looking for negatives. You should look at the positives as well and continue to do those things, or tweak them in ways to make it better.
Look For Positives
Let's start with the positives cause it can get really easy to get lost in the negatives. You should be able to identify areas in a game where you did well. If you got a crazy 4 kill round, figure out how you did it so you can replicate it in future games.
Things to focus on are positioning, timing, and utility usage.
Look For Areas Of Improvement
If your a beginner to VOD reviewing and VALORANT in general, pay close attention to your crosshair placement and movement as you watch your gameplay back. Look to see if you are lining up your shots and your crosshair is at head height before turning corners. Also, make sure you are using your strafe keys to peek and that you have stopped moving before shooting so your bullets are accurate.
Once you get your crosshair placement and movement down. Start to question every death, but don't get too stuck on the rounds where you lose your gunfight straight up. Straight up meaning no utility, just a 1v1 gunfight and you happen to lose.
Some of the questions I ask myself when looking for areas of improvement are.
How did I die? I hate using this word but sometimes it really just is "unlucky". Someone running by and spamming you through the smoke. Don't worry about these deaths too much.
Could I have done something differently? Could I have been in a different position? Could I have taken a less aggressive or more aggressive angle? Could I have thrown a piece of utility to put myself in a more favorable situation? These are all questions you need to ask yourself.
Identifying the area for improvement is only step 1. Step 2 is coming up with a solution. It's 1 thing to point out what you did wrong but you need to know what you can do to become better.
I'm going to break down a couple of rounds from a ranked game I played earlier this week to give you guys an idea of how to VOD review.
Positives
Since their Raze was spamming the Omen smoke early I had a read that I could Jett smoke the mail cross and potentially get a kill while he was spamming and it worked.
When I fell back to A main I communicated and waited for my teammate before I smoked flower pot and dashed even though no one was on the site.
Areas of Improvement
I should have communicated to our Sage to stay behind Omen and me. She didn't need to die crossing into rope especially since Sage's utility is so good mid-late round.
I really shouldn't have died to Omen because there was no reason for me to peek at that angle in a 4v1 situation. These types of plays are what you have to be cautious about, especially in ranked because you need to hold yourself accountable and play to secure the round instead of chasing kills (which I was doing, unfortunately). Next time I'll stay on the site and play the spike.
Positives
I haven't been playing much so actually remembering to dash away after throwing 2 knives at the Omen was a win for me.
I was able to get a pick on the Jett from A ramp and fall back to help my team get into the site, where I got another kill on the Reyna peeking from heaven. It's always important to play with your team instead of off on your own trying to find kills that might not be impactful to winning the round.
Areas of Improvement
I really did not need to jump to take my last shot. It got me killed. The next time I'm in that situation I'll just scope in and slice the angles little by little and I would get that kill on Sage.
Positives
I made a play by up drafting on top of the Sage wall and got the back of the Raze because she thought she was safe from screens.
Areas of Improvement
Missed shots early and my 1v1 against the Sage at elbow was lost but as I said above, don't worry too much about these rounds.
Positives
I got 2 early picks in coordination with the Raze nade and fell back to play a 5v3 situation.
Got the kill on Raze coming through mail to B heaven.
Areas of Improvement
I burned my dash after the first 2 kills without actually needing to. I could have saved it and used it later in the round.
I crouched and sprayed at Omen when I didn't need to. I was so close to the wall that I could have taken cover and then re-peeked once my recoil had reset. Next time I'm going to try and take cover or if I have my dash, use it to getaway.
That's all I got for this beginner guide! There's obviously so much more to look for when you get deeper into the game but this is a great start if you're new to VOD reviewing.
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