Mechanics and fundamentals - 4.1
Crosshair placement
In one line: Always keep your crosshair at head height and on the edge of the corner an enemy can come from: when they appear you only need to click, instead of searching for them.
The idea: do not search for the enemy, wait for them
There are two ways to win a duel. First: the enemy appears, you see them, you move your mouse quickly to their head and shoot. Second: your crosshair is already where their head will appear; they appear, you shoot.
The second way is far more reliable because it removes the hardest part: the fast, precise mouse movement. This is crosshair placement, and it is the habit that, more than any other, separates players who aim well from players who "have reflexes".
Players who do it well look like they have incredible reflexes. In reality they move their mouse less than everyone else.
Height: always the head
The first rule is height. Keep your crosshair at the height of a standing enemy's head. It sounds obvious, but watch one of your own matches and you will notice how often your crosshair looks at the floor while running, or points up after a jump.
Watch out for elevation changes: if you are walking up a ramp, the head of whoever waits at the top is higher; going down, it is lower. Your crosshair follows head height, not the horizon.
A simple way to train it: in a custom game, walk around the map keeping your crosshair on the line from your agent's head height to the edges of the walls. Ten minutes of that change the habit more than a hundred duels.
The edge: where the enemy will appear
The second rule is horizontal position. An enemy does not appear in the middle of a corridor: they appear from the edge of cover (a wall, a box, a door). So your crosshair should rest on that edge, slightly outside it, at head height.
As you move, angles "open up" one after another: first you see one part of a room, then another. Your crosshair should follow the point where the angle is opening, the slice of space you are about to uncover. That is pre-aiming: having your crosshair on an enemy's head before you even see them.
Example
Entering a room
You are entering a room through a door, with a blind corner on the right. Instead of looking at the far end of the room, you keep your crosshair on the right edge of the door at head height. You move slowly to the left: the right-hand corner opens up bit by bit, and your crosshair uncovers it along with your eyes. If someone is there, they are already under your crosshair.
One angle at a time
A site has many spots where a defender can sit. You cannot watch them all at once: try, and you watch none of them well. The answer is to uncover them in order, most dangerous first, using cover to block the ones you are not checking.
That is also why you enter in pairs: you keep your crosshair on one group of angles, your teammate on the other. And why utility matters: a smoke on one angle means one less angle to watch.
Your crosshair and utility
Crosshair placement matters when your team uses utility too. After a teammate's flash, your crosshair must already be on the spot where the blinded enemy is: the flash buys you a second, not time to search. When a drone or an arrow reveals an enemy, move your crosshair to the edge they will appear from, not to where they were spotted: they are already moving.
While moving and after a kill
Crosshair placement slips mostly at two moments.
While running: your crosshair tends to look where you are going, which is the floor in front of you. Every time you move, ask yourself: where could someone come from now? And put your crosshair there.
After a kill: you just killed an enemy and your crosshair stayed where they were, maybe low. But a teammate of theirs could be right behind. Bring your crosshair straight back to head height and onto the next edge.
Remember
- Crosshair at head height, always, even while walking.
- On the edge of the corner, not in the middle of the corridor.
- One angle at a time: uncover angles in order and keep your crosshair on the one opening up.
- Less mouse movement means more accuracy.
What not to do
Walking with your crosshair on the floor or the middle of the screen.
Instead Bring it up to head height and keep it there, even when you see nobody.
Keeping your crosshair in the middle of the corridor, far from the edge the enemy will come from.
Instead Rest it on the edge of the cover: that is where they will appear.
Watching three angles at once and none of them well.
Instead Pick the most dangerous angle first, then move to the next.
Trying to make up for it with fast flicks.
Instead Reflexes matter less when your crosshair is already in place: work on placement.
Go deeper
YouTube
How To Make Aiming 5x Easier in VALORANT: The nAts Mindset #2
by nAts