Trades, crossfires and spacing

The trade is the most important idea in teamplay: if a teammate dies, you kill whoever killed them straight away. The round stays even, and the enemy usually had to show themselves to get the kill.

To trade you need two things:

• be close enough to see where the enemy shot from;
• be ready: crosshair facing the right way, no reload in progress, no teammate blocking your line of fire.

Timing is everything: a trade within a second or two works, because the enemy is still there and maybe still shooting or reloading. After three seconds they have already moved.

Spacing is how you spread out while moving. There are two opposite mistakes:

• too close: one molly, one ultimate or one well-placed enemy kills you both; and the second player sees nothing the first does not already see;
• too far: when the first player dies, the second is too far back to see the shooter or to get there in time.

The right distance changes with the map and the situation, but the idea is always the same: the second player must be able to see and hit the spot where the first one is fighting within a second. Often that means a few steps behind and slightly to the side, so you have a different line of fire.

A crossfire is the same principle applied to holding: two players watch the same spot from two different angles. Whoever enters can only turn towards one; while they fight that one, the other kills them.

To work, a crossfire needs two things:

• the angles must be far enough apart: if the entering player can see both of you with a single turn, it is not a crossfire;
• the two players must play together: when one shoots, the other is ready. When one moves, they say so.

On defense it is one of the strongest setups; on attack it is used after the plant to protect the spike.

Most actions in VALORANT are done better in pairs: entering a site, taking space, holding an area, delaying. A simple way to play with strangers is to pick a teammate at the start of the round and stick with them.

In a pair, the roles are clear:

• whoever goes first (often the entry) takes the first duel, ideally with utility;
• whoever follows is ready to trade and to watch the angle the first player cannot.

One sentence does it: "I go, follow me". If you have not said anything, you risk both going first, or neither.

On defense spacing matters as much as on attack, but with a different goal: do not let one entry catch all of you. Two defenders on the same angle get blinded by the same flash and hit by the same molly; two defenders on different angles covering each other form a crossfire.

A good pattern is: one further forward, who sees the entrance first and makes the call, and one further back, who can trade or delay if the first one falls. And when one of the two has to rotate, they say so, so the other knows they are alone.

Trading is trained by playing with a specific focus. For a few matches, every time a teammate dies near you ask: could I have traded? If not, why? Too far, looking elsewhere, reloading, too close?

And it works the other way round: if you are the one going first, make sure someone is ready to follow. Dying first is fine if someone avenges you.