You know that first game of the day when your gameplay feels like a rock? To avoid that, you should always warm up before playing. We will go over 4 warm-up routines from pro players like Yay, ScreaM, Ethos, and TenZ to give you an idea of what a Valorant warmup should look like.
Ideally, you should warm up for at least 15-30 minutes before your competitive games. Some pros recommend an hour if you want to improve your mechanics significantly. If you completed your routine early, go over it again and make sure to keep track of your performance.
Note: These routines are made for pros to suit their needs and playstyle. Yours might and should be different. Take a look at what works for you and what doesn’t, identify areas you need to work on, and adjust your warmup accordingly.
Cloud9 Yay
Hand Warmup
The first important thing Yay does is physically warm up his hands and wrists. He stretches when he wakes up and before games to avoid things like carpal tunnel syndrome further down the line. Carpal tunnel syndrome is pressure on your wrist nerve. Your wrist will basically hurt and it can take a while to completely cure.
A proper hand warmup will also get your blood flowing and make your aim more responsive. You can use hand warmers to keep your hands warm during the game if you feel they are getting cold.
For hand exercises that will suit you best, you should consult your doctor. In the meantime, you can start with a few basic hand stretches.
Micro Adjustments
As for the actual mechanical practice, Yay doesn’t have a set routine. He prioritizes working on something specific he is lacking and that is a mindset you should start incorporating as well.
But if you want to learn something specific, Yay is a god of micro adjustments. Micro adjustment is moving your crosshair that is slightly off target before the gunfight. A good way to practice them is with these two AimLab tasks: Sixshot, and Yay’s VCT task.
The point of those tasks is for you to shoot small targets and work on your accuracy. Don’t worry about the speed when doing them. Your goal is to hit every shot you make and then speed up whenever you feel comfortable.
NRG Ethos
AimLab
Ethos’s routine starts with AimLab training. Ethos has his own AimLab playlist that you can play for yourself. It is an all-around playlist to practice your Valorant aim:
- Sixshot (Ultimate)
- Motionshot (Speed)
- Ruchome
- Spidershot (Speed)
- Switchtrack (Ultimate)
- Microshot (Speed)
- Circletrack (Ultimate)
- Linetrace (Ultimate)
- Spidershot (Ultimate)
- Motionshot (Ultimate)
- Spidershot (Precision)
- Motionshot (Precision)
His AimLab routine usually lasts around 30-40 minutes. Ethos plays the playlists a couple of times trying to beat his own scores. You don’t have to do that long, you can start with 15-20 minutes and slowly increase the time if you feel like it.
What Ethos points out as well, is that you have to focus on your precision and accuracy first. And only then your speed.
The Range
His routine in The Range depends on the day but something Ethos always does is practice tapping, counter-strafing, flicking, and spraying. Again with a focus on accuracy.
Deathmatch
In Deathmatch, Ethos has a goal to win a game with a Phantom, Vandal, and have a good game with the Operator. Obviously, those are the goals of a pro player who plays for a living. You, on the other hand, can aim to play a good Deathmatch with each of the rifles.
During Deathmatches pay attention to your crosshair placement and don’t commit to any fights. Shoot in bursts to remain accurate. Don’t crouch or spray. And don’t camp for kills, it will not help you improve in any way.
The final note is that Ethos is always looking for things he is lacking to work on them during warmup and training. That is the best and only way to significantly improve at the game (or anything, really).
ScreaM
Hand Warmup
ScreaM starts off by warming up his wrists just like Yay to avoid injuries and get the blood flowing. It is also important to take consistent breaks between games, at least 5 minutes.
AimLab.
ScreaM’s AimLab routine usually takes around 20 minutes to complete. It’s made of five tasks each of which he plays 2-3 times:
- Gridshot
- Headshot
- Switchtrack
- Wallpeak Intermediate
- Wallpeak Valorant Challengers
Coming from CS:GO (with one of the best headshot ratios), ScreaM is a fan of CS aim maps that the game offered. Valorant doesn’t have a such feature which is why ScreaM created his own Aim map in partnership with AimLabs that you can use to practice.
The Range
The important part is to practice every type of shooting (tapping, bursting, spraying) whilst standing and moving. Another thing you can warm up is your crosshair placement by tracking bot heads at The Range. The goal is to keep your crosshair on the head level.
The Range is a good place to practice peeking by pre-aiming at the angles you expect your enemy’s head to appear. Peeks don’t have to be just regular peeks, take your time practicing jump peeks and jiggle peeks as well.
After that, if needed, you can play 1-2 death matches. But that is optional and depends on how you feel about your aim that day.
Sentinels TenZ
AimLab
You may know TenZ because of his godlike scores in AimLab, especially the Gridshot task. But in fact, he only uses AimLab for a quick warmup while waiting in the queue or before starting the day.
Still, he has a dedicated AimLab playlist with a couple of tasks to warm up before games. TenZ’s playlist includes:
- Strafetrack (Ultimate)
- Motiontrack (Ultimate)
- Spidershot 180 (Ultimate)
- Multishot (Ultimate)
- Motionshot (Speed)
- Motionshot (Precision)
- Audiodetection (Ultimate)
- Detection (Ultimate)
- Gridshot (Ultimate)
AimLab is good but just like most Valroant pro players, TenZ prefers to practice in The Range or Deathmatches. The closer something is to an actual game, the better your practice will transfer to your competitive games. And what’s a better place to practice Valorant, than Valorant?
The Range
Some of what TenZ does in The Range is flicking, strafing, or shooting the drones. Those are the basic things you can start doing and then tailor the range to what you need to practice. Use Sage’s wall to practice peeking, enable moving bots for tracking, and so on.
Deathmatch
The next stop is Deathmatch, in which TenZ plays for at least 20-30 minutes. Yes, we’ve mentioned Deathmatches many times today and we know that they can be annoying to play. But that is by far the best method to practice for real game encounters.
The final recommendation from TenZ is don’t change your settings if you don’t see improvements. Using the same settings are the key to consistency. Find the settings, mouse, and sensitivity that you feel comfortable with and stick with it.
