Valorant VOD review: how to review your games

The short answer

A VOD review finds the decision errors that aim practice does not fix. Record at least one full ranked match per week and, at each death, ask what information you had, what your positioning was and whether the fight was avoidable. If you should not have taken the peek, your problem is not aim.

Watch the 10 seconds before every death. Look for trends over 10 or more matches, not in a single game. And fix one habit at a time: one to stop, one to start. These are guide methods, not Riot rules.

Watching your game: replay or recording

Valorant has had a built-in replay tool since patch 11.06 (September 16, 2025) on PC: it covers Competitive, Unrated, Swiftplay and Premier. It has existed on console since 11.10, and for some custom games since 12.00. You can watch from the view of all 10 players or a free camera, pause, play from 0.1x to 8x, jump around a timeline whose icons mark kills, deaths and ultimates, hide the HUD and open the combat report.

Two limits to know. The minimap shows enemies even when outlines are off, so what you see is not always what the player saw. And a replay records neither voice nor text chat. If you want to keep a game or show it to a coach, a video recording is still useful. The guides we read do not say how long replays are kept, so review your game the same day.

The method, death by death

Take one match, not a whole session. For each death, go back 10 seconds and ask five questions: was my death tradeable, did it gain something, did I re-peek a pre-aimed angle, did I die with utility in my pocket, did I ignore the minimap. Add the three basic questions: information, positioning, avoidable fight.

Also pause at every plant, every defuse and every rotation decision. Start with the rounds where you died first: 6 to 10 rounds is enough for a 20-minute review. Look for the why, not only the what. The crosshair placement guide helps you judge whether a death came from a badly held angle.

From deaths to trends

One game proves nothing. Track a few numbers: headshot percentage, first blood rate, utility used per round, deaths from flanks. After 10 or more matches, a pattern shows up.

Each week, review one loss and one close win: losses show the big leaks, close wins the near-misses. Write down the cause of each death and count them. Then measure progress: fewer first deaths, fewer anti-eco rounds thrown away, cleaner post-plants.

One rule at a time

End the review with one habit to stop, one to start and a trigger rule, for example holding your position after a first blood. Then train only two habits per week so you can tell whether they change. A good rule is specific: "stop re-peeking after contact" beats "play better".

The sources do not rank advice by tier. As a rough guide, the higher your rank, the less aim explains your deaths and the more decisions matter; that is our reading, not a study. To place your tier, read the ranks guide.

Reviewing a pro who plays your agent

Official broadcasts stand in for pro VODs when those are hard to find, though not as a full replacement. In Valorant, watch team coordination and utility timing, and ask why they rotated here (general esports advice). Pick one round at a time and compare it with your own death in the same spot. The agent pages list the abilities worth knowing before you watch.

Common mistakes

The sources do not rank them by tier: they show up at every level.

• Reviewing everything: a 20-minute review focuses on 6 to 10 rounds.
• Judging from one game: a pattern needs 10 or more matches.
• Fixing aim when it is the decision: if you should not have peeked, aim practice solves nothing.
• Trusting the replay minimap: it shows enemies the player could not see.
• Changing too much: two habits per week, no more.
• Only watching losses: a close win also shows missed chances.

How to train it

In your next ranked game, keep a grid with three columns: the round, the cause of your death in one word (position, information, utility, aim, trade), and the rule that would have avoided it. After the game, group the causes. Keep the three most frequent and choose a single rule to apply in the next game.

Success criterion: in the following game, you applied the rule in every relevant round and can say whether the main cause went down. This grid is a Road2Radiant proposal built on the guides above, not a validated method.

If the review shows the duel itself is the issue (headshots, tracking), train aim separately: the Road2Radiant routine sets 20-minute KovaaK's sessions and deathmatches, and the benchmark measures your aim. No rank is promised. If reviewing makes you tilt, the mental guide gives stopping rules.