Crouching in Valorant is a terrible idea and here’s why

Players crouch into their sprays all the time but this tactic has a tendency to send players back to the scoreboard. The best time to break a bad habit is right now, so here’s why crouching in Valorant’s duels is killing your KD, even if you’re Global Elite.

When players first start out, the massive accuracy bonus they get from crouching is too hard to pass up. Both Valorant and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive have very short times-to-kill, meaning they reward first-shot accuracy with their powerful weapons. But everyone misses, so spraying is where players turn when the map starts to get hectic.

Why players shouldn’t crouch in shooters, and definitely not in Valorant

Crouching quickly becomes the easy way out because it offers players a double bonus. First, the sudden duck drags the crosshair down just as a weapon’s recoil forces the fourth and fifth shots of a spray upward and towards an enemy’s head. The recoil that early is vertical, so crouching works better as recoil control than a mouse.

It gets even better when a weapon’s horizontal recoil kicks in around shot number seven thanks to the crouch’s added accuracy. Instead of flying off into space, bullet seven is more accurate without the player making any adjustments.

But if crouching helps players so much, how could it be so bad?

Well, there are a bunch of reasons why players should avoid crouching and most of them are true for all shooters. But there’s something about Valorant that makes crouching so deadly, players need to stop the habit. Let’s get the general reasons why crouching is a big no-no first.

If players rely on the crouch, they’re often unprepared for an enemy moving from side to side. Even though crouching takes care of recoil and bullet accuracy, it doesn’t magically track players across the screen. Next, crouching players are easy targets. By skipping the crouch and continuing to move, enemy players can land easy headshots as a crouching player whiffs half of their spray.

Finally, if two players see one another at the same time, whoever ducks first will crouch into the enemy crosshair. Most players aim for the high chest, turning the crouched player into easy prey. In the end, the benefits of crouching take too long to have an impact, mostly because players are dead before it can.

The technique’s downsides happen first, and that’s the reason why many veteran FPS players warn against it. But crouching is a worse move in Valorant than any other shooter.

Crouching players duck into bullets thanks to Valorant’s viewmodels

That’s the last sentence players who crouch want to hear.

Thanks to the game’s large gun models, players naturally aim lower as their brain tells them that their blinged-out Vandal is getting in the way. We colored weapon models from Valorant and CSGO to show just how big of a difference it makes.

The Vandal’s model takes up more room than even CSGO’s AWP on CSGO’s default view model, blocking almost a quarter of the screen. Combine that with Valorant’s packed HUD, it’s no wonder everyone aims low. There is not a lot players can do about it, either. The design choice makes Valorant’s view models feel crowded, and with no way to customize them, that’s just the way it is for now.

But in the end, the game’s viewmodel just makes the crouching habit worse. There are some ways to break players out of it, though. Players who “stopped the duck” swear by unbinding the key entirely and deathmatching until it’s no longer a snap reaction. Judging by tests, that might be the best idea.