Valorant’s metagame: Why economy management in the first 3 rounds of each half is the most important?

Unlike certain other FPS titles like Call of Duty and Overwatch, Valorant will require a fair bit of strategy and economy management on your part to grind out rounds wins.

It’s a lot like CS: GO in this regard, and more often than not, Riot Game’s new shooter will force you to use your brain before every round and not just prompt you into a Red Bull-induced blind rush into enemy territory.

Rotation strategy and Econ management are the primary metagames for Valorant, and it’s the thing that most players get entirely wrong, especially in the lower elos.

In a low-TTK shooter that stresses on team comms and strategy, not being able to manage the game’s meta can lead to a very frustrating gameplay experience.

It can make your teammates int throughout the entirety of a match, and you might just end up uninstalling the game just because you and your squad were playing Valorant completely wrong.

In a recent Reddit post, the Valorant player who goes by the handle of Unlockabear talks about the importance of Valorant’s metagame, and how the first three rounds of each half are incredibly crucial in snowballing a win.

The importance of Valorant’s metagame

Unlockabear begins the guide by saying that not all rounds in Valorant “are created equal,” and it’s crucial to understand “the importance of the metagame.”

‘Bum rush’ is something that must be avoided in a game like Valorant. The low-TTK aspect stresses more on precision, and blindly entering a site will be detrimental to the rest of the squad.

Unlockabear says:

“Given Valorant is a best of 25 and win by two scenarios, the importance of each round becomes much more apparent when compared to CS: GO, which is a best of 30. Each round’s importance is highly dictated by the economy game (which is changing in 1.11) as it highly affects the chances of winning a round.”

“So which rounds are important? The first three rounds of each half are typically the most important rounds that need to be played with the most care. Ironically, these rounds are often the ones that are largely ignored in ranked queue (especially soloq).”

The Redditor lays a lot of stress on the importance that the first three rounds of each half signify in Valorant. He segregates them in the guide and talks about the strategy that one should keep in mind during unrated and competitive matches.

First Round

“Winning pistol round is a huge factor and should be played with as much intent as the first gun round. Winning the pistol round most likely secures the next round as a ‘free win’.”

Second Round

“The biggest mistake in this round is not taking it seriously. The fact is, even for players saving, there is a possibility of making a huge impact. The losing team faces most likely one of three scenarios.”

“A full buy (full armor and specters), a half buy (some players will buy more heavily to carry), or a light to no buy (light armor with pistols). If the losing team can win against the first two scenarios, they will actually cripple the economy of the opposing team for the next round, nearly guaranteeing a round three win.”

“Given this is the case, the team that won Round 1 needs to understand the importance of correctly trading out and not giving a free gun and round to the losing team which can turn the tide.”

Third Round

“If all else goes to plan, this is typically the first full buy for both teams. There isn't much to say here except whichever team wins this round, typically will win the next round as the economy should be crippled for the other team.”

When it comes to economy management, there are indeed many complexities that one needs to keep in mind in Valorant. There is a specific flow to how rounds play out, and the decisions that you make in one round have a very high impact on the decisions that you make in the ones that follow.

Unlockabear’s guide is a textbook example of how managing your economy correctly will give you a much-needed advantage in the game. And this is precisely how Valorant is meant to be played, beating your opponents through careful strategy along with money management, and not just through gunplay.

“All in all, winning the first three rounds should pretty much guarantee four round wins on each side. That’s eight total wins out of a possible 13 that a team needs to win an entire game, well more than half.”

A strategy, when executed well, guarantees eight round wins through just outthinking your opponents!