Valorant "team comms" guide: All in-game calls and how to effectively use them

To keep the team coordinated in Valorant, callouts or giving short information to teammates contribute towards successful round wins and overall redeem victory in a match.

Valorant is a competitive tactical shooter game, which should come as no surprise. The game provides a MOBA and shooter amalgamation that allows players to be creative and be deadly at the same time. However, one of the biggest parts that play a huge role in having a great match is communication with the team.

For any player new to Valorant or does not know much about in-game callouts, this article will provide an in-depth guide to learning all the terminologies commonly used in the game.

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All terminologies and callouts to know when playing Valorant

Basic map callouts

• Heaven: Higher vantage point location to get advantage from.
• Hell: The position directly below Heaven of one site.
• Back site: Any location inside a bomb site that is located closest to Defender Spawn.
• Main: The long segment of a map that connects both Attacker spawn and a bomb site.
• Long: The longest pathway in a map between defender and attacker sides.
• Short: The shortest pathway in a map between defender and attacker sides.
• Cubby: Smallest section of a map where players can hide.
• Link: The path that connects two portions of the map.
• Elbow: Any L-shaped path on a map.
• Mid: The center position of the entire map.
• Spawn: The starting point of both attackers and defenders at the start of the round in Valorant.

In-game terms

• Clutch: When the last player alive leads the team to win in an impossible situation.
• Ace: When a player alone eliminates the entire team.
• Team Ace: When each and every player of a friendly team eliminates each member of the other team.
• Flawless: When the team wins with no casualty.
• Thrifty: When the team wins by spending less (2500 credits) than the opposing team.
• Buy: Ordering to purchase items in the buy phase.
• Eco: Ordering the team to save money by buying inexpensive weapons/items or skipping them.
• Drop: Dropping an extra weapon for a teammate if one has extra credits to spend.
• Shield/Armor: The purchasable item in the buy phase that allows players to have higher health or durability.
• Spike/Bomb: The term Spike gets used in Valorant for planting or defusing it. However, sometimes it is referred to as bomb because of old habits from Counter-Strike.

Common terms shooter games

• Whiff: Not being able to hit an easy target.
• Utility/Ability/Item: To signify a Valorant agent’s abilities.
• Swing/quick-peek: Taking a peek at an opposing team agent with a motive to get a frag.
• Res/Rez: Asking for friendly team Sage to give a resurrection.
• Pre-fire: Shooting earlier at common spots to damage or kill enemies.
• Retake: The act of taking back control of a site that has been lost to attackers.
• CT/T: Signifying Attacker/Defender respectively, these terms are usually used by former CSGO players who are used to calling them Terrorist or Counter-Terrorist.
• One-tap: Getting a kill by shooting just one bullet.
• Instalock: Players to instantly lock an agent in the selection phase of a match in Valorant.
• Fake defuse/Fake: The act of confusing players with a fake defusal sound queue.
• Flick: Eliminating someone instantly after reacting to their presence on screen.
• Anchor: An defender who is responsible for holding an entire site.
• Entry frag: Attackers' action of entering a site in order to get easy kills.
• Exit frag: Defenders getting a kill on Attackers trying to escape from spike explosion.