Learning callouts? VALORANT expert’s Deathmatch exercise will change how you play

Every VALORANT player has had that embarrassing comms slip-up before, where they can’t quite remember the name of the location where they died.

For new maps in particular, callouts and comms can be challenging. Players can study Lotus or Split’s layout as much as they want, but without practicing your voice chat reflexes, you’ll end up stuttering and misspeaking in the heat of the moment.

VALORANT coach Woohoojin recognized this problem in one of his viewers during a VOD review stream, and he introduced the perfect training regimen to teach players how to comm faster and efficiently.

“So first, you need to play Deathmatch, and every time you get into a fight with an enemy,” Woohoojin said, “you’re going to hold your push-to-talk button and you’re going to say location, and then Agent name, and then any damage if you die. That’s it.”

For example, if you happened to deal 50 damage to Reyna on catwalk in Ascent before dying, you would comm, “cat, Reyna, they’re 50,” Woohoojin explained. It’s fast-paced, sweaty, and sure to make callouts second nature.

“And if you get dizzy on the location comm? More Deathmatch. More! More, more, more! Until you’re no longer dizzy,” he said. “It has to be to a point where these comms, you can just spit ’em all out.”

Watch the video below to see how the exercise looks in your average Deathmatch.

During his VOD review stream, Woohoojin also discussed the importance of quality communication during matches. Ordering players around can ruin team cohesion, and directing players too much on simple movements and actions mid-fight can distract and annoy teammates. Social skills matter just as much as aiming in VAL, and backseat gaming tends to backfire.

“During the round, you just should comm utility you’re throwing, rotations you’re doing, and enemies you see,” Woohoojin said. “That’s like it.”

Shot calling should generally be left to pre-round comms, save for “(a) rotating, or (b) coordinating to play a retake,” Woohoojin explained. And in urgent situations where a teammate needs to be directed, Woohoojin instead recommended asking your teammates if they can accommodate your request.

“It’s so extra. But let’s say you’re hitting A [on Ascent] as five, and you notice, ‘yo, we really need to cover flank.’ And you can’t do it. Then you pick someone, you tell them to cover flank, and you tell them why you can’t do it,” Woohoojin said. “They think they’re helping you.”