VALORANT experts reveal how sound masking can land you free kills

Sound is one of the most important elements in a game like VALORANT. Jiggle peek too wide, or walk forward too long, and suddenly your enemy knows exactly where you are. VALORANT is primarily a game of information after all, and the more info you give to your opponents, the less likely you are to convert a round in your favor.

But there’s such a thing as being overly cautious in VALORANT. Case in point: Two VALORANT coaches just revealed how players can rethink their flank mechanics by using running sounds to their advantage.

Last week on Twitch, VALORANT coach Woohoojin teamed up with pro VALORANT player and coach Jonathan “Silenx” Huntington to help Woohoojin’s Radiant student JeyG secure a consistent place on the Top 100 leaderboard. During an Icebox VOD review, Silenx and Woohoojin revealed that JeyG, playing as a Jett while on Defender side, flanked Attackers far too slowly during an A site push. An enemy Sova dart scan initiated a push by the opposing team, which gave Jett the perfect opportunity to pull out her knife and run down mid for a quick flank.

This might seem unwise to players who are scared of giving away an information advantage. Theoretically, running knife out would make a series of stomping sounds that would tell Attackers that Jett was coming from mid. But as the coaches revealed, the A site push created a series of loud noises that masked Jett’s footsteps. By shift walking, Jett gave up the perfect opportunity to use sound masking to her advantage.

As Woohoojin explained, when your opponents are running onto site, the “heat of the moment” makes it particularly difficult to notice running sounds from behind flank. Between stomping sounds, utility usage, comms, and gunfire, it’s easy to miss a lone wolf approaching from behind. This can land a flanking player a free kill if executed correctly.

“As they’re running into site, making all that noise, I’m making noise as one of them scaling behind them,” Silenx said.

“Yeah, because your noise is masked,” Woohoojin said. “There’s a lot of clips from my old VOD reviews where I’ll be like, ‘dude, you can just run knife out’ […] Like, yeah, you’re in their audio range. But in the heat of the moment? Dude’s not gonna be like, ‘one flank.’ And if they are, that kinda plays in your hand anyway.”

By the way, sound masking isn’t just useful for flanking. It’s perfect for taking a site as well. Woohoojin proceeded to show a clip from Alexander “Zander” Dituri where he uses sound masking to his advantage to flank and kill an unsuspecting Reyna.

“So they’re hitting a site on Breeze, and you’re gonna notice Zander goes uncomfortably fast for your low Elo eyeballs,” Woohoojin says. “Just full clomping on this guy, and she’s not even looking at him. It’s ’cause there’s so much noise going on around her, that she doesn’t even hear him.”

This makes the technique a fantastic way to build off the momentum established by an entry fragger like Jett, who will initially steal the enemy’s attention — and kick off the exact “heat of the moment” that landed Zander a kill.

“I know we talked about this as a flanking concept,” Silenx explained. “But this should double-down for most people as a site-hitting concept, especially if you’re not the first guy going in.”