The scoreboard in Valorant provides tons of information. It displays K/D/A, usernames, ultimate status, economy, and more. This guide will teach you how to use that information to your advantage.
Many players often only check out the scoreboard to see their K/D/A, but the scoreboard has an abundance of other uses. The scoreboard is a great tool for planning out rounds, predicting enemies, and gaining information.
One of the best ways to use the scoreboard is to check the economies of both teams in the buy phase. This can help you make the important decision of whether to full buy, force, full save, or half-buy this round. If both teams can buy approximately the same amount, it’s best to buy up as much as you can. If the round looks unwinnable in terms of economic difference, your team can choose to force, half-buy, or save for the next round.
Another thing to consider when choosing what to buy is how many credits each team will receive for a round win or loss. The team that wins the round receives 3000 credits. The team that loses gets 1900 credits if it’s their first loss, 2400 if it’s their second loss in a row, and 2900 if it’s their third. This can be an important factor for choosing buys because it can help you decide how much you want to commit to this round. The timeline on the middle of the scoreboard can show you which team is on how much of a losing streak, so you can calculate the win/loss credits from that.
While you’re looking at your team’s economy, make sure if a teammate can’t buy, that someone else does if they can. Or if you have a forgetful friend that doesn’t buy a shield, kindly remind them.
When looking at the enemies’ economy, there are a few things you should look for. The first thing you should look for is how many enemies have more than 4000 credits. These enemies will most likely have rifles. Another number to look for is 4700 credits, this will let your opponents by an Operator. Although it’s very unlikely that an opponent will buy an Operator with exactly 4700 credits, the more credits they have, the more likely it is. It’s a good idea to play more carefully when pushing when you know there’s a possibility of an Opper holding the next angle.
You should also look out for opponents on the scoreboard with especially few credits. If no one else on their team can buy them on a full buy round, chances are they’ll have to use a weaker gun or shield. On attack, your team can exploit this weakness and try to take fights against the opponents with worse guns first.
An additional piece of important information available on the scoreboard is every player’s ultimate status. The ultimate status shows how close or far every player is from their ultimate and updates live. This can be very important when planning out rounds because of how game-altering ultimate abilities can be. For example, if your Phoenix on attack is one away from his ultimate, your team can contest an ultimate orb and have Phoenix use his Run it Back to take the site. Or if your teammates are struggling to defend a site and have a Killjoy ultimate available, you can call to play for a retake.
You should also pay close attention to the enemies’ ultimate status and play around it. If the enemy team has a Breach ultimate, it’s better to play in the back of site or offsite so you don’t get hit. Or if the enemies have a Viper, Sova, or Brimstone ultimate, you want to try your best to make sure the enemy team can’t plant and set up a potent post-plant.
The scoreboard can also help your team decide who should be carrying the spike and taking orbs. It’s often best to give ultimate orbs and spike plants to teammates close to powerful ultimates.
Because the ultimate status on the scoreboard updates live, you can use it to sneakily gain info on the enemies. Whenever an enemy picks up an orb or plants, their total ultimate points increases by one. If you react quickly and open up your scoreboard, you can figure out exactly who got the orb or planted. This can help you acquire info that otherwise might have been completely unavailable. It can be dangerous opening your scoreboard in the middle of a round, so it’s best to make sure you’re safe or already dead.
Valorant is a team game, your KD doesn’t matter, but the scoreboard’s KDA can also make it very apparent if an enemy player is having a really bad game. Your team should exploit this and target those players first. Similarly, if an enemy is popping off, it’s best to avoid them on attack.
Now that you know what to look at in the scoreboard, you can utilize it to plan out your rounds. You can also predict more easily how the other team will play out the round based on their economy and ultimates. Once you can guess what your opponents will do, you can be prepared and set up counter players and strategies. Go out there and read your opponents!
