In tactical shooters such as VALORANT or CSGO, the more exposed your player model is to the enemies, the easier it will be for them to shoot and kill you.
The low-time-to-kill aspect of tactical shooters has forced gamers to evolve their gameplay for the better continuously. FPS gamers have developed specialized tactics, techniques, and tricks to keep them ahead of the curve and help them dominate the competition.
Most players look to the pros to better learn these techniques and tactics, and for a good reason – pros live, eat, and breathe the game they play. When players are dedicated to their game, they will undoubtedly exhaust any means possible to become the best in their game.
What is Peeking?
In tactical shooters, angles, and corners are the names of the game. Because of the low-time-to-kill element in VALORANT, players need to take advantage of any cover they can hide in. This keeps them safe from enemies because most guns in-game do not penetrate some walls and covers. Therefore, players are relatively safe in 80% of the covers offered in the game.
Of course, this is a game about shooting with your guns. When the enemies shoot, you need to be able to shoot back. Players can’t just hide in cover forever.
This is where peeking comes in.
Peeking is the quick left-right strafing movement in-game where players strafe in and out of cover to gather information or fire a quick burst-fire and then strafe back to cover for safety.
Peeking is an essential technique to learn in VALORANT. Peeking keeps your player model safe from enemy fire and enables you to fire back once you know where the enemy is shooting from. No matter the skill level of your current competition, the various peeking methods are great techniques to integrate into your in-game routine.
Slice The Pie
The name – Slice The Pie – was coined because this peeking method resembles slicing a pie, one at a time. It kind of also looks like a slice of pie.
Slicing the pie is clearing angles one at a time through peeking. We have already discussed what peeking is; now it’s time to talk about how to do it more methodically and safely.
Many players know how to peek because some might have come from other tactical shooters, such as CSGO. But even when players have spent so much time in tactical shooters, many still don’t clear corners one at a time.
Slicing the pie is much more important in VALORANT than in CSGO. This is because there are more angles to clear in VALORANT maps than in CSGO.
Take the map Icebox, for example. Many players hated the Icebox release in VALORANT because they quickly learned how difficult a map it was to play in. Icebox has a ton of verticality which completely threw off veteran players from CSGO. There was never a map in CSGO with as many vertical angles as in Icebox.
Isolating Gun Duels
Whenever you expose your player model to one or more enemies, 99% of the time, you will most likely die. (Except when you’re a Jett, then maybe.)
The best way to take duels in VALORANT is to isolate duels to one enemy at a time. You should only engage in a duel against one enemy at a time. This helps keep you focused on one target and gives you the best chance of killing two or more players, especially in clutch situations. There is very little chance that you will survive a two versus-one situation if you challenge both enemies at the same time.
This is a very important thing to remember. Be mindful of this fact in-game whenever you find yourself outnumbered. Keep this in mind while learning to integrate Slicing-the-pie to your aiming routine.
When To Slice The Pie
Like any other technique in VALORANT, Slicing-the-pie exists to be used in conjunction with other techniques such as pre-aiming, crosshair placement, pre-firing, etc.
Slicing the pie is mostly used when you have no information about the enemies but have a good idea of where they might be due to common map angles. Slicing the pie is a good technique in these situations because you expose yourself as little as possible to open angles.
How To Slice The Pie
Slicing the pie is very simple. The movement itself isn’t what’s difficult. What’s difficult is keeping the discipline to check one angle at a time religiously. Some players get lazy about peeking and swinging out, hoping they can jump on the enemy.
To slice the pie, you must jiggle peek one angle at a time while keeping your crosshair at head level.
Where’s what it looks like:
Peek from left to right
Looking at these pictures, you might think: “I could have just swung that corner and killed the Raze easily.” even if you only had a half-decent aim, we would still agree.
However, that thought does not consider the possibility of other players hiding in the other angles you failed to clear by not slicing the pie. Players could be hiding on top of the Generator, Orb or holding a close angle at the bottom of the Nest.
If you swung the Raze like you thought you should have, you could have exposed yourself to two players simultaneously. Now that just took any chance of clutching the two versus one to the dumpster.
Remember when we told you to isolate your gunfights?
Easy As Pie
As mentioned before, the movement related to pie slicing isn’t difficult. Jiggle peeking and crosshair placement are the heart and soul of this technique. Even newer players or lower-ranked players will know how to jiggle peek. The only difference is that lower-ranked players don’t necessarily know how to use it effectively in-game.
With that said, players must religiously be mindful of clearing angles one at a time by slicing the pie. As mentioned, the movement isn’t difficult, but the discipline to methodically clear corners one at a time can be boring. Hence, some players forgo clearing angles one at a time for wide swinging; since it jumpstarts the action so players can start shooting their guns right away.
Incorporate this technique into your game; you’ll eat enemies like pie in no time.
