Chapter 01 · Cohort
Where the elite mind goes during a round.
Eight elite Valorant players talked through their thoughts mid-match. We sliced the round into seven (buy, approach, engagement, aftermath, reset, and the round-end echo) and mapped the flow of their cognition by . Toggle the to watch the elite mind shift between different match conditions.
Parent share
Of 2,839 coded statements across 1,909 live-play (162 rounds, 241 engagements).
- Attentional Metacognitions14.6%
- Attentional Control · Internal10.0%
- Attentional Control · External45.4%
- Game Situation30.1%
Key signatures
- External : Internal attention ratio4.45 : 1
The cohort talks about the world ~4.4× more than they talk about their own state.
- AM share14.0% (SD 5.1)
Auditing their own thought processes is a less frequent, but consistent, elite behaviour.
- AC share55.3% (SD 4.4)
Attentional control (fight planning, tactical planning & feedback, outcome reaction) dominates the flow.
- GS share30.6% (SD 7.0)
Game-state awareness is the fuel, the foundation that informs the other types of attention.
Top codes inside each category
- experience recall136
- communication management69
- dwelling65
- reflective monitoring39
- metacognitive appraisal28
- tactical feedback134
- fight planning251
- outcome reaction236
- collaborative planning188
- tactical planning175
- enemy position awareness293
- ability awareness175
- teammate awareness75
- enemy state awareness71
- economy awareness51
Cohort: elite-2026q1 · 8 players · 1,909 segments