Here’s a little backstortly to explain my credentials. So I’m a coaching student, or was as I did have a year long dream of eventually becoming a professional coach for Overwatch. My gametime has spanned over 6 years playing this game with my playstyle specializing in dive gameplay where my two mains have been Wreckingball and Winston. I have peaked at Diamond 1 back in OW1, and this was back in season 20, something or other, in one of the few seasons I had actually taken the grind seriously in ranked. Years before I took the coaching role seirously and boy did learning how to coach open my eyes to my bad habits and mentalities that plagued my own gameplay.
Due to health concerns and mental issues, I’ve had to avoid rank altogether and now play a lighter concept of competitive play, since well I enjoy it still has a side hobby.
Now with my credentials out of the way. I mostly play quickplay and dabble in competitive every so often just to test the waters and my own limits to see where I stand I now main Wreckingball almost exclusively and I want to share how I improved lightning fast at this character with under 100 hours on my belt as a Diamond 1 player.
For those of you who don’t understand, high Diamond rank is essentially putting me against Master rank player. Even just getting to low Diamond is proof of how much more advance of a player oneself is with statistics showing higher skill levels above 80+% of the rest of the playerbase.
That is proof of my journey and, take it as you will, my qualifications in teaching others how to play this game. More importantly I want people to improve more so that the rest of the community may recieve higher quality teammates and thusly improve the overall match experience for everybody.
So it simple comes down to a basic analogy of a fighter when it comes to improvement.
A Gladiator will often times find their demise in an arena when tossed inside without any proper training or mastery of their skills. Whereas the Gladiator who spent the time to strengthen themselves and perfect their art outside of the arena become crowd favorites and the bread winners of their respective households.
Same applies here in Overwatch. Now trust me as a man with 4 various degrees of martial arts training, who is also in the military, I take my training seriously. Yet how often do I get to practice these skills in actual battle? Here’s a hint, I only get one life before I recieve game over.
Now in the same regards a fighter spends more time outside of the ring of battle doing three things.
The three steps to improve
1 - Mastering the form.
2 - Studying the art.
3 - Building up skills.
So with three simple steps you can find yourself improving at a lightning pace, so long as you dedicate yourself properly to the actual techniques towards self improvement.
1: Mastering the Form -
Learn your hero, your optional playstyles, learn and implement the basics, then take advantage of your strengthens while minimizing your weaknesses. Much like any art form, even considering FPS/MOBA games, Overwatch is considered a artform and should be respected as such. Understand the game, the heros, the maps, the abilities. This is a constant learning curve that requires a constant mindset that there is always something more to learn from every instant in the game. Without that mindset you’ll be running around in circles never really improving or moving forward at a reasonable rate.
2: Studying the Art -
Game knowledge is key here. Much like any other fighting style a fighter takes the time to understand their opponents. Even in military tactics we need to understand the differences between weaponry, from small arms fire to artillery, as the situation will dictate how we will continue the fight as we seek to claim victory. Just like with any fight the situation will change heavily which affects how you play so much so that it becomes your own disadvantage if you do not understand how to conquer the newer obstacles. Understanding your opponents, learn what “respect” in conflict is, and know how to apply countermeasures, whether it be one tricking your hero or even counterswapping.
3: Building up Skills -
Now the basics should never be ignores. Even veterans in their own fields have to return to these basics every so often in order to improve. The best champions spend so much time outside of an actual ring, rather than inside, and its all just to build up on their skills. So that when the times comes they employ a much greater impact in their performances. I have shot over 400,000 rounds just to become a marksmen in 4 different firearms. Granted, I may never fire that many rounds in an actual battlefield, but one thing is for certain, I will nail the shot that matters when I face any opposition. The same could be said here in Overwatch. Practice your movements, warm up your arm, spend time learning the flow of your kit. So that when it does matter in the moment you will make it count.
These are the three key fundementals that every pro puts time and effort into, notice how none of this is basically even in a match yet? That is the biggest flaw in todays common “practice” for self improvement.
People barely understand what it means to be optimal or gain value and just respawn endlessly without any consideration towards learning. And that is what improving is, it is one big learning process. No one has ever improved by thinking “it’ll just come naturally.”, “I don’t need coaching.”, and “I can learn it all by myself”.
So unless your a prodigy destined to become a master as this game. You’ll never reach the peak of your own gameplay if you practice the wrong things and never identify your bad habits. And trust me. Every rank has their bad habits, amd most of the time, your highlights, never show how you could truely be punished.
First thing you need to accept is. Confess to the reality of “I make bad habits. I am not the best player in the game, or this lobby. There is always room to improve.”
If you really want to improve, ask questions. Dive deeper into proper training. Get feedback and see how to train off of that.
The worst way to improve at all is setting yourself up for failure then ignoring the tools at your own disposal to better yourself. And there is literally countless tools for improvement.
QP and Comp should be treated as testing grounds to test your limitsand all the skills aquired, not as a practice range for live dummy targets. Even in war that is considered inhumane and inconsiderate. In fact it is one of the more crueler things a person can do by subjegating another person as a mere objective for one’s own selfish desires.
If you don’t understand any of the three steps reply below and feel free to ask questions. We can dive further into it as it’s not a simple subject to cover at a first glance, or read for that matter.