Climbing from Gold Hell (with recorded games)

Competitive Discussion
1

Hey, I decided to share my experience with anyone interested in watching my playing or just reading how my games went. This season I would like to focus on climbing and improving. I would like to have my hero pool limited to not so many heroes. Too much flexibility is not optimal. So I will keep playing only few heroes. I am still not fully decided but most likely these:

1)Zenyatta, Lucio
2)Roadhog, Zarya, Rein
3)Mei, McCree, Widowmaker

I will focus mainly on Zen, trying to take him everytime. I am still not sure about lucio because i am not very good at him. If team will need tanks and people pick support i will take some of the tanks i wrote or dps when I feel team need it.

Starting SR: 2156
Actual SR: 2528

Oh, and my rules:

1)Short break after every game for thinking what happened in the game
2)Never tilt ( broke at several ocasions :smile:)
3)Stay positive no matter what ( broke at several ocasions :grin: )

I am trying to record as many games as I can, here is link to the first set of games I played

Want to read or see more? Just comment because i cant add another comment after this one. My goal is to improve, I dont have problem of taking tips or advices at all so feel free to comment if you want. I am ready for criticism if its inteligent

Here is info about games:

1) 2156 - Enemy team had good genji, probably smurf most likely boosting his buddy who was silver(genji was plat), he focused me pretty much all the time. Could not do much against it. DEFEAT -22 SR.

2) 2183 - I had gold healing and elimination with zen(we had ana, bastion and mccree ), attack part was hard at last point, we just could not get there, ashe ulted with bob every damn fight. But enemy team didnt take even first point . VICTORY +27 SR.

3) 2160 - I think enemy team had better dps, our dps wasnt dealing with winston and pharah. But i cant say i played exceptionaly good too, my aim with zen still suck. DEFEAT -23 SR.

4) 2142 - Leaver in middle of the match who came back. Roadhog refusing to switch against reaper. DEFEAT -18 SR.

5) 2169 - Enemy team didnt capture first point, we did :smile: and we had weak heals, brigg+zen. VICTORY +27 SR

6) 2149 - braindead team, i had gold elims and dmg with zen while we had hanzo. He was grouped with zarya, they never ulted together, hanzo was just shooting ults randomly not doing anything, maybe throwing.i had to switch from zen to dps because we had two other support guys who didnt want to switch (btw we had mercy+moira) So i had to switch from zen(enemy had zarya+genji…). Picked mccree after widow and on last few seconds mei, nothing helped because retarded people in my team were switching heroes to make us lose. For example from rein to roadhog. Only one guy talking, others silent as graveyard. DEFEAT -20 SR

7) 2177 - Long game, both team pushed payload to the end. I had to switch from zen to widowmaker to deal with pharah(our reaper and mei didnt want to switch to hitscan). I was missing a lot of shots but the fact my team mates decided to fight in places i could not shoot we lost all 3 point. I Was playing mcree later. I think enemy team c9 in our second round and we pushed payload further and won. VICTORY +28 SR.

What i learned so far?

My gold teammates are bad :sweat_smile:…well, maybe me too. But i am getting sligtly more for win than losing for defeats. I learend that i have to practice dps a little bit before going into comp with even support. I was actuyl forced to switch to dps twice and my aim wasnt readdy for it, i sucked. Feel free to comment so i can add more games :slight_smile:

3 Likes
2

So first thing to note is that you are gaining more SR than losing which indicates you will probably climb to plat before long.

I watched a few minutes of your gameplay and the main thing I noticed was that you right click too often. You should use right click under certain circumstances like corner peeking. However left clicking is far more optimal during a fight.

3

I was thinking exactly about that too actualy, thanks for the tip :slight_smile:

Btw i played few more and i lost all :smiley: its like two more and i am silver omg.

4

I climbed out of gold in season 13 ( hopefully i stay in it xD ) so imma try to help.

-What i noticed from your gameplay is you panick ult, you were attacked by the genji and you ulted to save yourself, moments later the genji and zarya ulted which resulted in your teammates being wiped out.

-You also dont seem to be healing as much as possible? I dont play zen a lot but i main healers and sometimes you dont notice your teammates being low on health. Try to be more aware of your teammates.

-Dont go fight alone as zen.

5

Thank you for tips guys here is another 8 games :slight_smile:

8) 2156 - I was doing stupid mistakes, wasted two gravs i believe, idk why I just could not focus for some reason. Not sure where was the issue, if it was me, or they just had very good winston and nobody was dealing with him. Not grouping up was problem too, including me. DEFEAT -21 SR.

9 2136 - Another defeat… Enemy orisa was the problem i believe, my team just wasnt able to deal with her, half of the game team wasnt grouping, and bad tank choice is second round, I told that to our d.va, he said he will switch but he never did. DEFEAT -20 SR**

10) 2116 - Toxic team, widow saying how we are bad when I had gold dmg and elims as zen at the end of first round. Team splitted almost all the time. Vrey toxic game, people blaming each other. DEFEAT -20 SR.

11) 2097 - Uff, another loss, we did horrrible in both defend rounds, we lost only because enemy team did push to the end in second round with pirate ship. I was playing several heroes, gold dmg and elims :). DEFEAT -19 SR.

I played these 4 games before the tips i was given in here so in next games I am trying to get rid off bad habbits like right clicking too much but it will take time :slight_smile:

12) 2124 - I thought this match is lost but we barely managed to capture point in second round and kept it, and we were able to win second round too. I tried to not use right click that much and heal more as others pointed out. I had gold dmg and elims at one point. Our rein asked after first roundwho is silver dmg because he had gold :D. I had to focus Pharah a lot ebcause we didnt have anything aganst her. VICTORY +27 SR.

13) 2099 - Total stomp, someone had to be throwing for sure but I dont know who it was to be honest. Or we just were that bad, idk. They basicly spawncamped us at first point. DEFEAT -25 SR.

14) 2126 - Temple of Anubis - Great game, finaly friendly people talking. We lost first point in overtime,its so common omg. I made new friend at the end and grouped up with him and his friend. VICTORY +27 SR.

15) 2107 - Rialto - Cant say my team was bad or anything like that. We just lost, enemy team played better or had maybe better hero picks. DEFEAT -21 SR.

Here is the link for this 8 new matches:

What did i learn? I have to stop to blame others. I dont do it often but its pointless anyway so I will try to never do it.

If you want to see more, read more, give me tips or just say anything related, dont forget to comment :slight_smile:

1 Like
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  1. 8 heroes might still be too much, I try and main no more than 3 and only really play 5 in a season.

  2. Stylosa once said, the best way to climb in comp is to play 4 games a day/session and for once… He’s right!

Well kind of, I lvl up quicker playing a few good games rather than in super long sessions, I also stop playing if I won 3 on the bounce or I lost 2 in a row.

  1. Ignore your teammates they are idiots and don’t know what they are doing, just make sure you are doing your role well.

  2. Avoid luxury picks like mccree who needs a distroprtionate amount of healing.

7

I have to say i disagree with Stylosa point. Yes for some people 4 games is enough but not for me. I am usualy not affected by bad game at all in my next games. So i am absolutly fine to play even idk 12 games :slight_smile:

Sometimes its hard with idiotic team mates :slight_smile: You can ingore them, but there is a chnace they will listen to you and it will turn around the outcome for game :slight_smile:

8

Well, the first part of this constatation is not right philosophy cause everyone will think this, including your teammates for you xD Yes, you should focus on your gameplay but also try to adapt and, if you can indentify others mistakes, try to anull them or at least minimize them with your better play.

Well, there is no luxury picks in gold, everything is viable since lot of people, lets say majority of gold community is making mistakes, on each sides so execution for these mistakes or “punishments” are slow and not that often. This seasson especially, with McCree’s buffs, he is really good hero rn that can easy peel, shoot far and also deal tons of damage even in midium range now with fan the hammer adjustments. Personally, i would stick with Pharah, so far from my experience playing on gold account, people cant really shoot good unpredictable pharah xD

Yes, too much right clicks with Zen leave you out of other usefull stuff, primarly fast orbs management, right click uses lot of time to charge…

9

He’s probably even more of a luxury in gold as players on both teams don’t know what they are doing, McCree just wont get the healing he needs when he needs it, you’ll spend about 2/3s of the game looking for health packs.

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Hey, another 5 games I played.

GAME 16 - Lijiang Tower - 2091 SR (Playing Zenyatta)
Pretty much stomp, gold elims and dmg as zen after first round…Enemy team had very good hanzo. Or we had very bad dps, hard to say. DEFEAT -16 SR.

GAME 17 - Dorado - 2117 SR (Playing Zenyatta)
We stopped enemy team pusing the payload somewhere in the middle of map. Our team was nice, people talking and positive. Enemy team had leaver in their defend round. It was fast win. VICTORY +25 SR.

GAME 18 - Temple of Anubis - 2148 SR (Playing Zenyatta)
Very nice team. I was actualy suprised because every time i have 4 or 5 stack its disaster. Not this time, we had very good hold not letting them take the point and we captured point in first atempt. I had POTG at the end. VICTORY +31 SR.

GAME 19 - Horizon Lunar Colony - 2178 SR (Playing Zenyatta)
Teamed with one friend. Pretty fast game and fast win. Enemy MCcree was blind or idk lol, check time 2:00 in recorded match. We captured both points, enemy team had zero,another very good hold. VICTORY +30 SR.

GAME 20 - Volskaya Industries - 2158 SR (Playing Zenyatta)
One more friend joined us. We captured first point and most of the second point but we definitely had problems to do it. Enemy team just rolled us twice when they were attacking and it was done. I didnt catch my SR in recording so i would guess losing 20 SR. DEFEAT -20 SR.

My 5 recorded game

11

Everyone is different and I bet Stylosas point was in general for average guy. But anyways good thing you disagree with Stylosa and if you ever want to get help from youtube please dont watch him. Hes garbage.

But anyways to the to pint, everyone tilts at some point and even if you ignore your team mates it will affect you a bit even if you admit or not. So having a break after those games is not a bad idea if you wanna climb. But if you are in mentally healthy state enough to focus on your game play just grind it out. If you start to notice more what other people are doing bad etc. its time to stop. If you can focus what your doing wrong then your good to grind. (doesent mean if you spot others mistakes, but if you start to mostly focus on them) Sr will come automatically anyways when you play after you improved.

Ah and btw you seem to have a healthy mindset so good lucky. Also your sr changes indicates that you will climb by just grinding, but you can ofc take the time while you climb to improve as well as your gonna hit a wall pretty “soon” if you dont do that.

Anyways watched the first game half assed and decided to do a general tip for zen. Priorities. Heal orb -> discord -> dps. You leave your discord on hog for way too long when you have ana on your team and just forget the heal orb. You had 2 flankers who would greatly benefit from the orb and if you are in a case where your flank dps are just playing tracers like s76 something like that at least give the orb to zarya as she has less health pool (well same as hog with the personal bubble basically) but hog has breather and will survive easier for bit longer and ana should heal the tanks mainly anyways. So try to orb your squishies unless theiy are playing super safe to the point of stupidity so they dont need it or if your tanks are playing super aggressive to take space they could use that extra healing. Its hard to make general rules in OW as they change so much depending on the game, on the comp, on the situation whats happening right now. But a good rules is to give heal orb to high priority target even before you can see a enemy and change it when needed. 2nd would be discording and calling them and then 3rd trying to assist the dps on the discord target. Oh and abotu dps. If you can see a enemy you basically always do single shots unless lets say there is enemy widow you spotted and shes looking away and you can charge to take her out fast or a dva is matrixing you can charge a while shes wasting matrix etc. Charge while no enemies in line of sight.

12

Good luck in the 2400’s. Once you hit low plat it gets easier though.

I know, weird to say that but it does for whatever reason.

13

Thanks for tips, yeah i kind of dislike stylosa coaching videos, he laughs too much by commenting lower ranked people instead of saying something usefull. And some of his advices doesnt make sense for some ranks he is coaching. I like watching “Jayne”, he is very good. I added only 5 games but I played like 15 today but i dont want spam games here :slight_smile: I feel i am getting better with zen over time. In fact i climbed 300 sr today :), played few games with some new people i met and some with older friends and won most of them. I will add another set of games in next update, maybe tomorrow morning.

2 Likes
14

Yeah Jayne is really good. He tries to work on a problem based on the rank while Stylosa might give some advises (while some of them are just wrong in every level, but some are actually good, but as someone looking for help its hard to see whats wrong and whats right) that is something minor on higher elo but in order to take advantage of the tip you need to first higher elo and then you can take advantage of the minor thing. On lower elo many of those tips dont matter at all and even if they work on lower elos you should work on big fundamental issues instead of nitpicking some pro level tips from a bronze game and completely ignore the bigger scale.

15

In my experience, this is the right attitude to have. Mistakes are usually made across the board on both sides of a match. Sometimes a victory is determined by who makes fewer mistakes.

I found that I enjoy the competitive experience a lot more when I focus on reducing my own mistakes as much as possible and bring as much value to the team as I can.

1 Like
16

Hi, I just saw first Video, while i do not main Zen i can correct somethings; First i am low Gold, hopes get gold on my new account so we can play together.

I do not use at all right click, i get more dmg and dps with left click, you waste time charging and applying orbs, As zen you should notice who is the enemy and which Ult you can counter at the end you did well with ults…
Your accuracy is pretty bad. I aim to the headshot or miss,
IF i were you on that fight i would either saved my ult for the very last moment, i would switch to brigitte too. The last fight was lost due to your ult, Genji was almost ready so you should not waste time charging and build up your ult, that could have gotten the fight for sure.

Practice more headshot and positions. IN bronze or silver i am gold dps as zen, that doesnt mean i am better than you. i am just telling you aim to the head and discord the target, example if there is a 1vs1 use your orbs right and you will see how easy and fast they die, you were most of time charging right click… And your Genji was clearly plat not a booster. Also from my point of view Zarya last longer and kill more with Lucio. But then there was a time i killed teams with a good zen, the zen focused on what i was fighting and it worked… so idk really what to say, but i prefer lucio+Zarya… maybe you dont know how deadly a Zarya can be with healers and discord.

Also when i do play Zen i stay away from the fight, if my ult is full then i am more aggressive and stay closer to the team. If i cant kill a flanker with Discord and headshot i just switch cuz i am being outplayed. I always stay high ground and aware of Brigitte, doomfist or any dps that is chasing me. You have to learn and always remember, your ult will save the fight or ruin another enemy ult, never used it for a selfish propose. Example reaper using ult, Pharah, mei, rein, soldier. you will notice how do you carry with that.

Fished waching second vid, Got scared about your behavior toward the junk… better i dont comment… lie you again wasted time charging instead of looking for a nearby deadly hanzo. GL with next tries, honestly i think you need more practice or you will end up as high silver. Next time i want to see more headshot.

17

You better watch faster, read posts above, i am already mid/high gold :slight_smile:, Thx for feedback tho :slight_smile: I usualy know i am doing mistakes, its more about slowly eliminating them. Its about evolving too or i dont know how to say it. I mean, you have to adapt on new sr and play little bit differently every few 100 SR.

I 100% know when i waste my ult, but i know it after :D, in some ocasions in recorded games i used ults in panic mode, or just missclicked and pressed q by mistakes. Honestly sometimes i used it even to just save myself. Was is bad? Could be, but what is better? To survive and keep defending point as 6 even when i use ult to save myself from flanker, or die and let my team fight 5v6.

What happened there with junk? Cant remember. Which game number exactly?

18

Good luck reaching plat, I might help somehow, let me know :stuck_out_tongue:

19

Here is another 5 games I played. I know that I am still charging my right click too much when I should not. I know :D.

GAME 21 - Hollywood - 2193 SR (playing Zenyatta)
Still playing with my friends. This was good game and I think I had nice play there at time 4:00. We pushed payload to the end and defended first point after. Still dont udnerstand how, btw i had 29 eliminations and 2 deaths :D. VICTORY +35 SR.

GAME 22 - Route 66 - 2222 SR (playing Zenyatta)
Still playing with my friends. I like solo Q but it nice to play with people you know sometimes to have games with not just randoms. Enemy team tried pirate ship but we had amazing hold before they reached first point. It was another game where people were talking. I am pretty lucky these few days with people talking in voice. I had potg at the end. VICTORY +29 SR.

GAME 23 - Route 66 - 2245 SR (playing Zenyatta)
Back to solo play again and lol, again Route 66 map :). What is happening, another game with friendly people talking, I could not believe it. I actualy made new friend in this game. 4x Genji tried to flank me while my team was defending in different position. I solo killed him 3x, but he killed me in last atttempt. We were able to hold second point. And we pushed paylod to the end before. VICTORY +23 SR.

GAME 24 - Hanamura - 2271 SR (playing Zenyatta)
Teamed up with new friend from last game and his partner. Was pretty short game and another game where people talked, thats amazing. I did pretty good I must say, on the fire all the time. I just wasted my ult thinking enemy Zarya graved( it was our Zarya), pretty stupid mistake because genji ulted just when my ult went off. But I killed him while he was ulting anyway :D. VICTORY +26 SR.

GAME 25 - Numbani - 2296 SR (playing Zenyatta)
Still with new friends but I added one more older friend I was with in some games before. When we were defending, enemy team just rolled us on first point. Enemy team pushed payload to the end but in overtime, because we stopped them for a while after they took second one. We pushed payload to the end too but we had some more time and we won in another round by capturing the point. VICTORY +25 SR.

My 5 games:

If you want to see more, read more, give me tips or just say anything related, dont forget to comment :slight_smile:

2 Likes
20

Good job, i hope you will get easy games up to plat, i was at 2440 today and now dropped to 2300 :confused: Matchmaking is not the best, there is a clearly visible difference between teammates in each next game… Im also playing in gold and im not gold player so i can clearly see difference in it, blizzard is making pretty bad job with balancing the teams, MMR > SR but nah…

1 Like