Always remember the 30-40-30 rule.
Unlike League, however, Overwatch always have a chance for a comeback as long as the clock is running. So, I don’t advise you to ever give up while a match is in progress. But keep in mind that, sometimes, no matter what you do, you can’t impact the final result, be it a win or loss.
And that’s fine. The enemy team go through the same as well.
You are the only player that is always on your team. Don’t waste time trying to find out who to blame, because the chance of that blame game fixing the issue is pretty low. Instead, always think what you, as a player, can do to improve your team chances.
Don’t care about your SR number. Focus on improving your gameplay. When you improve, your SR will follow you up. You are never as bad as your bottom season rank, neither as good as your top season rank. SR fluctuates, and it’s perfectly possible for you to have win streaks or loss streaks that place you way further than where you actually belong.
The perfect mindset is a thin line where you care enough that you try to win every single match, but also don’t care enough that a loss can’t be quickly shrug away.
Group up.
As in, actually find people to duo or trio or full premade with you. Since those are your friends, you’ll get used to their playstyles over time and learn how to coordinate plays without needing to detail it in advance.
Also, the most friends are in your team, less randoms join, and thus reduce the chances of someone messing up the game for you all.
Trolls and throwers and tilted players and players “having a bad day” happens. You can’t control them, you can’t force them to play better. Worrying about them is just tilting yourself. Play to the end, avoid if needed, move on.
(Which is another advantage of playing in team, since only one of you need to avoid problematic players, thus multiplying your avoid slots)
It do not. At least, not on purpose.
But since you are in gold, gold is the peak of the bell curve. You are literally an average player. While it requires certain sets of skills to be high-ranked (diamond and up), and a special combination of lack of skill to be low ranked (bronze), the mid ranks (silver to gold) have people with different skill values in different things that end up putting them on the big average pile.
I have a friend that have a killer aim and can easily chain headshots as Widow. He is silver because he have the awareness of a potato and don’t know when the fight is lost and should relocate for the next fight.
Yet, if our team is holding the ground, you can easily think he is aimbotting or smurfing. Because he can land shots when nothing is bothering him. Things go south when he gets pressured. Get a single Genji/Winston to harass him once, and we are playing 5v6 the rest of the match.
And then you have people like me, who can’t hit the broad side of a barn with the broad side of another barn, but I have good awareness and I love to develop strategies on the fly to adapt to the enemy team. I reached high platinum simply by learning when to fight, how to approach and when to concede grounds.
You will meet people with varying levels of skill in different areas. Try to learn where they are strong, and encourage them to play their strong area. You don’t want me playing McCree, and you don’t want my friend playing Reinhardt.
If it’s stressing you out, yes, you should.
Always remember that Overwatch is a game. It’s leisure time. Unless you are (or aspire to be) a streamer or pro player, you have zero reasons to play a game that you don’t enjoy. If parts of a game are not enjoyable, avoid them and focus on the ones you like. If there is no part you like, quit and go play something else.
It’s a game. Not a job. Work on your gameplay if you think the process of self-improvement is interesting for you. Play for fun if you just want to relax and de-stress after a long day at school or work.
Good luck.