I see a lot of posts here asking how to climb out of X rank… then I see a lot of specific advice given on play and response. I see youtube addicts talking about all they “know” about the game without understanding it.
Climbing isn’t an action you can take from hearing a few tips and tricks. Its a mentality that is applied to your own life.
I know. I’ve done it many times. I one-trick heroes that I don’t understand until I can play them well, and then I inevitably climb to master with them. Usually starting from high gold/low plat. Because just being in master doesn’t qualify me to tell you exactly how you should be playing your heroes, what I write will not focus on specific gameplay at all.
I believe that each point I make is a requirement for the next. #1 cannot be successfully implemented until #0 is realized etc.
With that in mind… Here’s what I have to say.
#0 - Accept your rank
Every time I place with a new one-trick account I have to tell myself I’m not better than the players at this rank. I come from high-master so I’m accustomed to a lot of the things that players at that rank do.
Sometimes I can be frustrated that players at the rank I am currently at are making what I think are silly mistakes. But I’m there for a reason. They can’t see their silly mistakes the same way that I can’t see my own. Yet.
This is the first and most important step. If you only internalize one thing that I write here, this should be it. Accept your rank. Humble yourself. You are not better than anyone. Yet.
#1 - Play With Energy
We all have the tendency to go on auto-pilot from time to time. Just going through the motions of the game without much thought, or intensity. The issue with this, is that auto-pilot takes what we know and turns it into action. We don’t know how to be better, though. We need to learn how to be better. And the only way to learn is to turn our brains on.
If you want to play above your current level, you can’t do it casually. Think HARD. Talk to yourself. Get hyped up in chat. Whatever constitutes energy to you, bring it out.
As soon as you lose your energy, stop playing competitive. If you auto-pilot you will never become better.
A side-point. Just as it is important to not auto-pilot, your thoughts should be focused on your own gameplay. Don’t look to what your teammates are doing until your intention is to help them accomplish their personal goals.
#2 - Make Fewer Mistakes
Remember when you were playing rein, hit shift, and went too deep? You died, your team died, you lost the point. In all, you made a mistake and threw that teamfight. Potentially even the game.
Remember when you were playing Zarya, tried to grav, and got it eaten by a D.va? You couldn’t wipe them with the combo you had planned anymore, the enemy team responded, killed your team, and you lost the fight. Getting the grav eaten lost that teamfight and potentially the game.
If you make fewer mistakes, you lose fewer fights, and therefore win more games.
The mistakes I listed here are obvious. As you rank up, what qualifies as a mistake counts less and less. For
#3 Make more plays
A play is anything that lets you win a fight.
If you’re playing DPS, it means hitting a lot of clutch shots in a row.
If you’re playing ana, it means keeping your team up against really heavy damage, it means hitting key anti-nades or sleeps.
If you’re zarya it means bubbling your Ana that’s about to die to a doomfist and getting gravs that net kills.
If you do any of these things, you change the pace of the battle and potentially win objectives and hopefully the game. Its harder to make plays than to avoid mistakes, though. A lot of good plays rely on knowing your team, the enemy team, and building up good decision-making skills.
Again, plays change their tune the higher you rank up, but the idea is the same: A play helps you win a teamfight.
Combining all of them together, you focus on improvement, lose fewer teamfights, and win more teamfights.
That’s it. There’s no magic bullet. You will rank up if you do these things. It won’t happen immediately (or maybe it will) but it will always take effort.
Tips and tricks have their place. I always watch the KarQ “1 X Tip for Every Hero” series for any hero I’m trying to learn. But they should supplement and answer specific questions, not provide the map for the way you play the game.
