Noob to Competitive, how to actually climb in rank?

Competitive Discussion
1

I am pretty new to competitive, and would like to solicit an intellectual conversation regarding how to climb in solo competitive.

It seems as though what I have been reading on the forums, and what people are saying in YouTube videos is to improve yourself. Ok, cool, I can get behind that as far as an individual on a team.

However, just last night I was playing Zen, and in one game, I played mediocre, and we won, then I played really well in the next game, and we lost. That seems to suggest that the solo player doesnt have much impact on improving their SR.

I am beginning to think that climbing solo in competitive isnt as deliberate as people make it out to be, and that the game is really designed to be played as a team, with known team members, who specialize in specific roles, and where everyone has the ability to verbally communicate and work together as a team. Solo or random competitive games simply include too much randomness to consistently impact the outcome, thus significantly reducing the ability for a solo player to make much of a difference in their SR.

Feel free to help me better understand the workings of solo or random team matching competitive, and how to increase your SR deliberately if possible.

Thanks.

1 Like
2

Hey Habanero, Iā€™m going to start of answering this:

Some games are out of your control and some games are not:

This is only partially correct:

Correct in the part that the game is designed to play as a team, incorrect in the implication? that climbing in solo queue canā€™t be deliberate.

Iā€™m sure you have read lots of threads on how to climb and in all honesty nothing I will say could likely be able to bring much more insight as opposed to what has been said in the past.

There is one piece of knowledge I would like to impart, and that is my first quote at the top of this thread. You are responsible for your success and the sooner you truly understand this, the sooner you will start to climb. Youā€™re smart enough for this but it can be a little hard for your ego to accept this as a starting point for your climb.

Look at peopleā€™s tips in the forums (I just put down some basic level suggestions in this thread):
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/overwatch/t/how-to-win-with-no-assistance-and-heals-bronze-player/46116/3

And if your ego can handle it (Iā€™m not suggesting you are weak but it can be hard to put yourself out there) consider posting some VODs either here on in some of the academies in reddit. There are a lot of people out there willing and wanting to help you out, you just have to try dodge the negativity that often pops up in the forums.

GLHF and if there is something specific you want to know, feel free to ask. Iā€™m willing to help out and Iā€™m sure others are too :slight_smile:

1 Like
3

Hey, i have had similar issues one of the best things i would say is to duo queue or play with friends. This makes it a lot easier because you have someone on your team you can trust. It allows you to set up combos and also to pop off if they pocket you or you pocket them. Honestly you should focus on communicating with your team s much as you can without changing your in game effectivity. I assume you have heard it but practice is the best way to do well in comp

1 Like
4

Luck.

Doesnā€™t matter if you end 50-0 with 200 golds medals you can still lose every single.

2 Likes
5

Donā€™t let your ego defeat you, you are stronger than that!

6

As a 700 placed bronze who climbed to 1900 so far i feel like i have to answer this.
Firstly if you have great mechanical aim you should pass sub 1000 sr really easily even if your gamesense is garbage. Try to 4 or 5 stack as much as possible it wins you games if you truly deserve to get a higher rank. When solo queing, everything might seem bad at start but try to encourage the team and be supportive (literally). In low tiers like mine flexibility wins you games. There were times my soldier accuracy was off like sub 35% and i played mercy or zen and we won team fights. For people in solo queue that puts in effort, make sure you show them your appreciation. Learn 2 dps 2 tank and 2 healers just by the basics. If you go with stupid picks such as bastion make sure you tell team that you arent trolling and will switch within first death or first point or first minute.
Learn accuracy with dps. My gamesense is terrible but my soldier accuracy carries me through games. If team arent listening to you such as a really bad team comp and noone switching then play around the team. Filling and flexibility wins games my friend. Idk what else to tell you. Ez claps forward my friend.
PS. Scream naisu with european accent when anyone gers a 3+ kill ult.

7

Iā€™m being realistic.

You can be the best player in the world but 1 teammate can ruin all your game or viceversa.

8

Consistently play better than the enemy team and you will climb. You canā€™t 1v6 and there are definitely unwinnable games, but you can be a massive pest to the enemies by playing extremely well, no matter what hero youā€™re on.

There is definitely a random factor to each game, but it balances out overall meaning that you will reach the rank you belong in if you play enough.

9

dont bother climbingā€¦ just have some fun xD ive been from 1600 to gm and 1600 by far is the most fun ! game is just filled with nukes anymore and is 100 percent team game which means it is not a game to queue intoā€¦ you must have people who want to take the responsibility of picking up rolls and are at least some what coordinatedā€¦ other than that its a counter smashā€¦ u pick the right characters and its gg the other team doesnt have a chanceā€¦ tbh not even fun.

10

keep calm, find multiple heroes you enjoy to play. preferably in different classes. and take breaks. If you start getting heated it will be harder to climb.

11

Your two game sample size is too small, basically.

It is a team game so of course your teammates will have an effect on whether you win or lose. That is never going to change. Some games you will always win and some games you will always lose.

The games that are close are the ones you can swing. Playing poorly will cause you to lose those games, while playing well will cause you to win. Thatā€™s the difference.

Essentially, if you are better then you will rank up. You may have to play more or fewer games based on your luck, but eventually you will get there.

I guess it is just a bit more of a grind than people think (unless you are significantly better than your rank).

12

Youā€™re wrong here. It works as you said, but only on ā€œyour ranksā€. And i talking not about ā€œvery best playersā€, even diamond player can climb all the way from likeā€¦ bronze to gold without any loses (tested on self experience). Itā€™s all about players that make mistakes and your ability to abuse this mistakes with no risks for you. If you killing 2-4 players every fight and dies like 1-2 time in whole game - you will win it and itā€™s no matter if you have one troll or one leaver.

Same on your ranks, but you just not able to abuse enough mistakes and here is people who can find and abuse mistakes in your gameplay. But every time you getting better by playing more, getting experience and making lower amount of mistakes - you climbing higher easily.

13

Your 2 game sample size is meaningless. The better you play the more you will win on average. The worse you play the more you will lose on average. Thatā€™s really all there is to it. The result is not binary based on how well you play. What you seem to think is, ā€œI play well therefore I will win.ā€ The reality is, ā€œI play well therefore I increase my chance of winning.ā€

1 Like
14

The only way to climb in solo queue is to be better than the rank you are in and grind enough games to balance out the leavers trolls and throwers, some games will be unwinnable some will be a steamroll ignore those games they are random and determined by luck, focus on the ones that are close these are the ones that matter these are the ones where you being a better player counts and how you will climb.

Donā€™t get angry over losses they are unavoidable donā€™t blame the team even when it is their fault everyone makes mistakes and it makes you blind to your own mistakes, choose a couple of heroes to play donā€™t try to use them all pick a few and focus on them ideally non spammy ones you want consistency not chance based kills so donā€™t pick Hanzo for example.

Thatā€™s pretty much it grind games donā€™t get angry and donā€™t try to play the entire roster and donā€™t fill unless absolutely necessary.

15

A single player can make any game thatā€™s not a steam roll a win all by themselves. If you are good enough to get a single kill at the beginning of every fight on an enemy player
bam
You have just won most of your games. Itā€™s not an easy thing to do but itā€™s a thing a single player can do particularly if they are better than individual players on the other team.

16

Well, Iā€™ve found the best way to ā€œincrease your SR deliberatelyā€ (as opposed to not deliberately?) is to play a DPS role.

Playing tanks and healers well will definitely increase your chance to win, but if you can DPS well, I find it often has a larger impact.

17

You see you gotta click right on their heads, as it does extra dmg, they just fall down afterwards, its great!

18

Ok, thanks for the responses and advice so far.

Just a little more information.

Zen is becoming my competitive main, mostly because everyone wants to jam DPS, and then I end up switching to tank or heals for team comp, so I just start out with Zen, and then the only problem most teams have is making someone tank.

My main before Zen was Pharah. I can also play Reaper and Soldier, and am working on Tracer (although I am not confident with her yet). I can also play Junkrat and Mei, and then Orisa and Winston. Finally, I can also play Moria, and somewhat Mercy (still working on learning her though). That gives me some flexibility, but outside of those characters, I cant play the others much at all.

So here is what I am thinking. I started off the season with like 1550 SR. Within the first few days, I dropped to 1100 by losing a bunch of games back to back. Whats the termā€¦ā€œUnlucky?ā€ Then, I have been working on climbing back up. I made it to 1350 SR after like 2 weeks, then dropped back down to 1275 SR. I cant seem to get back to the 1550 where I started, let alone get above that.

I do not know exactly how much SR I win or lose each game, however, it seems to play out like this. Between two jobs and family life, I can typically stay up late and jam like 14 games per week. If I win 8 of them, and lose 6 of them, then I am up like 50 - 70 SR (based on an estimated average of what I gain / lose during the week). So if I am at 1350 SR right now, and I gain 50 - 70 SR per week, that would put me at about 1550 - 1630 SR in the next 4 weeks when the season ends. That puts me in the middle of Silver, with Gold or anything beyond that totally out of reach. Then the next season starts.

Last week, I was able to stay as a team with some players who were willing to collaborate and communicate. There were 5 of us, and we won like 6 games in a row (which is how I climbed up quickly). We were all Bronze players, getting matched with other Bronze players. Then all of the sudden, after winning like 6 games, we started getting matched with teams stacked with Silver and Gold players, and we lost the next 3 games.

I just want to better understand the game, how it awards SR, how it matches teams, and how to best elevate my rank.

I am starting to think that just jamming games isnt how you climb, especially if I can only play like 14 matches per week. I think I have to be more deliberate, and build a team of players, rather than just hang out in solo queue.

I am not interested in getting to top 500 or anything, I just want to get out of the range of 12 year olds who seem to end up in almost all of my bronze level games, lol. But seriously, I would like to experience a higher level of cooperative play and skilled opponents to elevate my game.