Playing to improve?

Competitive Discussion
1

I’ve got about 150 hours of overwatch competitive experience over two accounts now (my other account is mid to high plat) but I feel like I’ve hit a point in the game where I’m not going to continue to improve without dedicated practice and I’m willing to put the hours in. Only trouble is I don’t what to do to improve, I always hear good players say that you shouldn’t care about SR and just play to improve but I have no idea on how someone ‘plays to improve’.

I know how to improve my mechanics but I don’t know how improve things like game sense and positioning. I’ve watched a lot of education OW videos and streams (like Jayne’s stream) but I don’t know how to actually apply these tips that I learn in-game because it’s really hard to focus on the game and thinking about my actions at the same time.

If anyone has any tips on how to self improve that would be nice.
Thanks

2

I’ve found playing mystery heroes and death match modes really helped me overall. Mystery heroes for obvious reason - the more heroes you’ve played the better you understand how to play against them. Death match, again obvious, helps you with your 1v1s in game. 1v1s are extremely important when they pop up. Winning the right 1v1 can win the game.

Aside from these things, I would suggest you pick on account as your true competitive account. Make the other your flex account. Play a lot of games flexing to help your team win without focusing excessively on SR. This will alleviate some of the pressure of comp as you protect your SR on your main account and can practice freely on your alt.

Finally, don’t queue for comp on weekends or weekday evenings between 5-8pm if you really want to climb. There are a lot of casual players on at those times, so not the best competitive experience - and I’ve greatly understated this.

Good luck.

1 Like
3

There’s nothing wrong with this. Nobody said you have to play to ‘improve’ to play Overwatch, or comp. It’s your game, play it for fun. Nobody at all will remember you if you get to diamond, or masters rank. Hell, most people can’t name 95% of the league players and know the ones they do from streaming, not league. Check out how many of the league players also have personalities that belong in the garbage can.

Then wonder if you really want to improve. Nothing saying if you are high ranked you have a bad personality. But then again, check out some of the posts right here in the forums from them… just saying…

4

It can be difficult to do this, so start small. Try this:

  • Use the highlight feature to capture 1 - 3 moments of a particular game, especially an instance when you died and review it after the match. In the moment there are many things that you can miss under the pressure of the game, and if you watch that highlight again you can likely see what you could have done better in that situation.
5

There really isn’t, you’re going to learn it the long and hard way which is playing a long time. You learn it from failing, trying and at times, succeeding.

Only advice I can give is Just keep trying, don’t give up, and don’t be afraid to experiment with different spots and see which works or not may. This stuff don’t come easy.

6

This attitude destroys comp.

7

Hmm…

Seagull, Mano, Carpe, Fragi, Surefour, Rawkus, Jake, Sayaplayer, Linkzr, Meko, Jjonak, Chipshajen, Pine, Agilities, Janus, Libero, Diya, Geguri, Fissure, Gesture, Freefeel, Mistakes, Striker, Ark, Anamo, Neko, Taimou, Effect, Space, Tobi, Ryujehong, …

There’s 1/4 of the OWL players off the top of my head.

8

The best way to improve is experience and curiosity. You don’t only learn by watching education videos. You need to be able to experience what the videos are talking about so that you can identify what you should be doing as second nature. Constantly ask yourself if there is another course of action you could’ve taken that would’ve improved the outcome not only of the game but of your individual life within the game.

I am still constantly learning even on heroes I have 100+ hours on.

9

Congrats you still proved my point. Most people cant

10

Not really. It saved it because it’s not great for actually competition but since it is a fun format, people play it anyway and save it from death.

11

I have the answer for you, that’s helped me when I plateaued.

It’s simple: find a team, play scrims for 2-3 hours a day and do team VOD reviews after.

12

:slight_smile: That’s nice to have that kind of time.