Ranking up in competitive videogames is not nearly as difficult as it’s often made to seem.
You don’t need to be a basement dweller who spents 18 hours queueing ranked.
You don’t need god gamer genetics to climb out of gold.
You need to be better.
As with basically everything in life, in order to be above average, you just need to be willing to do the things that average people do not.
Fortunately for you, we’re talking about ranked players. The bar cannot be lower.
90% of the improvement process up to a decent level comes from the 2 simplest to understand and easiest to apply aspects possible.
1 - Play somewhat consistently. Anything at or above 4 days a week, 2 hours a day is more than enough to get better.
2 - Make your playtime mean something. Quality over quantity, rage queueing on a 6 loss streak is how you reach a full red carpet match history.
Same goes for queueing up on 2 hours of sleep without eating or drinking. Your brain physically cannot work.
Once you’re at a decent level of quality, USE YOUR BRAIN. Ask yourself questions. What worked? What didn’t work? Why did/didn’t that work?
ACTIVELY THINK ABOUT THE DECISIONS YOU MAKE IN A GAME.
Boom, suddenly you begin consistently climbing!
Why?
Because you’re operating at the level of a sentient human, something that your random teammates in ranked are conceptually unable to accomplish.
ENJOY THE ELO STOCKS 📈📈📈
@Badnametag_ felt, i been procrastinating improving everthing for like 6 months now. but if i rank up from master complete to gm i go yellow, not my color, so then have to go even further.
When we’re talking about the most difficult competitive videogame, there is 1 aspect of a game that determines difficulty more than EVERYTHING else.
It’s not aim or mouse control.
It’s not macro, awareness, or game sense.
It’s not how many gold players a pro can simultaneously beat.
And it’s DEFINITELY not “transferable skills” (LMFAO!!!!!)
The Mental Stack. The mental stack of a game, something I very rarely see people bring up, is IMO the single biggest determinant of a videogame’s difficulty.
This is all from the perspective of a ranked player, pro-play is a whole separate category.
As the most multitalented gamer ever, I figured I should give my 2 cents on the topic after spectating the whole Rocket League vs Overwatch war.
It was funny seeing people from both ends make the most diabolically stupid points, but WAY too many people were seriously clueless on why and how a game’s difficulty is determined.
IMO, the winner goes to Overwatch. The deciding factor is the difference in mental stack between games, and I didn’t see a single person bring it up.
The mental stack is essentially how much information and how many tasks your brain needs to compute during a game.
The greater the total cognitive load is during a close and competitive ranked game, the more difficult it is for you to meet your role’s expectations.
Yes, Rocket League has an absurdly high (probably straight up infinite) mechanical skill ceiling. However, there simply isn’t that many variables to keep track of outside of mechanics.
Boosts, 1-3 enemies, 0-2 teammates, and the ball. The map and goal are static, and there’s no other resources of variables to track.
There literally just isn’t much information that your brain needs to compute during a game.
Compare that to the mental stack of a top 500 DPS player on Overwatch. Your cooldowns, positioning, matchups, objectives, and ults. All of those variables apply to each of the 5 individual enemies. Also, they apply to your 4 teammates. Also, you have to manage all of that informaton WHILE aiming well on one of (if not the) hardest mechanical FPS games.
Literally does not compare. Keep in mind, the bar for difficulty doesn’t stop at Overwatch.
MOBA’s, RTS games, and fighters are all EVEN HARDER than Overwatch. But, that’s a whole nother discussion to be had.
Oh and btw, I promise you: Your lack of awareness and understanding of the mental stack and how important your brain is? That’s a BIG part of why you’re hardstuck.
Duo Queuing with someone on League shows you who they really are
how they handle losing
how they talk when tilted
how they treat you when things go wrong
it's a relationship test disguised as a video game
first few games everyone's on their best behavior
"it's okay"
"no worries, my bad too"
"let's just have fun"
give it 50 games
see what happens when you're both 0/3 at 10 minutes
see who starts flaming first
see who gives up
that's when you find out if your duo is real or not
some duos are perfect when you're winning
fall apart the second adversity hits
those aren't real duos
those are passengers looking for a free carry
real duos show up when you're both struggling
when neither of you is playing well
when the enemy is gapping you
and instead of pointing fingers, you just say "run it back"
you can fake it on dates
you can fake it over text
you can't fake it when you're both tilted at 1am and on a loss streak
that's when the mask comes off
played 500 games with someone?
you know them better than their therapist
you see how they react under pressure
whether they blame or adapt
whether they rage quit or run it back
whether they're loyal when you're inting or bail when it gets hard
if someone flames you for one bad game
imagine how they'll treat you when real shit goes wrong
if someone blames you for their mistakes in league
imagine how they'll act when life gets hard
duo queue is the fastest personality test you'll ever take
50 games together tells you more than 50 dates
because when you're both losing and frustrated
you can't hide who you really are
Study the Saskio & Rins way
It’s now been 7 days since early access launch and I can confidently say that I have no regrets saving Hytale, it’s been the most challenging but rewarding experience of my life.
Thank you everyone for the amazing support, and a big thank you for the rebuilt Hytale team for trusting me to get this to the finish line in just a few months. I haven’t been involved with Hytale development for many years and coming back was a big unknown and risk for me, and my family. I fully trusted the people and it just worked. Amazing team, every single one made a big difference.
The better someone is at Counter-Strike, the more of an asshole they are, which is completely counter-intuitive.
Yelling at your bottom fragger for tanking your elo does not make them a better player mid game, it only antagonizes them and makes them play even worse, tanking your elo further.
The optimized mindset for winning is stoicism, only focusing on the things that are within your control. You cannot chose your teammates in a solo queue, and you can't play the game for them. The best thing you can do is give your calls and play your best.
So if you want to be toxic, don't do it to the poor bottom fragger, do it to the other team, because at least then it helps you win.
i duo queue with my ex every couple months
we don't talk about it. it just happens.
2am. both online. she sends the invite. or i do. neither of us acknowledges who sent it first.
the discord call is 90% silence. no "how have you been." no "seeing anyone?" just pings and callouts.
"flash down."
"jungler bot."
"nice."
that's the whole conversation.
here's the thing though.
our 2v2 is still nasty.
she knows when i'm going in before i ping it.
i know her cooldowns better than the last 6 supports i've played with.
we don't communicate because we don't need to.
400 games of muscle memory doesn't give a fuck about relationship status.
we'll go 7-2 together. maybe 8-1 on a good night.
then it's "gg" and we're offline for another 2 months.
no follow up. no "we should do this more often." nothing.
because we both know what this is.
it's not friendship.
it's not rekindling.
it's not even nostalgia.
it's that neither of us has found better synergy.
and that's the uncomfortable truth about duo queue.
you can break up with someone and still be stuck with them competitively.
you can hate someone's guts and still combo perfectly in a teamfight.
you can move on emotionally and still be hardstuck trying to replace what you had in game.
some people have exes they still fuck.
i have an ex i still duo with.
honestly not sure which is worse.
study the saskio way
If this is your reaction to seeing good aim in a multiplayer First Person Shooter, maybe you should stick to singleplayer and coop games. I've always found peak technical skills inspiring.