I’m no stranger to the competitive grind. The fire of my competitive spirit started with Overwatch and spread to the likes of games like Teamfight Tactics (TFT), Pokemon Unite, Pokemon VGC and Marvel Rivals.
The games I took uber seriously where I spent years playing ranked were Overwatch and TFT. I was obsessed with wanting to climb the ranks.
Why did I want to do it? Simply because the primal part of me wanted to be the best that I could be. But like many, I was not born a god gamer. Which meant I had to find a way to get good. Or several ways.
If you want to climb the competitive ladder, I have five tips on how to improve your game play so that you can get to that sweet, sweet rank that you want- staying satisfied with your rank though is a whole other challenge, and I’ll leave that one with you!
I should add that the only prerequisite for improving is having an open mind; that is, having an incredible willingness to learn.
Tip 1: Record and Review Your Own Game Play
Recording your game play is a fantastic way though to see any blind spots you had post-game. When we’re playing a fast paced shooter, we get very focused in the moment on certain things and may literally miss other details right in front of our eyes. When you’re watching your game play back, you get another chance to have a look again at your field of vision. Ask yourself if you assessed the fight correctly? Did you make the right play there? What about your positioning? Were you playing with the team?
So many questions. The beauty of recording is you can rewind and replay those moments again. You can ask a friend who plays the game too.
I’ve used Overwolf’s Outplayed for TFT and highly recommend the software. It is optimised for popular competitive games like Valorant, Fortnite and League of Legends. For Overwatch, I recorded a lot of games on OBS.
Tip 2: Take Notes
One of the best things you can do during a grind session is to take notes right after a game. No one likes writing things down. It’s effort. But you know what’s worse? Relying on memory alone. You might think you remember what happened in the first one or two games, but it’s extremely unlikely that after half a dozen games, you’ll remember what happened in every single game.
So I suggest writing notes down next to you on a physical notepad, or virtually on a google doc or spreadsheet. The idea though is to jot down some of your thoughts- perhaps you made a play that you weren’t sure of. Or there were mechanics you need to work on. Maybe you came across an unusual interaction that you don’t know enough about and want to research it after the game.
Notes can help you go back later and pinpoint the moment it happened in your recording too for review. I had a document for my games and wrote down good and bad plays I made for each game (don’t forget about the good).
Tip 3: Join a Community
Join a Twitch or Discord community for the game you’re playing competitively in. See what others have to say about the meta and updates. If you need a team, chances are others need one too. Everyone is learning and it’s a good way to get to know others in the community and learn from other players who play the game as much as (or maybe more than) you. If there are tournaments you can play in or spectate, even better.
Tip 4: Watch Top Players
There are other people who are good at the game you play. Why are they good? What do they do differently to you? And no, it’s not always a skill diff with mechanics! You can learn a lot from watching them on live streams on Twitch for example. Or Youtube. Chances are they will also post videos to help players improve.
Tip 5: Get Private Coaching
This tip is not for everyone because you may not want to spend money and that’s okay. If you are thinking about it though, there’s nothing to lose and more to gain! I had a session with a coach for TFT and it was a very positive experience and genuinely helpful. The benefits of getting private coaching is that they can give you that immediate feedback on your game play. You can usually find coaches in online communities like Twitch, Reddit, Discord or Youtube. They will have different packages they offer too, including one-off sessions so it can be as low commitment as you want. Pick someone that’s reputable and you should be good to go.
Do What Works For You
The approaches above can all complement each other- pick and choose what works for you. But don’t overdo it. I also know from my experience that if you aren’t careful, burnout is imminent. I’ve talked about ways to recover from burnout because it has a strong positive correlation to performance.
No matter what though- don’t forget to have fun, and pause to enjoy the view while you’re climbing!
Look after yourself,
Elena
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