Three Tips Before You Get Started With Ranked

Welcome to Ranked! If you’ve never played a game competitively before, you’re going to be in for one hell of a ride! Ranked isn’t exactly the place you go to when you want to try something out. This is where you play to make your name. Somewhere for you to show off your insane Pharah plays, or maybe it’s your Lucio that has never once been seen touching the ground. Either way, it’s here now. And you’re going to have to adapt a different mindset and take new things into account if you want to be able to climb the competitive ladder in Overwatch! So, let's see what you need to know, shall we?

Open your mindset to new ideas and different styles of play.

You’re not the best, I’m going to assume. Unless you’re already signed to a professional team, you really aren’t going to be perfect, meaning you could always use some advice here and there. Hey, don’t worry about this either. Even professionals in other games such as CS:GO go over their demos to see where they went wrong, and pick up on the faults in their own play, so don’t ever feel bad about improving yourself through others or your own criticism. Make sure that you always take it into account if you want to improve, since others are more likely to see the faults in your play than you are. Think of it as getting someone to proofread your school essay before you submit it for example, it’s the same kind of thing. Get other people's feedback!

But, where can you get that feedback? Apart from in game when other people on your team are, well, either politely telling you how to improve or badmouthing your play (Report those players, by the way. Help out our community!), both of these types of criticism will slightly help you out. This may only be minor things, or it could be the fact that you’re playing a hero wrong mechanically. Don’t be aggressive to others willing to give you feedback this way if they’re nice, hell, they might even appreciate you looking out to see where they’re going wrong too. Don’t be afraid to communicate with your team over this sort of stuff. It never hurts to talk with each other!

Where else? Looking around can definitely help. Different communities online are around, including some streamers who are willing to be nice enough to review your play if you’re lucky, or maybe you can just ask certain communities such as subreddits or competitive Overwatch discord lobbies for example. All of these places can provide a possibly more insightful and detailed response from the players within the communities, and can quite possibly point out some flaws that are harder to spot from another person in game. If you record your POV when playing a match and ask for people to show you where you went wrong, this’ll make it a whole lot easier as you can also save that feedback somewhere, or always have it there when you need it!

Don’t forget about a core part of the game: Hero switching.

I’ve seen this quite a lot in my times playing Ranked so far. In Quick Play, people are eager to switch around to different heros as they push along the map, and that’s perfectly fine! But people don’t seem to be so eager when it comes to ranked. If your composition really needs a Winston to jump in and disrupt that big, 6 man clump with a Reinhardt protecting them all, change! Don’t be afraid. If it doesn’t work, try again! Experiment with different line-ups, but don’t go crazy.

Bear in mind that you shouldn't go switching around every couple of seconds either. Just because your team got completely blasted when you were distracted by some Junkrat for example, don’t switch around. If your defense keeps getting destroyed or your attack isn’t working after a few tries, then feel free to change it. Also, be aware of you and your teams ultimates. Coordinate with them when to use them, and remember that a good ult or two can really turn the tides. Don’t be afraid to use them!

Remember to keep your cool, your mental game is (almost) everything!

If you’ve ever played a competitive game before, such as League of Legends, Heroes of the Storm or Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, you’ll probably already know what this is, and you most likely won’t need to worry about this section too much if you already know about this. But trust me, knowing how to control your mental state in competitive games can honestly really change your gameplay. So, what are you supposed to do exactly?

Don’t “tilt” - that’s the expression used usually in competitive games. Tilting can be from a minor thing or a major play that the enemy team just pulled off, but do your best to avoid it. If you have anger problems or something similar, it’s understandable that you will get frustrated over silly little things sometimes, but don’t stress yourself out over it! Try to focus on when you notice yourself “tilting”, and work on it. Just take a few deep breaths, count to 76, whatever works for you. Playing in a calm, collected mindset will help your decision making, aim, and generally just improve your general play altogether.

Identifying when and why you tilt will definitely help you sort the issue out if it happens a lot. Finding the source of a problem always helps, no matter what it is. Is it your teammates trash talking your team constantly, or maybe specifically you? Try your best to ignore it, and report them after the game. Is it the enemy team boasting? Also try to ignore it, and if it’s anything too insulting or is pretty much trash talking, report them after the game too.

Luckily, you can afford to not pay too much attention to the chat if your team is slightly toxic due to Overwatch having great sound design, meaning important information is called out in game by characters, such as “behind you”, the calling of when an ultimate is ready, and plenty of other things. Help make use of the good sound design to better yourself and to stop yourself from tilting so much. 

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