u/DeadpanJay

Preface - A Healthy Disclaimer

Before we start, this is advice specifically for players trying to climb through Bronze, Silver and Gold. I'm not a GM, Celestial or Eternity player, and I'm not pretending to be one.

I previously reached Platinum in Season 2.5 before deranking and spent roughly the last year playing primarily through Bronze, Silver and Gold. This season I climbed from Bronze 3 back to Platinum 3, including Bronze 3 to Gold 2 during the first half and Gold 2 to Platinum 3 during the second half.

I'm a Vanguard/Strategist main, primarily playing Doctor Strange and Cloak & Dagger, with Lord proficiency on both. I've spent enough time in these ranks to recognize the problems that repeatedly kept me there and, more importantly, what I changed to finally climb back out.

These aren't universal rules. They're things that worked for me and lessons I learned from spending a ridiculous amount of time in low ELO. Results will vary depending on your mechanics, hero pool, game sense, role, platform, teammates, etc.

If you're currently hardstuck Bronze or Silver, don't expect to read this and suddenly play at a Platinum level. Some of these strategies require practice, learning additional characters, improving awareness and understanding the game beyond your main.

I'm also not writing this as advice for Diamond+ players. Y'all have Rival's College covered already. This is for the Bronze, Silver and Gold people I don't see asking for nearly as much help.

With that out of the way, here's what helped me get back to Plat.

Chapter I - Carry Your Way Out: Bronze & Silver

Simply put, in these ranks you have to rely on yourself. If you are a tank player in Bronze and Silver, it's just too much effort to trust your healers and DPS. I found that going DPS in Bronze and leaving us with one healer or no tank helped. Going namor and having the automatic teamup is a huge plus. Low ELO players aren't shooting squids or even look for them.

Trusting healers is next to none in these ranks. This is the next big thing I found. Can't trust healers to heal and deal with dive. Can't trust the tanks to push enough. I've carried games with a good healer. Pushing up. Making sure the team doesn't die. Sustaining dive. Etc.

Chapter II - Welcome to Gold. Learn the Ban Game

Here is where I start to see a lot of people get stuck and confused. Gold now opens the doors for bans and things get tricky.

First, you now need to know how to flex. Bronze and Silver is the best place to get this figured out on what other characters you like. By now in Gold you should know how to play two characters in each role at the least. The last time I played the game before the break I took there were only 4 bans. Now there are 6. OTP won't work as well here.

Secondly, BAN for the map and meta. Not for what you don't want to play against. The amount of times I've seen people ban characters that didn't make sense was plenty. Peni should be top banned on Domination maps and convoy/convergence maps that are narrow. Think Arakko convoy, symbiote convergence and Fantastic 4 convoy. Iron Man should always be banned on maps with open skies. Loki convoy, Arakko Domination. Symbiote Domination. Squirrel girl should be banned on maps she can hide in corners and spam nuts. Central park convergence, Arakko convoy, fantastic 4 convoy. Why are we banning spiderman on Arakko convoy? He's not even a top pick on that map. Peter is however. Ban him ASAP. Why are we banning Iron man on fantastic 4 convoy? The streets are too narrow and there are plenty of second story areas to camp on. He is a great ban for Central park convergence and symbiote. Ban picks based on map pick rate and not based on who you don't want to play against as a top priority. Then maybe who you don't want to play against.

Chapter III - Strategists: Learn to Survive

Yes I said it. I'm a second main healer after first main tank. I get it. I understand. But how you deal with dive also determines team fights. Complaining about no help doesn't help.

You need to learn how to sustain getting dived long enough to have your team get to you from peeling. STOP running backwards when you are getting dived. What does that accomplish? Stand your ground and sustain or run TOWARDS your team. This way it gives people a quicker opportunity to get to you and if you run in the line of fire of team fight, chances are they will get hit from that. Mantis or Luna? freeze them and run towards your team while damaging them. Rocket, Dash to your team or wall run. Cnd, bubble your self, turn to cloak mode and get the kill

Chapter IV - Protect Your Rank: Know When to Stop

It may sound simple, but this is very hard for people. Playing a lot of games back to back in the day can create fatigue. Revenge playing to make up for losses can create bad gameplay as well. Knowing when to turn the game off is actually helpful. Preserving your rank is very important

For me, when I have three losses in a row, I stop playing competitive for the day. If I have 2 losses and a win. I get off for some time. I come back that day. If I have 2 losses, I get off. If I have a loss and a win. I get off for some time. I come back that day. If I have a loss, I'm done with comp for the day.

Any new rank I achieve for the season that I haven't previously achieved for the season enables me to stop playing comp for the day.

New season weekend launches I don't play comp (Fri-Sun). I tend to have the worst games because people are instalocking a character they never practiced on. Yes I still get the same stuff the following week, but not as bad. What happens is someone will go the new character, then swap to what they typically play...

When I win a game, I stop playing comp for an hour at a minimum before coming back to the game. So if in a session I won the first game. I'm done for at minimum an hour.

I typically don't play over the weekend either. But that's just a personal thing. Do as you please with that. I do feel like the less I play, the more better games I have. I'm not going to mention the 4 letter acronym here. But I've seen it happen to me more often than not. But it could also be less fatigue and less revenge playing helping me have a clearer view on gameplay.

Chapter V - Don't Quit the Match

There was once upon a time where the point system kind of sucked. But after some updates they did in fact fix this. Individual performance is heavily weighted. I've been guilty of rage quitting. But try to stick it through when fights are one sided and you're clearly losing. What tends to happen is that you lose less points. Keep playing good, don't give up. I tend to believe the game will say such a good performance out classes the rest of the team even in a loss and will work to determine that you aren't meant to be in the rank. Which will then pair you with other people that need to rank out or will give you a one sided game to rank out.

Arguing the theory on this isn't the goal. Not giving up even in a loss is the takeaway message. Again, I'm guilty of rage quitting in lower ranks. Hell even gold. Those games were just hard to bare. But if you can, don't give up. Keep focusing on your individual gameplay. And let the game see you don't belong in such a rank. This way you lose less points during losses and win more points during wins. -16, -17, -14 to +30-+40

Chapter VI - Team Composition is More Than Roles

Bronze and Silver I won't stress much on this due to players inability to understand this. But Gold things start to get tricky and understanding team composition at queue screen is important. Let's give some examples.

When I see a Thor and Deadpool tank, I know we lost. We have no front line tank. Thor will flank. Deadpool will camp and rely on guns. No one is contesting point.

We have a solo mag and three DPS that never need to be on point because they are all hitscan. We lost. No one is contesting point. Mag isn't an aggressive tank.

If we have a solo shield tank, and 3 DPS, provide at least one DPS to help the tank. I call these tank busters. That's your wolverine, Mr. Fantastic, Scarlett, etc. These are characters that can help front line brawl with your tank. They aren't really meant for flanking, but can if used right. Although easiest way to use them in low ranks is to help your solo tank.

People don't understand the concept of either trading back lines or protecting backline. Learn this concept. Don't wait until first round loose sweep to now go second tank. Understand that after a couple of lost fights or based off first fight enemy composition you may need that second off tank or shield tank to block hitscan pressure.

Chapter VII - Awareness: Please Just Look Up

This might be one of the most important sections but also the easiest to understand. The lesson...simply just look.

Look up at that uncontested flier in the sky. Turn around to that black panther diving. Notice punisher or squirrel girl camping. Go to the scoreboard to see who is dying the least on the enemy team and your team. Understand why in game.

You know the enemy team has a BP. Killing them once...okay. but not positioning yourself to anticipate him coming back to your backline is reckless. They haven't swapped. They are still selected. So why did you move away from your backline. Why is everyone spread out?

Again....simply just look.

Chapter VIII - Practice. Review. Practice. Review.

Just as stated, practice and review. Go into the practice range, custom vs AI, and practice vs AI. Play characters you are trying to get better at. Spawn characters you are trying to get better fighting against. Custom make teams based on compositions you have trouble against.

Review is also a fun one. Watching higher elo players is great for tips and tricks. But they are thinking in terms of high elo. Not low Elo. In your games identify players that are really good on your team or enemies. Go to their profile history and watch their games based on the characters you are trying to get better at.

Lastly, play as many characters as you can in the practice range. Nothing beats knowing their actual abilities, cool downs, etc. and using that against them when you are fighting them. I've gotten better with matches against magik as cloak due to me playing her kit and knowing how she works. Same with Spider-Man and other tank players. Mag can bubble and shield all he wants. They don't last for long and afterwards he has nothing else....melted. Magik portals in the direction she's facing....melted. Peni has 2 web stuns. You get the idea.

Conclusion

As stated this is just to help Silver-Gold. Save the post. Come back to it. And happy playing/ranking up.