So I started playing rivals seriously in season 7 and usually solo queue comp till I hit celestial. I don’t consider myself to be someone who has insane mechanical skill and I work a 9-5 so I can’t grind the game super hard. I wanna share some things I wish I knew when I started for anyone who’s trying to climb up.

# 1. You can’t control your teammates (keep your mental)

If you have any presence in this community you’re aware of the age old memes of throwers and poor teammates. Whether that’s due to boosted ranks or the rivals matchmaking system I’ll leave to you, but what’s most important is you don’t let it affect your mental. Even if your teammates are underperforming there are still ways in which you can improve your own game. It’s more productive to stay cool and focus on those. Unfortunately part of solo queuing in this game is accepting you might be throwing elo in the trash can depending on the matchup. I recommend you go in just seeing how you can play better and don’t get overly emotional about elo and you will have a much better experience.

# 2. Have a flexible hero pool

This is **THE** most important part of climbing solo. As you get higher up in ranks understanding team comps and being able to fill for your OTP teammates becomes extremely important. I’m a champion Rogue main with a 60-70% win rate on the character. Part of the reason why it’s positive is because I know when to put her away. There are games where the enemy team will be playing counters (Thing, peni, heavy poke) and I know a melee character is generally gonna eat dirt there, so I swap. You should be able to react to enemy team comps on the fly.

# 3. Synergize with your team

There are also games where your team may not be aligned with your personal play style. I like to play rogue as a brawl/dive tank to disrupt back lines and take space. But some teammates that I run into don’t know how to coordinate a dive and fill the space I’m making, so I’m getting no value from my play style. If that’s the case I also switch to a more traditional front to back tank. You don’t have to know the whole roster, but at least 3 characters from each role that can be used in different situations (dive, sustain, anti-dive, ect) to **synergize** with your team is very important. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been on a team with a rogue/mag combo and gambit slips through the ban phase but nobody goes gambit for the most broken team up in the game. Or if you are on dps and see your magik needs someone to dive with her to finish off kills. Being able to flex to different roles/characters to enable your teammates is key in having more success.

# 4. If you swap, swap early

This is a mistake I still see in celestial lobbies. People will be getting rolled and won’t try changing the comp until the last minute of the game. At which point you lose ult charge and aren’t coordinated for the last fight. If there’s a cap constantly in your backline go white fox. If there’s a Dino eating the frontline go Emma. These swaps should be made immediately not after you’ve lost 2 points.

# 5. Game sense

The previous 3 points roll into this one but game sense also heavily revolves around ult usage. Rivals more than any other hero shooter is an ult based game. As you climb, matches will often be decided by who gets more value out of their ults. There are several ways to use ults intelligently. The first is kiting (falling back while the enemy team dumps support ults/cds) and then responding with your own once they are out to gain an advantage. Another point is realizing not every ult has to directly result in elims. For example using Jeff ult to swallow white fox ult, or Emma’s ult to mind control starlord out of his. Kiting and using ults defensively don’t show up on the scoreboard but make massive differences in winning and losing team fights. Also, you can get away with double support ulting in metal ranks but after that those kinds of mistakes will cost you.

# 6. Realize it’s just a game

It’s no secret the rivals community is filled with toxicity. It only gets worse as you climb and sometimes I find high celestial/low eternity to be insane in that regard. Part of the reason why I’m nearing the end of my time on the game is because it takes a lot to deal with it day in day out after a full day of work. Not to mention the balancing of the game is done towards the casual player, so it can feel silly getting hyper competitive over such a poorly balanced product. Ultimately, I try my best to be uplifting in chat because I refuse to let someone on the game ruin my mood. I also don’t want to be the reason for ruining theirs. Just rmr it’s important to be kind :).

Feel free to DM me if you’d like to ask any specific questions or want more. I’d be happy to share! Godspeed.