u/hit_the_showers_boi

Welcome back to 1v1 101!

It’s been a hot minute since my last entry to the little guides, and that’s because of life, among other things. But, it works out fine, since this is gonna be the last one! You may have noticed something up with the “1v1” portion, and that’s because what my last little post is about, is not limited to 1v1s. I went over them pretty throughly, I think. As long as you can analyze the matchup, the Neutral and Punish game state, have good Target Priority, and know how to force or persuade people to face you in a duel… that’s all I have to say. Congratulations! You’ve all passed the 1v1 101 course with flying colours! For my final lecture, I’m tackling something different. Something bigger than just a 1v1, so this is the one (and only), Rivals 101.

“How to Improve”

It’s a nagging question that is on practically everyone’s mind, especially when it comes to a competitive, online PvP game like Rivals. You all have had good games and bad games, and I’m willing to bet that most of you have also watched high level play, be it from watching replays of the top players on the leaderboard, from a YouTuber or a streamer, or whatever. After all, if you want to get better, no better way to do so than emulate what the best players in the game are doing, right?

Ehhh, kind of. Watching high level players gameplay can be very helpful towards improving yourself, but it’s more important that you understand what is happening in the first place. If you’re a brand new, fresh install player. Don’t watch high level players to get better. At least, not yet. What should you do instead? Just play the game.

Build a fundamental understanding of how the game works. Play on all of the maps a few times. Try out all three roles, then try the different archetypes of each role. Try out Daredevil for dive, then Mr Fantastic for brawl, and then Hela for poke. Then go to Vanguards. Try Venom for dive, then Thor for brawl, then Strange for anchor. Then go to Strategists. Try Invisible Woman for main healers, then try Mantis for off healers, then try White Fox for offensive support. Build at least an okay understanding of how the basics of the game works. Once you’ve done that, I recommend you PICK YOUR MAINS.

This is important for deciding how to improve, because every character gets better in different ways. Decide what archetype suits how you like to play the best. You like getting into the thick of it? Brawl characters are your thing. Like keeping your team alive and well? Sounds like you prefer support. Like going in deep and aiming for those key picks? Dive sounds like your cup of tea. Decide which one you like best, and make your main focus, not your ONLY focus.

If you like playing support, for example, don’t play JUST support. Have a few characters in each role of different archetypes that you plan to get good at. For example, I have 3 Duelists, 3 Vanguards, and 3 Strategists that I spend most of my time playing. Star Lord, Iron Fist, and Hela for Duelists. Strange, Emma, and Hulk for Vanguards. Luna, White Fox, and Jeff for Strategists.

You might notice that they all have different archetypes. Hela is a long range poker while Star Lord is a flanker, and Iron Fist is a hybrid of dive and brawl. Strange is a shield tank, while Hulk is a brawl/dive hybrid tank, and Emma is a shield/brawl hybrid tank. Luna is a main healer, while White Fox is an offensive brawl healer and Jeff is… kind of weird. He’s like an off-support, but he’s not really… I don’t know. He’s Jeff. My point is, I try to have my preferred spread be pretty well rounded to cover all my bases. If my team is in need of a long range poke, I can go Hela, but if they need a diver or a flanker, I can go Star Lord instead. If my team needs a shield tank, I can go Strange. But if they need a brawl tank, I can go Emma instead. If my team needs a main healer, I can go Luna, but if the enemy team has too many divers, or my team needs help pushing to take ground, I can go White Fox.

Having a good spread of preferred characters, both in roles AND in archetype, will make you a far more versatile player, and will make you better at the game in the long run because you’re learning how to play every type of character. You can play both a poke Duelist and a dive Duelist. You can play both a shield Vanguard and a brawl Vanguard, so on so on. You’re learning not only the strengths of all the types of characters, but also their weaknesses. You know what this type of character struggles with, so when you face that character on the enemy team… you know how to counter them. But of course, knowledge is just one part of the equation. There is a bit of more mental… psychological things to address too. And this is one that I’m particularly adamant about:

When you die, and you WILL die… TAKE. RESPONSIBILITY.

This is something the Rivals community as a whole seems to struggle with. When you die, that’s YOUR fault. Sure, maybe you couldn’t do anything to stop it. Maybe the enemy was using an overtuned character. But guess what? Your death is still your fault. This is possibly THE most important part to improving at anything, not just Rivals. You NEED to take accountability for your mistakes and deaths, because those are how you learn. If you write off every death as “not your fault”, then you’re NEVER going to get better.

When you die, stop and think for a moment. Think about HOW you died, and what you COULD have done to prevent it? Did you get jumped by a Black Panther? You should have been paying more attention to your surroundings. Did you get sniped by a Hawkeye? You should’ve tried to use cover better so you weren’t exposed to his sight line as much. And yes. Sometimes when you die, it IS absolute bullshit, and you couldn’t have done anything to prevent it. But still… take accountability anyways. Spidey pulled you five hundred miles away from the map and you fell to your death? Now you know to not position yourself near that ledge. Luna come from around a corner out of the blue to freeze you and instantly erase your health? Now you know what the enemy Luna is up to, and you can be prepared for it next time.

Taking responsibility for your deaths and acknowledging your mistakes in what you could have done better is the simplest way to improve, and yet, it’s also the hardest way, because it forces you to take a hit to your pride. This can be hard to do sometimes, but if you really want to get better, then you have to do it. Who do you think is going places, the guy who is making up excuses to defend his pride, or the guy who gets his ass kicked and starts taking notes? So class, it’s time to pull up your big-boy pants, swallow your egos, and take the L. There’s no better teacher than defeat.

There’s one more thing I want to discuss, and it’s a word you’ve no doubt heard thrown around the community before. Gamesense. What is gamesense? In summary, it’s a players ability to analyze the state of the game and use that knowledge to make educated decisions on their next course of action. If your team is down four people, good gamesense will dictate that you should retreat and regroup with your team. If the enemy team has all of their Vangaurds dead, good gamesense will dictate that your team should push in while the enemy frontline is crippled.

So how does one access all this good gamesense? It may seem a bit lackluster of an answer, but… time. Gamesense comes with time. Just play the game. The more time you put into the game, the better your gamesense will naturally get, and I also recommend you do so against real players in Quickplay… most of the time, Quickplay has the occasional bot match for whatever stupid reason… anyways. Real players are always better to practice on than bots. Players make on-the-fly decisions like you do. They can outplay you. They can make mistakes like you. They can adapt to your playstyle and make an effort to counter it. A bot? Has a predetermined objective every single time. They don’t adapt, they don’t change. They’re pitifully easy to kill, and relying on just them to improve will only hinder your progress.

You won’t even notice you’re developing better gamesense as you put time into the game. You’ll just gradually get better at decision-making as you go. It’s a subconscious process, but you’ll eventually be able to see the results clear as day.

(There is also aim, but… a lot of it is the same as developing good gamesense. Don’t bother with an aim tutorial, because everyone aims differently. I do a weird thing with point and click characters like Hela, Strange, and Luna, where I aim at the ground… and flick to my target, then reset my crosshair to the ground? I don’t know why, I just… do it. I don’t do it on melee or tracking characters like Star Lord, Iron Fist, or Jeff, but it works for me, so I don’t question it. Just play the game, your aiming style will develop and gradually improve like gamesense does. There is aimlabs, but again… it isn’t necessary to do, just playing the game will develop your aim just fine.)

So, I think I have said my piece. I had a lot of fun making the 1v1 101 guides, and I had even more fun reading all the comments and discussing with you all. So I just want to say thank you guys. You’ve all graduated!

Thank you for coming to my final TED Talk.

So, Cyclops. One of the most anticipated hero’s to come to the game. I find him to be one of the most balanced releases we had in a while. He’s strong, but not oppressive. However, I’ve noticed people seem to be having some issues with his ultimate. So, because I’m THAT kind of loser dork nerd, I’m gonna make a little guide for YOU. Whether you’re struggling to get use out of his ultimate yourself, or are struggling to fight against it, this guide will be for you.

I’m gonna start with the basics of his ultimate. It’s a two hit attack with a 1.1 second interval between attacks. The ultimate hits a 60m long straight line in front of Scott, and takes 3700 energy to get access too. The first hit has a 2m wide range, does 75 base damage plus 20% of the victims maximum health, and will instantly destroy any shields or deployables in range. The second hit has an 8m wide range, does 75 base damage plus 40% of the victims maximum health, and does NOT instantly destroy any shields or deployables. What this means is that Cyclop’s has an ultimate that does massive damage to enemies, and will instantly destroy any shields or deployables with the first hit, but only in a very limited range. While it hits far away, it’s very easy to avoid the ultimate by going to the sides.

Let’s start with the most frequent issue people have: avoiding or otherwise lessening the ultimate.

Recall that the first hit destroy’s shields and deployables but the second one does not. Vanguard’s like Strange, Magneto, Hulk, or Emma CAN still block the ultimate with their shields. You need to tank the first hit, and then raise your shield or bubble before the second hit drops. The shields will block most, if not all, of the second hit and leave the Vanguard in MUCH better shape than they otherwise would have been. It’s important to wait until the first hit has already landed, though. This is the most important counterplay to the ult for characters like Magneto or Emma, who don’t have the mobility to dodge to the sides. Other characters like Daredevil, Iron Fist, and Blade have blocks that do NOT get destroyed by the first hit, so they can completely block the ENTIRE ultimate. This is actually very nice because all three of them are at least partially divers, which are strong against Cyclops as a poke. If Cyclops is causing your team too many problems, then swapping to one of these three is a great way to counter him.
The range on the ultimate is the ultimates key weakness that can be easily exploited. 60m is a long distance, sure, but the width of the blast is tiny. The first hit is only 2m wide, and the second hit is only 8m. Any characters with a dash or a jump can EASILY get out of the ultimate by moving to the side. A Cyclops who uses his ultimate in a wide open space is basically BEGGING for it to whiff.

So, there’s the counterplay options to Cyclops and his ultimate. But… what if YOU are Cyclops? How can you ensure that your ultimate lands when it’s so easy to counter by just… moving to the side?

Well, Cyclops has a handful of options to ensure his ultimate hits as many people as possible. One of which is hallways. If the ultimate is so easy to avoid by going to the sides, then take away any sideways movement the enemy team has. Chokepoints on maps like Arakko, Hell’s Heaven, certain points of Central Park, Midtown, and Heart of Heaven, etc. remove any sideways movement your victims might have, making them easy targets for your ultimate. It’s not foolproof, of course, but it is a very good option.
Another trick is COMBOS. Combining your ultimate with another character’s is VERY strong and can sometimes GUARANTEE that your whole ultimate meets its mark. Groot, Strange, Angela, and Emma all have very good ultimates for removing enemy players control over their movement. If the enemy can’t move out of your ultimates range… you’ve got the opening you need. My personal favourite is Angela and Groots. Not only do their ultimates stop the enemies from moving out of your ultimate’s way, but they also group the enemies up together in a bundle, ready for the warm loving embrace of your entire 150 base damage + 60% of maximum health ultimate.

And that’s about it. Cyclops has a very strong but also very avoidable ultimate. If you want to avoid it, make use of movement options, intangibility moves like CnD or Wanda’s fade, and saving your shield for the SECOND hit. If you want to make it land, use it in tight chokepoints and corridors, or combo with a friendly Vanguard ultimate.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.