From casual to competitive

(zealousHumdinger) #1

Been thinking about entering competitive/ranked games but I’m not sure about myself. I’m just level 7 and I do good at certain pubs and totally suck on others and that is just the experience with two mercs which is played mostly for support exp.

How do you guys decide when to switch over? Is it like ok I’ve mastered this merc now I should try rankings or just instinct or maybe even boredom. Or you decide on the numbers on hours under you belt? And is it that serious as made out to be? I have read certain posts here where they put conditions like you need Teamspeak etc to even try to play ranked and stuff like that. And will I be singled out if I suck on there? Like getting bullied and kicked for being the weak knee in the team :stuck_out_tongue:

If anyone would share some experience I would appreciate it thanks.

PS: Also is ping a major factor in deciding how a ranked game goes.

(Ardez1) #2

[quote=“zealousHumdinger;11759”]Been thinking about entering competitive/ranked games but I’m not sure about myself. I’m just level 7 and I do good at certain pubs and totally suck on others and that is just the experience with two mercs which is played mostly for support exp.

How do you guys decide when to switch over? Is it like ok I’ve mastered this merc now I should try rankings or just instinct or maybe even boredom. Or you decide on the numbers on hours under you belt? And is it that serious as made out to be? I have read certain posts here where they put conditions like you need Teamspeak etc to even try to play ranked and stuff like that. And will I be singled out if I suck on there? Like getting bullied and kicked for being the weak knee in the team :stuck_out_tongue:

If anyone would share some experience I would appreciate it thanks.

PS: Also is ping a major factor in deciding how a ranked game goes.
[/quote]

My best suggestion is find a group to play with! You can check out the Clan and Team Recruitment thread to find one. Several are new player friendly!

Most groups require teamspeak or a separate chat program to play ranked. You can only get better if you try!

Ping can matter, so try and play with people near your geographical location! (If you are NA East find people from NA East/Central. EU try and find EU. NA West try and find NA West/Central. You never want to see 200+ ping when you are in a ranked match :slight_smile:

Ranked isn’t super serious atm until you try and go for Cobalt tier. Gold is fairly easy with the low number of comp players.

EDIT:

Honestly, deciding to play ranked is a personal thing. Most of it atm is players in a similar position to you who are unsure if they are ready for it yet. And it is generally fine(if you are just interested in having fun) to play a merc you don’t normally main.

For example, In ranked I generally play Bushwhacker or Aura. Last night I played Skyhammer because we already had 2 medics and another clanmate wanted to play Proxy. I ended up getting an Unstoppable and got highest(or 2nd highest, can’t recall for sure) score on my team. Yeah, I had played Skyhammer in pubs before, but I had never done ranked with him.

The biggest difference you will notice is the quick high intensity fights ending until the next respawn wave. In ranked it is 5v5, so it is much easier to wipe a team until the next respawn. Medics become extremely important relative to pubs where you could have 6 to 8 people running around per team. In ranked teams generally like to have 2 of their 5 players being a medic, 1 player being ammo support, 1 killer and 1 other that is generally situational. I have seen the fifth be anything from Vasilli to an engineer or just a third medic/2nd ammo etc.

(opicr0n) #3

Remember that on competitive servers the other players are usually also higher skilled. Which means that you can also perform better most of the time.

I quite enjoy competitive matchmaking, apart from the occassional beating, it brings the best out in you and the team overal.

However I wonder how healthy it is winning in the last minute and trembling because of the adrenaline afterwards in the lobby. Actually in that state its the only time I need the delay timers (loading, lobby, waiting for ready, small intro of map).

(Serious Sam) #4

When I reached level five, I was still very new to the game and felt unsure of whether to try competitive or not. I leveled up to level 6, continued playing public games, and realized that I was getting mad at my teams for not being very good, indicating that, hey, maybe I should go join something a little more appropriate for someone as competitive as I am (see what I did there?).

Turns out that even competitive players aren’t as impressive in terms of skill as I thought they would be. Yes, you will face off against some tougher opponents, but more or less it’s just casual players that decided to try a bit harder in a more serious gamemode to try it out. At least, it’s like that until you get to some higher ranks.

What I’m trying to say is that if you feel like you’re doing well in public games and you’re getting frustrated by teammates, don’t hesitate to give competitive a try. Even despite the name, it’s not so hugely serious that people will be pissed if you mess up. Give it a try, and if you don’t like it you can always go back to casual (but not before the game finishes, don’t be one of those people that abandon their teams).

Best of luck, and I hope you enjoy your time in the game.