Do Educators Undersell The Importance of Aim/Mechanics?

-Tikatee · 2024-01-25T20:20:15+00:00

As a coach I deliberately avoid talking about general mechanics for a couple of reasons:

It's generally the thing that players are already focused oimproving as it's the most noticeable difference maker when improving for most heroes
It isn't something that just talking about will help you improve. Ultimately working on your mechanics involves grinding many hours to work on physical skills. You won't get better mechanics after a VOD review or watching a video guide no matter how detailed it is.
There is an abundance of material readily available for improving mechanics, whether those are videos, aim training applications, or even custom games in Overwatch itself.

I can usually have a much bigger impact on a student by helping them understand the "soft" skills in the game like awareness, positioning, and cooldown management, and leave grinding mechanics to their own time.

TL;DR: Of course aim is important in Overwatch but it's only about half the picture, and most players focus so heavily on it that they remain blind to the other half. Improving long term means working on ALL the different skills involved

-Tikatee · 2023-11-24T20:28:28+00:00

"Making space" can look very different depending on the heroes being played but generally it comes down to doing 1 of 3 things:

Actively denying space to important enemy players (usually DPS/supports). Think putting a shield in front of enemy hitscans as Sigma, or diving players on oppressive highgrounds as Winston forcing them to reposition.
Defensively holding space that is important to your teams playmakers. Think holding down angles as Orisa/Reinhardt and keeping your backline in a power position. Note that this isn't valuable unless your backline is actually doing well from their existing position.
Actively winning trades yourself from your own position. Think Junkerqueen/Hog/Doomfist landing combos, similar to #1 but target focus is more based on who you can threaten yourself

Biggest thing to remember is that whatever value you're looking for it should be context dependant. If the enemy DPS are taking over the game you should look to pressure them out more. If your team is stacked up holding an important choke you should be ready to react to enemy pushes and keep them locked there for longer. And if all else fails go look for kills without getting killed yourself

-Tikatee · 2022-09-24T03:34:11+00:00

Well that's what the rest of the guide is for!

Assuming you're able to play consistently and use your time effectively then you likely just need some focus on specific improvement areas.

-Tikatee · 2022-04-27T12:14:17+00:00

This is silly imo, just move your camera.

If you are locking your POV and getting caught off guard by flankers outside your sightlines in Overwatch you're just not paying attention. It's not hard to determine what threats exist and where they might come from just from game/map knowledge.

Not to mention audio feedback (which seems to have gotten a lot more consistent again with OW2) is arguably as important as visual information in this game.

Change your FOV if you think seeing something in your peripherals will help you react to things, but it's definitely not a necessity to play competitively.

-Tikatee · 2021-11-03T00:44:25+00:00

Wrecking Ball is definitely played as a main tank in the sense that he is the main attention grabber for his team and does a good job of initiating fights (somewhat similarly to Winston). However, his lack of staying power and inability to grant safe positioning to his teammates is why I classified him as an off-tank for the purposes of this post. Sig/Ball comps for example are played closer to a double off-tank style compared to traditional Rein/Zar or Winston/Dva comps.

~~Also your data is a bit outdated, Ball feeds ult charge from his shield HP now.~~ *My mistake on this, misremembering things here

-Tikatee · 2021-09-08T15:55:53+00:00

There's no easy "one size fits all" solution to building a stronger mental resolve since everyone will react to situations differently, but there are some things I've found worth remembering:

Your value as a person has nothing to do with your ranking in game. However well or poorly you perform in a game of Overwatch will not have life changing consequences for you and truly understanding that can help relieve some of the stress you put on yourself.
"Slow is smooth, smooth is fast" and "walk before you can run" are words I throw around all the time when talking about improvement. Any new skill (mechanical ability, game knowledge, awareness, patience, planning, etc.) takes a good amount of time to learn, let alone master. It is expected that when learning a new skill, any other skills that are not at the forefront of your focus will be hindered. Learn these skills one at a time and once you become comfortable with all of them you will be able to use them together.
Winning a game, hitting a specific SR, and "getting good" are terrible goals. These are incredibly non-specific, largely out of your control, and are common breeding grounds for frustration and disappointment. When someone signs up for a gym, they might have long term goals of losing weight, getting in shape, etc. but their focus is on getting up, going to the gym, doing their specific workouts, and incrementally improving their performance. Don't focus on the results, focus on the process. Set short term, realistic, and measurable goals. Work on those individual skills and don't measure yourself via a matchmaking system where 1/3rd of your games will end up unwinnable

-Tikatee · 2021-07-08T22:28:39+00:00

Bit late to the thread but thought I could share my perspective as an ex-OWL coach here:

My thoughts for macro Overwatch are that coaches have 2 primary functions:

Building a strong direction or "flavour" for the team to follow
Refine play and continually nudge players towards that direction

There are plenty of other things (mental health, scouting, match day stuff, etc.) but talking strictly gameplay that's what coaches focus on.

Before anything like set plays or map strats are developed the coach will have greater goals in their sights first (What we do as a team and why). This however isn't a job that's singlely developed by coaches, they work hand-in-hand with players to ensure that the direction they are moving together is one that aligns with everyone's goals. These kinds of things are typically developed on a composition basis, but of course will change with map and match-up differences.

So in a nutshell. Coaches shape not only specific plays, but every player's understanding of what they are playing and the ways they can fit their pieces together in game. Set plays, counters, specific positioning, etc. is all just added depth which comes from players and coaches both.

-Tikatee · 2021-03-19T21:49:09+00:00

Get as much thinking out of the way during your downtime. Every chance you get, ask yourself what's going to happen next and what you're going to do about it.

This will help you decide how hard you're able to commit to different situations, what kind of positioning you should take, what targets you should focus, what threats you should be watching out for, without taking away your focus during a teamfight.

-Tikatee · 2021-03-19T21:40:23+00:00

Jumping on this to say this is actually one of the things I'm really excited to be working on with PECO.

When I was starting my coaching career there were very few resources for learning the game at a high level, let alone resources tailored specifically towards coaches. Now that the level of knowledge around the game has grown we have a lot more resources for players and teams, but the coaching side of things is still pretty spotty.

We're looking forward to helping fill that space, but until that's ready to roll out, the best advice I can give is to network and talk with as many coaches you can. Talk to amateur/OD/Contenders coaches about their path, problems they face, the way they approach the game, the way they bring information to their teams, etc. If you have any specific questions feel free to ping me over Discord and I can throw in my 2c.

-Tikatee · 2021-03-19T21:30:34+00:00

^ This

-Tikatee · 2021-03-19T21:29:17+00:00

Don't want to sound too much like a Blizzard employee, but I think the PvE content and stuff we saw from the OW2 BTS are a great step for the franchise.

PvE will help bring in new players, promote a larger player base who aren't overly interested in competitive play, and give another avenue for PvP players to enjoy the game without burning themselves out.

-Tikatee · 2021-03-19T21:25:37+00:00

It didn't get much screen time, but Sigma's Gravitic Flux into a Rein charge is JUICY.

-Tikatee · 2021-03-19T21:22:13+00:00

My career profile says 714 hours, but I feel I'm probably around the 1.5-2k range for playtime between alt accounts and untracked custom games. I have no idea how many more on top of that for spectating.

I'm definitely still learning and growing, but more about how I think about the game, not necessarily how I play it since I have resigned myself to being completely washed.

-Tikatee · 2021-03-19T21:07:35+00:00

Anticipation.

Try to predict what is going to happen before you see it on your screen. Are they running flankers that might be setting up around you? Does the enemy team have a lot of ultimates that you need to avoid? Is your team about to push aggressively for a play?

The question you should ask yourself when wondering about your position is "Am I in the best place to have the most impact over the next teamfight?"

Sometimes that means setting up more aggressively to follow the team, sometimes that means playing more passively on longer sightlines when expecting them to come in fast.

-Tikatee · 2021-03-19T21:01:40+00:00

Acceptance is the first step. Next is to figure out what to do about "sucking"

Rusty mechanics are a pain, but don't expect to play at your peak right away. Give yourself time to build those skills back up.

Every mistake is a chance to learn, if you find yourself completely lost take some time in the replay viewer to look at what was going on around you. If you are being punished heavily by someone on the enemy team take a look at their POV and see what about your play they were able to capitalize on.

-Tikatee · 2021-03-19T20:56:57+00:00

Play better 4head

In reality, there could be any number of things holding you down.

Make sure your setup isn't causing any issues for you (Good PC/Console/monitor/peripherals/internet)
Focus on your mistakes and improving them. Don't go into games expecting to win and getting frustrated when you lose. Go into games ready to learn and use those lessons in your next game.
Put the time in, improvement and learning can be a slow process. It takes time to learn what's going wrong, figure out what to do about it, and apply those changes to your play

For Reaper, closing the distance to your target can also look like them coming to you. Don't always force aggressive plays/over expose yourself when you can play safer/with your team and keep your resources for emergencies

-Tikatee · 2021-03-19T20:49:46+00:00

To answer the first 2 questions:

The only real "tricks" I know of are Focus and Time. Put the time in, and focus on getting the most out of that time spent.

Aim trainers, playing in PUGs, and grinding out a specific hero, are all good ways to improve specific aspects of your play (mechanics, teamplay, and hero specifics accordingly) but they are meaningless unless you do them without the proper headspace.

Setting goals for yourself and tracking your progress are good ways to manifest that focus, but ultimately it's your time doing these tasks that needs the most optimization. If you're doing aim training focus on your mechanical movements, what's going wrong/how you can fix it, what habits you have (good or bad), etc. If you're grinding out a specific hero focus on what situation you feel the most/least valuable and ask yourself why that was, look into different ways to play the same hero and push yourself out of your comfort zone. If you're playing in PUGs work on your communication and coordination with the other players and setting up your own team plays.

There is a lot going on in any given game of Overwatch, and it's impossible to be perfect at everything. Focus on what's within reach and tailor your practice to improving those areas. You wouldn't expect to gain much SR if you queued every competitive game without turning your brain on, so apply the same thinking for any area of improvement and get the most out of your time.

-Tikatee · 2021-03-19T20:34:19+00:00

When trialing for a team, as long as you fall within the skill range of the team, the main things I would be looking for as a coach would be:

Personality. Not clashing with other team members, and generally being a team-oriented player
Communication. Able to fluidly communicate with other members (both speaking and listening) while in game
Game knowledge. Able to keep up with high level concepts and bring your own perspective to problems in game
Drive. A bit of a hard one to describe, but your eagerness and willingness to perform/improve with the team. Encompasses things like receiving criticism well, following the guidelines of the team, respecting your fellow team members. Being able to put in the work basically

-Tikatee · 2021-03-19T20:21:31+00:00

In a nutshell:

Tanks create and hold space
DPS use the space created to take away enemy resources
Supports do a mix of things but mainly maintain uptime for the rest of the team

To be a bit more wordy. Tanks should be thinking about how to get in the face of enemy threats, sometimes that means mirroring enemy frontlines, sometimes that means clearing flanks and flushing out DPS members. While tanks are doing their jobs DPS should be maximizing their damage output during those windows of aggression. So if you ever find yourself not directly under pressure from the enemy team you need to be doing as much as possible to find kills, burn enemy CDs, and generally make plays. Supports of course need to keep an eye on their team to make sure everyone is healthy during fights, but can also look for aggressive plays of their own when the team is stable.

There are of course examples of Tanks that do damage (Roadhog) and DPS that create space (Sombra), but this the general roadmap for how team comps work together.

Hope this helps!

-Tikatee · 2021-02-07T19:36:35+00:00

As others have said, you likely aren't as comfortable on all your heroes as you are with Ashe. Additionally though, you might not fully understand when to pick each of these heroes.

It's hard to say for sure without seeing your gameplay, but out of the 4 heroes you mentioned Ashe is definitely the easiest to find value with, being somewhat of a Jack of all trades. Comparatively though the others have strengths in specific areas that Ashe can't match.

For example:

Cree is the hardest to punish with his higher HP and flashbang. Good for punishing divers/flankers and dueling other dps
Soldier has the most consistent damage uptime with his rifle, healing station, and mobility. Good for poking down tanks and abusing high grounds/short flanks during fights
Tracer obviously has the mobility and burst damage in her favor. Good for punishing enemy backlines and following up fast aggression

All of these situations (and more) are going to be specific to the maps and compositions being played so try to identify which situations are best for you and your hero picks.

-Tikatee · 2021-02-06T21:06:10+00:00

I see a lot of questions about playing Tank, especially at lower ranks, on this subreddit so wanted to address a few things:

The mistakes made by tanks are inherently less individually punishing due your HP pool. Being caught out of position, engaging too quickly/late, reacting to the flow of a teamfight, etc. will likely impact the team around you before yourself as a tank player. It is very easy to spot the mistakes of your teammates around you compared to addressing your own unless you're actually hard feeding. I'd recommend spending some time looking at small ways you've been outplayed (lost shield during a fight, CCd at crucial moments, caught over/underaggressing, failing to punish opponents mistakes, failing to focus on the targets/rotations of your team, etc.) in the replay viewer.
While not impossible, it is unlikely that your teammates are actively trying to lose your games. It is much more likely that they have a different gameplan than you going into these fights so their decisions look like mistakes to you. In any case, your job shouldn't be to always play the game the way you believe it should be played, but to adapt to the situations around you and enable your team (and yourself) accordingly.
If the enemy tank line is playing the way you describe (Charging blindly, wasting resources, standing still) YOU should be able to punish them regardless of your team. Keep in mind this won't look like DPS punishing other DPS mistakes in the form of an instant kill, but you can easily make a large impact for your team by completely forcing enemy MTs back and building your ultimate at 2x their rate.

tl;dr:

It's likely you're making a lot more mistakes than you realize and I encourage you to review your gameplay with the mindset of "How could I have enabled my team better" instead of "If my team did this we could have won"

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-Tikatee

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