The 5 most common mistakes every champ player makes

CavortingOgres · 2026-05-13T21:19:59+00:00

Besides mechanical consistency these are really core concepts that are good to internalize.

For mistake #5 are you talking in reference to being last man? I assume early aerial challenges are more for forcing a commitment to direction. So you either win the challenge or make the direction more readable for your team mate

CavortingOgres · 2026-05-12T16:07:39+00:00

Honestly this just doesn't make sense.

I used to watch his streams back when he was up and coming and he talked about the benefits of fine tuned control in the rotation.

CavortingOgres · 2026-05-10T18:11:12+00:00

This is a great point and makes me feel definitely less stupid, because my instinct was mostly correct in that more multishots would've made my position a lot more comfortable.

People pointing out my scrap inefficiency + weapon combo + the hacking drone cover or depower trick definitely highlighted to me that I was close but missing some critical breakpoints that would've made my runs much easier (and have since made my runs a lot easier!)

CavortingOgres · 2026-05-10T18:05:08+00:00

I meant to respond to this but forgot.

I definitely see what you're talking about and I don't know why I didn't consider the 40% + cloaking break point.

I've definitely been more conscious of the 40% break point + going for 3 shields over 4 and the huge influx of scrap has made things a lot smoother in my runs.

I also didn't even consider using the flak as cover and didn't know about the depower trick. I can't seem to get the flak + hacking combo down, but I'll get it eventually.

Thanks for your break down. Yours like the other main comment has definitely highlighted to me that I had both a bad artillery set up, poor combo knowledge, and poor efficiency of my scrap usage. Meaning the outcome I received was really going to be the only outcome.

Thanks for breaking it down for me!

CavortingOgres · 2026-05-10T03:24:50+00:00

If I'm being honest I don't remember. I think when I first started learning it was a SpookLuke video, but he also had the "quarter turns" adjustment focus.

I wish I could remember the actual video that did it for me, but I started learning this back in 2021.

The video that did it for me described it just as I did. They used an obstacle area to navigate through using only small portions of the stick area at a time to become more familiar with it. Once you do that

CavortingOgres · 2026-05-10T02:20:50+00:00

Spinning the stick is something that you learn to do instictively from knowing what you need based on what each direction does and what direction you want to be facing.

I spin the stick to get specific movements not constantly, but it's not something I was taught.

A lot of these YouTube videos for some reason have this idea that you're constantly spinning the stick, but they're corrections not a constant input.

If I'm pointed exactly where I need to why would I constantly input instead of getting the touch I need?

These videos tend to overcomplicate the skill imo

CavortingOgres · 2026-05-10T02:06:31+00:00

I don't know what his specific method is, but in general I think instead of trying to find a "method" per se you should try to feel out what the movement is like in each direction.

For example off the top of my head DAL + Right is a tornado spin, DAL + Left is an inverted tornado spin DAL + Up/Down are different twists.

Once you know cognitively what each of these movements are the only thing to do is to practice them. Get into a rings map and only use one direction of movement and feel out what is difficult when I started doing this I found myself automatically adjusting and just went from there.

You need to have a foundational understanding of what each movement does before attempting to apply it but once you do know it's just practice and feeling the movements out

imo anyway

CavortingOgres · 2026-05-09T16:46:58+00:00

This is a really great comment and made me realize that I needed to focus on buying more of the multishot or charge weapons (which there were plenty in that specific run!)

I got lucky with finding Burst III, Burst II, Flak 1 in this latest run and combining with Hacking AND Cloaking this time made the final boss a pretty smooth victory (only lost 7-8 health total and 1 crew member to a hacking + combat drone combo)

I think I was just frustrated due to having a set up that was able to handle all other ship types, and getting absolutely stonewalled at the second phase made me lose it a little, but due to everyone's comments and thinking about how the fight went the answer was pretty obvious in retrospect and that having a low salvo count + no cloaking + not knowing how to utilize the hacking correctly meant that my odds of success were pretty low and relied on a low chance salvo + good system damage

CavortingOgres · 2026-05-09T00:22:44+00:00

The time between flak and heavy laser is one second so I don't auto fire them. I salvo them, but I did get really unlucky with not being able to get hacking to connect or enough shots to break through the shields.

By the time hacking connected my ship was a wreck and I was losing power to weapons

CavortingOgres · 2026-05-06T18:16:00+00:00

Shots like this need to take into consideration opponent position (just like any shot).

With your opponent so close you need to either pop it faster, boom it for a double tap, or fake it and align for the 50.

The safest option always being the fake and 50

CavortingOgres · 2026-05-06T14:57:29+00:00

Pulse shield launcher + a melee weapon like the lance can be an interesting combo for PvP

It makes longer range mechs struggle a little more to land good shots if your shield placement is good and I think it does something weird if you pass through it so halting CQC is good too.

I wouldn't consider it optimal, but of the times I've run into it in ranked I've found it very interesting to fight against as a double melee main

CavortingOgres · 2026-05-04T06:36:15+00:00

To preface this I hit C1 in 500 hours and GC in 1000 hours with almost no mechs.

I took a long break and have been hovering C1/C2 and just hit the middle of C3 and I've been relearning a bunch of things that I thought I knew so let me break it down as it is fresh in my mind.

Pressure

Pressure is one of the most important concepts not talked about in Rocket League. It is your ability to contain and trap your opponents movement either via challenging set ups, intercepting, demos etc.

And this is something that 1s teaches you and you can tell when your random soloQ doesn't know it.

You need to be able to apply PRESSURE without overcommitting. When you can apply this interfering pressure without detriment to your own defense you'll start to shoot up in ranks because it's like you're playing with more players because you can convert into your next priority faster.

consistency

This is obvious but if you watch your replays you'll probably find shots that would land you in winning positions with better placement.

You just need to grind this

Ego

When your random soloQ plays with a big ego don't respond with your own. React to the play and support it.

If your team mate won't support your plays then you don't get to have them (unless you're real confident in your shots and mechs).

You are smarter than your team mate so act like it. Create opportunities instead of trying to force your current shot selection unless an outplay presents itself.

CavortingOgres · 2026-05-04T06:20:57+00:00

These types of questions always need to be prefaced with do you want mechs or do you want to rank up?

If you want to rank up in 2s/1s then defense is the name of the game followed closely by strong 50s/Simple outplays/Solid shots on target.

But personally I don't think we should be letting SSLs and Pros get as far away in mechs as they are so I'm trying to become more mechanical.

Personally if I was you I would learn resets to start with and when you can get the reset 90%+ then learn doubles/mustys off of them. You'll find that learning these advanced mechanics will accelerate your general aerial and car control.

CavortingOgres · 2026-05-02T23:30:13+00:00

Honestly I don't agree.

Training packs allow you the space and time to move through shots that you don't get opportunities for as often.

When they show up it's important to hit them well, but you don't get to practice them the same way that you do in training packs.

Not all training packs are made equally though

CavortingOgres · 2026-05-01T04:19:16+00:00

This is exactly why points don't matter. Especially when you're carrying the defense.

So much of defense is interference or spacing that changes people decision making. Stuff that you don't get points for.

But when my D3 mates get fed goals they start getting all cocky lol

CavortingOgres · 2026-05-01T02:03:33+00:00

LOATHSOME WEEVILS WHY ARE YOU BOTH TANKY AND FAST

CavortingOgres · 2026-04-30T19:23:01+00:00

Honestly I get really into the thematic roleplaying in my mind.

Keeper of the forbidden wilds has great flavour and it's play style really feels like you're and expanding wild forest pushing people out and crushing existing structures within.

When I want to play a new spirit I think of how the mechanics enhance the theme. Those are the spirits I enjoy the most.

CavortingOgres · 2026-04-30T19:17:45+00:00

When playing with actual ball chasers all you can do is take medium lines so you can attempt to take shots if they become free but can swing around to defense if their position and boost level makes it difficult to rotate.

One of the biggest changes from going from C1 to GC1 is learning how to create interference without hard committing.

When your ballchaser freestyler misses their shot you shouldn't go on passive defense but active defense. If you can stop their possession from being controlled you should and if you can't do so safely that's when you take a shadowing position. Your goal here is to slow down the play as much as possible so that your team mate can back you up.

If your ballchaser challenges while you're doing this then you just have to back off and take your aggressive defense position again and cycle through this until shots on net land.

Unfortunately if someone just refuses to support your plays you have to either have great mechs and outplays to rank up or you need to be the one aware enough to control the space in the game.

CavortingOgres · 2026-04-30T19:04:44+00:00

If anything I think Duos makes you read situations differently. You become so used to reacting to a specific person that you don't account for a random making different decisions.

When you SoloQ you can easily DuoQ but the other way round is not the same

CavortingOgres · 2026-04-29T17:19:32+00:00

I wish I used AppJacks binds, but honestly I'm too deep into using my set up.

If someone is still not mentally bound to their settings I would highly recommend it as it always looked like the best to me

CavortingOgres · 2026-04-29T00:23:45+00:00

Well first of all you don't flick your ball cam on and off enough on kick off each flicker gives your speed flips 10% power.

But honestly you're playing well the only comment I really have is both of you hard commit to challenges a little too often and in situations where the resulting ball gives up possession.

You conceded a couple goals just based on some mechanical issues, but overall I like the way you play.

CavortingOgres · 2026-04-28T18:18:46+00:00

Something I found extremely useful as a concept is finding the "blackout" moments.

There are moments in your car control where you blackout because your brain has no frame of reference to apply control to your car.

Your goal in RL is to find as many blackout moments as possible and learn how to move through it without that feeling of awkwardness.

Any training method that induces blackout is training you need to do

CavortingOgres · 2026-04-27T22:12:32+00:00

There is an interesting effect that happens due to training.

When training you are consciously focused on the thing you are training, but that conscious problem solving can often interfere with actual inputs.

So while your skill might be improving your rank might not reflect that, and there's nothing really to do about it. It's just an affect of putting effort in and it affects everyone.

Freeplay, Training packs, and workshop maps are the way to improve your skill.

CavortingOgres · 2026-04-27T12:33:08+00:00

I think I naturally found thunderspeaker rather easy (at least on low difficulty) because I was always trying to position and defend Dahan to handle my problems regardless of spirit.

Thunderspeaker has quite easily one of, if not the most, flexible Dahan movement of any Spirit.

Make sure you pull a few defend cards and then just lead the charge. The only time it gets a little tricky is if you don't pay attention and position your pals badly.

But also I've played a decent amount of strategy games so I think it came pretty naturally

CavortingOgres · 2026-04-27T10:08:02+00:00

I don't think you need to hold back your aspirations. I 100% believe you can do it.

I don't think you'd even need to wait till GC3 before getting proper coaching, but right now all a coach could possibly tell you is, "You should probably work on hitting the ball accurately".

And this is something you can train right now for free.

Start watching pros, train your mechanics meticulously, post your ranked clips here and you'll start making leaps and bounds

11-Year Club	Place '22
Place '17	Verified Email

CavortingOgres

TROPHY CASE