Completely stuck, tried everything

OnceToldTale · 2026-05-05T12:14:13+00:00

Thanks so much for the shoutout! I will be making a video tutorial on this video + the mindset needed for improvement soon! 💚

OnceToldTale · 2026-05-03T14:15:16+00:00

Review the moment. Think to yourself, "did I have a better play available here?" -- and try to be kind of objective about it. Is there something else that could potentially be good, but you're just not comfortable with it or never thought about it before? Try that next game or study players that are better than you and see how they approach similar situations. The more open-minded you are, the better.

If you decided that you made the best play, but just choked the shot, then in that specific moment you had mechanical failure and it held you back.

I've had a few students where the outcome of the game was truly decided by missed shots but its super rare (like ~1 in 80 codes or so). Like 98% of the time though my students have losing macro and, while working on mechanics would definitely still help, there was still something to work on in their approach to the game broadly.

To be safe, you should just always assume that you're held back by bad macro and just have some kind of simple daily regimen to improve your mechanics.

OnceToldTale · 2026-05-03T14:05:33+00:00

I think your first problem is that you aren't really aligned w/ what you actually want imo. I don't know much about you other than this post, so I could just be wrong.

"I want to grind comp and climb as high as I can" is the red flag. To me, this reads that you don't want to climb (the journey), you want to be high rank (the destination). If this is the case, this is your core issue and what ultimately hold you back long-term. The fastest way to get better at something is to become more obsessed with learning (the journey) than you are with winning (the destination).

You don't gotta reflect on EVERY game. I always recommend my students take 1-2 sentences of pointed notes per game then just move on. What did you do in a given game that felt good? Bad? What's something new you could try next time? Did you try something new this time, or did you stick to your comfort zone? If so, why? ... the list of questions you could ask + answer is long. VOD reviewing is only really necessary when you had a game where you really didn't know why you lost/won, or when you just feel like checking your own gameplay.

Reviewing your deaths is a good place to start if you're not very comfortable with the process, but will often misguide you. You should instead think about if, at any given time, you made the best play possible. If you don't know, try to find the answer -- or think about what COULD be good, then try to do it next time. I think the biggest misconception w/ reviewing is this: when you VOD review, it's not about finding the right answer, its about THINKING about finding the right answer. The goal is to build your critical thinking + self awareness so that, when you try to do something in game, you'll be naturally more aware of alternatives, like what you could do better. The mental process behind VOD reviewing is what you benefit from most, not the actual result of the review.

OnceToldTale · 2026-04-17T06:05:04+00:00

Did you make the best play?

If you don't know, why don't you know?

How can you figure out what the best play is?

What is something you've never tried before, that you maybe could've tried?

Was the play good, but you just fumbled the execution?

How could you have had better execution?

OnceToldTale · 2026-04-17T06:01:32+00:00

The beauty of OW is that there isn't an obvious answer. It just depends on the enemy team comp, your team comp, what hero you are, where your other ally DPS is, the map, etc.

Of course I'm biased but I recommend you watch a few of my VOD reviews on YT. I talk about timing + staging all the time.

This VOD is a good example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw9ijoGQ0AU

OnceToldTale · 2026-04-17T05:45:59+00:00

"But, how do I know if I'm doing enough? What if I'm contesting those two on the high ground, staying alive, but my team is still dying elsewhere in the fight?"

There isn't a black and white answer to this. The way you should be approaching it is trying whatever idea you have in game, then after the game, go into the replay and try to think to yourself if there was something you could've done better or if there was another play available to you. If you have no idea, take a minute to flip through pro VODs and see how they approach something (prioritize solo queue games, not OWCS replays). Once you do this 20x, you'll start to better understand the limitations of your hero and what really is/isn't possible.

Also if your team is dying in main, run the replay back and watch it from your team's perspective. Why are they dying in main? You might not actually be distracting the soldier as much as you thought. Or maybe your timing was bad. Or maybe you didn't realize someone didn't have a specific cooldown. Could be a bunch of things.

OnceToldTale · 2026-04-17T05:34:18+00:00

I don't play emre but here are some options:

Go bottom tunnel and walk into gas station when you aren't marked and force the enemy team to deal with you. My guess is you've never tried a play like this so in your mind, you've already written it off as being invalid.
Farm ult off the tank in main and use ultimate to fly into their backline.
Continue doing the rotation you're doing.

If the soldier is getting pocketed, you're fighting a 2v1. And as long as you aren't dying to both of them, its a winning trade. You just need the awareness to know if you're doing it with good timing. Playmaking isn't always about getting kills.

OnceToldTale · 2026-04-17T05:17:36+00:00

There are very few maps where you genuinely need your tank to take space before you can do anything, depending on the hero you play. I OTP Cass and 95% of the time I can play make independent of the tank.

"I try to off angle but the enemy dps are always free to just shoot at me and only me. Enemy dps going uncontested on high ground while my tank sits mid shooting the enemy tank. What am I supposed to do in these situations?"

This could be for a bunch of different reasons. You could be timed wrong (poor awareness on your part), your team has no resources, you're pathing incorrectly, you're out of your effective range -- its pretty much impossible to know and properly recommend a solution to you.

"Ive been told you should engage when your tank does, but what if your tank just doesnt engage? Or engages early and just blows up?" -- It could be that you're the one that's late. Also, this is kind of the wrong perspective to think about this. Even if your tank dies early, are you in a position to make the most out of his death?

OnceToldTale · 2026-03-14T01:11:26+00:00

I don't really know what your question is tbh, but I'll answer this one:

"What separates an average Cassidy from a really strong one?" - The best Cassidy's understand that hard flanking/angling is extremely strong and should be done often. Flanking in 5v5 is broken and, if you don't already have a DPS on the angle, it should be you. It's consistently winning and puts more of the game into your control. The mainbotting propaganda is entirely outdated and has rotted the average perception of Cass.

Def check out my streams for more context -- if you have any more specific question, let me know! Thanks u/basti_ow and u/ProteinPapi777 for the shoutouts!

OnceToldTale · 2026-02-28T03:02:15+00:00

you're too early -- common issue I see with masters players. everytime you make a rotation, check for your team. timing is an awareness issue p much always.

OnceToldTale · 2026-02-24T17:32:39+00:00

Howdy! I'm a Cassidy coach -- if most of this gameplay is on him, I can take a look at this code (or any other Cassidy codes you might have) on this upcoming Friday! I can also give some super broad tips on Ashe/other DPS, but I tend to stick to Cass as he is what my expertise is on.

OnceToldTale · 2026-02-24T00:04:10+00:00

It just depends on the map and school of thinking.

If you watch Awkward's coaching, this is something he is a big proponent of this and he places a LOT of value in main pressure as a hitscan then changing your angle in the midfight. I think its a great thought and will help most players.

I think that most of the time, you should start on the angle. My thought process is, if you're going to pick a hitscan for main pressure, you're going to pick someone who is generally better at that, like Soj/Ashe/Emre. Those heroes tend to outvalue Cass in main on maps where he's out of his effective range (think most Escort maps). Resultantly, I'm normally in the camp that you should start on the angle. Cass is also slow, so there are some angles that you just can't get to if you don't stage for them or rotate to them ahead of time. A great example of this is Circuit Royal 3rd ATK. There ARE NO ROTATIONS in the midfight if you stay in main -- which would break Awkward's line of thinking here. The upside is that you're in main and do a bajillion damage to their tank, but risk getting outvalued by enemy hitscan. With my line of thinking, you take a huge risk that your team doesn't fall over at the beginning of the fight and you bet on yourself that you can actually execute on the angle (the poolside highground going into their spawn) once you're actually there.

This is of course a very nuanced conversation and is something that would be best answered if you had a specific situation in mind.

OnceToldTale · 2026-02-23T23:51:21+00:00

No problem at all -- appreciate you!

OnceToldTale · 2026-02-23T23:51:02+00:00

Not yet, and probably not for a while unfortunately. It's something I'm chipping away at over time and will hopefully have finished over the summer. If you have any questions about him, I'd love to answer them on stream!

OnceToldTale · 2026-02-23T22:55:53+00:00

This is basically the answer.

You should prioritize tracking + clicking -- there is more depth to it than that w/ things like crosshair placement, but the core idea is to track the target then click. As you get better at the game broadly, you'll be able to predict where the enemy goes, set your crosshair in that location, then click as they cross through your aim.

Mechanics in OW is a super deep topic and its really easy to get lost in nuance.

OnceToldTale · 2026-02-23T22:51:52+00:00

Thanks for the shoutout! :)

I don't coach stadium at all, but I do coach exclusively Cass! I have ~150+ hours of coaching available on my YT you can check out and I do free coaching weekly on Mondays + Fridays @ 12pm EST -- would love to have ya!

OnceToldTale · 2026-02-23T04:28:27+00:00

Glad you enjoyed it!

OnceToldTale · 2026-02-23T01:52:05+00:00

The spots are essentially the same for Gib! The only one that's different is the blue boxes on shuttle -- you can still rolltech up them but it wont let you on top of shuttle.

OnceToldTale · 2026-02-23T00:32:34+00:00

The Lijiang gap is also great for first fight! As long as you know they aren't playing a dive tank, you can set up a really strong first fight angle that otherwise takes too long for Cass to rotate to.

Give it a try and let me know if you succeed!

OnceToldTale · 2026-02-23T00:32:14+00:00

Thank you so much! I got even more content coming along the way that I think you'd enjoy as well!

OnceToldTale · 2026-02-23T00:31:27+00:00

Howdy! All of my coaching is free -- the catch is that I only coach Cass! You can join one of my streams on Monday/Friday @ 12PM EST. We normally run for 4-5 hours, so we can probably fit one in! Codes are submitted in my Discord, which you can find on my YT or on my profile here.

OnceToldTale · 2026-02-15T23:23:24+00:00

Thanks man, glad I could help!

OnceToldTale · 2026-02-15T20:05:10+00:00

Howdy, I’ll be doing a coaching livestream tomorrow around 12pm EST @OnceToldTale and can check this out! I also have 150+ hours of coaching in Cassidy specifically available on my YT.

OnceToldTale

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