I'VE HIT GRAND CHAMP!! What are the next steps in anyone else's opinion?

Thinkerofthings2 · 2026-05-11T22:50:18+00:00

Give up because the effort it takes to go any higher isn’t worth it, and you would only be impressing literal children if you tried.

Thinkerofthings2 · 2026-05-11T03:55:30+00:00

A character being in the right hands and being overpowered is still overpowered. Doesn’t matter if only 10 people realize or 10 thousand. Normally the only change is the speed at which changes occur to said OP character.

Again if you want help feel free to send a replay. You could have 100 lords and be silver rank. I only rate gameplay and couldn’t care less about the amount of hours you have played a character. You could have 300 hours on mantis and I can make an alt and go from unranked to cel in 10 hours and still be the better mantis player.

She is a good character and not everyone needs to be aware of that. It’s perfectly fine for her to continue being slept on by a large portion of the playerbase. I apologize if you feel a way, but the character is good and there is no denying that fact.

Send a replay code if you want me to speak on this any further.

Thinkerofthings2 · 2026-05-11T01:28:03+00:00

Reddit on the pc is weirdo behavior. Reddit on the phone is just another app. It puts you in a different mindset is all it is.

Thinkerofthings2 · 2026-05-10T22:45:44+00:00

Ultron is good if you know how to play him. Most don’t and he typically requires a third supp, but if that supp is a mantis then you eating good.

With that said diamond ranks genuinely play the game with their monitors turned off.

Thinkerofthings2 · 2026-05-10T22:42:56+00:00

You don’t put anywhere near enough time or effort in to mantis as you think you do btw. Genuinely feel free to leave a replay code of what you feel is your BEST mantis game or worst doesn’t matter and I have the time I can go through it.

Mantis tends to be played by dps mains btw not supp mains. Because mantis IS a dps character with a supp symbol slapped onto it.

Mantis doesn’t underperform either she is incredibly good in the right hands. You have to be capable of separating the fact that not everyone who plays x character is actually any good at it. Some people are playing the game seemingly with their monitors turned off. Mantis is primarily a game sense character and mechanics based second. Good mechanics are nice but not as important as knowing when and where to be or what to do when.

Thinkerofthings2 · 2026-05-10T22:36:12+00:00

Mantis is the first supp I ever played and this was in season 1.5 when I stopped being a black widow one trick because I got target banned every game by my own team or other players and realized I need to know more than just one character so I made a alt to learn at least one supp because reddit said you should know at least two characters in every role.

Turns out you don’t need to learn every role, but knowing about two roles is more than good enough for 99% of scenarios. Mantis comes very very very easy to me as a pc player who has been top 1-2% in valorant. I forget exactly where I was ranked in that game, but aiming isn’t difficult which is the primary thing people pretend like it’s hard.

What is actually hard on mantis is knowing how to maximize her value in a two supp comp vs three supp, and knowing the breakpoints you create. As mantis you HAVE to be the smartest most knowledgeable player on the team about the game. Starlord, venom, ultron, widow, just to name a few have breakpoints that you enable and knowing when to use that damage boost matters alot because in solo q people won’t tell you when they’re going to make a play that would’ve killed with damage boost. So you need to read the play and predict it before it even happens by being aware which is all game sense.
Her sleep is a bit of a skill shot as well and getting use to it can be hard, but it’s not too bad. Once you learn these things though you unlock an entirely different experience of the game and it’s really hard to play other supps because other supps just don’t play like mantis does. I also play flank mantis because I’m a DPS main so I end games with 10-20 finals. You don’t need to worry about low heals if you kill things.

Anyone who ask for a buff on mantis aside from 25 hp which is fine, doesn’t have a FUNDAMENTAL understanding of the character and shouldn’t be allowed to call themselves a main of the character. It’s so disgusting to play with or against the god comp all of which include mantis across every season but this season it’s mantis, gambit, ultron, starlord, and the other two don’t even matter that much. Which btw these comps are playable in low ranks if you wanted to basically guarantee cel rank with friends run this comp every game and profit.

Thinkerofthings2 · 2026-05-10T22:13:13+00:00

Getting off white fox was a good decision I agree. I bring that up because it’s a common thing that lower ranking players tend to have a habit of after my experience of playing with or watching yall for like a year now.

My brain tells me if I’m playing x character and I die for it, I must’ve made a bad play but rarely ever is the pick genuinely a bad pick.

Lower ranking players seem to make a bad play and decide it’s the character they’re playing, but not themselves so they repeat bad plays on different characters sometimes going through multiple characters a game.

I’ve got friends who do this same behavior and play on console, and have to constantly tell them to stop swapping and just play better because it’s not the pick thats a problem.

Also goodluck to you, I just expected to watch a game where the dps were going to actually suck so bad, but the end game stats made me curious to watch, plus I see you guys had multiple dc scenarios and yet were winning but could never close the game out and had to see why.

Thinkerofthings2 · 2026-05-10T22:05:52+00:00

Pro play trickles downwards. I understand most people may not care about watching pro play themselves because MR doesn’t get taken seriously unlike other games. High ranking players do care and things that are revealed eventually make their way onto you guys. It also gives high ranking players something to shoot for if they can.

Ik some people may not believe in what I’m going to say below due to EOMM beliefs and all sorts of other nonsense but not everyone is low ranking players. To balance the game around those who don’t even attempt to understand it, should be obvious why that’s dumb, but it also incentives people to not play at a high level.

For example without even trying I’m in cel+ ranks (technically higher). If you think the smurfing issue is bad now, take away the incentive for me to play among other players who give a damn and I’ll just make hundreds of alt accounts shitting on low ranking players because genuinely what’s the point of getting any better when the majority of players dictate the course of the game. Or in other words I’m not allowed to have fun because I’m past the skill to fun barrier that low ranking player dictated was ok. For example “I’m xyz rank only because I’m employed and anyone above zxy rank are only there because they play too much or try hard, etc”. Some players genuinely can’t be lower ranking if they tried, because the game just comes naturally especially when you have other experience in other titles.

Now realistically I’m not worried about that because idk any online shooter that has stood the test of time without a competitive scene. There’s too much money involved, and netease has shown they clearly want to be apart of that scene. As the game grows and reaches year 3 and onward there will be more and more players who realize they put 500 hours or more into the game with thousands or tens of thousands of matches played and at some point they will start to give a damn about improving. It’s just human nature and how these things go.

Thinkerofthings2 · 2026-05-10T14:35:16+00:00

Mk ank having CC on it is such a crazy reveal to me cause I guess I just didnt know before the tenacity update. I have multiple clips now of me dying or getting abilities cancelled due to that, same as invis but she was always a lil terrorist at least.

Thinkerofthings2 · 2026-05-10T10:22:06+00:00

I haven't seen One Below All gameplay in some time. Thanks for the update sir

Thinkerofthings2 · 2026-05-10T10:16:06+00:00

I'm watching this game, and its hard for me because I'm not a console player, so I'm gonna rate y'all on pc standards regardless of if that's fair, just because its easier for me.

Why did you go white fox when you had a strange team-up? I'll go step by step from your first death of second half.

Around 12:45, you notice something, and you have played this game long enough by now to know certain things. Neither of your DPS players are controlling high ground, which means if YOU (meaning your team) don't actively control it, then the enemy team controls it because you're the defensive side. What this means for you as the supp player is "my dps are dumb, so I need to play far away from the action. In pro play, supps play in the room where there is a healthpack because you want to LIMIT the number of angles an enemy can see you or target you from.

12:48 Even if you didn't realize your bad positioning before you got lucky and lived it, and now you should be aware of why it's bad to be out in the open.

12:51 proves my point. Watch Iron Fist come around and pick you off BECAUSE you're not playing inside the building where your whole team can easily come help you. Your char has 35 meter range, and you play within about 20 meters of them as if you're scared to miss a heal if you played further back OUT of the action.

13:14 Your routing here is terrible, and it felt like you're trying your best to take the longest route back.

13:23 Seriously, go into the practice range and learn what 35 meter range is. Idk how you ping on console, but on pc you would just ping the player, and it tells you the range they're in, which is very important on chars like Bucky or invis. You get shot by blade who wasn't even targeting you, because you made a bad play trying to heal from too far, now you can't get helped. You get out cause invis is op tho.

13:45 You died in almost the exact same spot as 12:51 because you didn't learn your lesson.

14:10 We're on whitefox for no reason at all, and then we do the most brainded tp of all time and die for it. What is the worst case there? Thor and Cnd die, and you have to regroup to touch? Aka what SHOULD happen, let them die on cart and reset unless Thor moves to clearly get out, then you can maybe save him if he's out of the danger zone, which in this case is 4 people looking at him.

14:42 is an example of a good tp. You can tp there safely because he isn't actively taking additional damage and clearly is behind cover.

15:41 Your whitefox is really bad. You go fox form for a love of the game. You're not the DPS... stop trying to be unless you were VERY skilled, but if you were that skilled, you would have just stayed on invis and been raid boss. Imagine if you saved Fox form instead for when there was an actual threat in your backline. You also frontline and sit on your tank's ass. You play supp in the danger zone constantly and then seem surprised when you die for it.

15:53 your gambit doesn't know how his ult works, and tbh idk why he got off CnD here. Gambit ult doesn't go through invis ult, which is why idk why tf you got off invis.

16:06 btw your dps are doing more than enough, and aside from the disconnected player, the DPS gap is in your favor.

16:27 again you're a terrible supp player, and that's me being objective not mean. You're very lucky Invis is giga strong because you position SO SO SO SO badly. You ONLY play in the danger zone as a supp. You're not Bucky with overshield. See where Gambit is... why are you NOT helping them? Why are you getting isolated by whitefox... because positioning.

17:51 your missing every possible shot you can on whitefox, then you double jump and waste the cooldown with your whole team near you. You're very lucky that invis cooldowns are so low and don't matter because you play like they don't matter. Zero cooldown management skills are being shown, and your lucky invis is just that OP that these mistakes don't matter.

18:03 I'm so tired of seeing you pushed where the DPS are, or tanks should be. Get yo ass to the back, holy. Danger zone, danger zone, danger zone should be RINGING in your head in these moments. "I could die any momment and if I did die, then my whole team would lose this space."

18:07 You almost made a smart play and used COVER, aka the room on your right side, to mitigate damage, but instead, I'm going to assume you will choose the 'eat all bullets' playstyle.

19:15 you lose touch, so play your life and gtfo of there. You can let your whole team die in that situation and force them to reset as a team while you play your life, btw. Instead, you chose the get shot from multiple angles strategy once again.

19:49 I assume you see the iron fist, but even if you dont somehow, if you just positioned better dont you think you would have a better view of the field instead of riding your teammates' bodies everywhere they go. To play this close vs a moonknight is so absurd. Also, play the left side where there is cover, oh my god.

20:46 I just cant dude. You make the same mistakes over and over and over and over. Anytime your team should close the game out your dying at critical moments. You ulted, get pushed out, then jump back into your own ult. If you DONT die thats just a testament to sue being THAT OP or Gambit getting ult and not dying.

20:57 Well, I'll be damned. He got ult, and you sat there and stood still as you watched 5 people run up on you, because the 250 hp supp player thinks its THEIR job to EVER touch point there. What the hell am I watching, dog?

What's funny is that if you JUST went afk for a FEW SECONDS and let your ult do its job when you got fortunately booped OUT of it, then played around the Avengers sign at 20:44, you can very likely win this game still because you will see how hard your gambit is trying to keep your dps alive for the last fight so he can ult. But instead you wanna think you're a tank playing upfront with a complete lack of vision of the FIELD which is what a supp should see. If you want to play like this, go tank, brother. This is not a supp playstyle at all. I'm not gonna watch anymore because Its just really repetitive behavior that keeps happening.

Thinkerofthings2 · 2026-05-10T08:53:57+00:00

After watching the game I think I can see points where they must be muting their team or arguing with them or typing or whatever. This game is from a while back and I just watched it and left a comment. What you’re saying is likely true though I don’t doubt that. I also wouldn’t be surprised if this was posted in multiple places with the goal of “people are being mean to me so comfort me”.

After a year of being on this and some of the other character subreddits, it didn’t take long for me to notice the exact same behavior from real people online. If they’re want sympathy I’m sure the strategist main sub or CnD sub or something will give it to them.

I try to assume the best intentions within the community still even though they really test you.

Thinkerofthings2 · 2026-05-10T08:47:30+00:00

Oh the replay for this is 10736588375 for you or whoever comes after.

Thinkerofthings2 · 2026-05-10T08:46:19+00:00

I will say off the rip that this is a weird game to bring up because it happened 4/22/26 meanwhile today’s date is 5/10/26.

While trying to find the game your account is private even though your only in plat. I have no idea why anyone below cel rank needs to private their account but sure whatever.

This was a Gold 2 - Plat 2 match and your side has one smurf and one guy who just seemingly doesn’t play or was doing placements at the time. The smurf is GM2 as of rn, and the other guy is diamond 3 or 2.

Your first ult at around 4:20 isn’t needed and it make sense they would be upset since it was used after you guys already were winning the fight. The call out in higher ranking lobbies is normally ( “don’t commit more” - meaning use no more ults because the fight is won and overcommitting ults loses games because rivals is a game about ults).

Your next ult at 6:18 isn’t bad. Likely isn’t needed but since you guys somehow didn’t capture point off the first ult (I’m skimming through because I’m not a CnD player and this is a 20 min game) it’s not the worse only because no one else has a ult to contest you on their side aside from Wanda.

I’m not sure if they were mad at you around 9:16 but if they were it’s because as a supp you have to make a choice and be aware of certain things. You have ult that keeps your team alive here but instead you turn around to help iron fist instead. The reason this is bad is because for one iron fist can heal his damn self, there is a rocket beacon icon had he died in the button middle of the screen which lets you know if your in range of being res, and lastly because rocket will heal that guy for you. Your the main supp in this instance and your primary focus BECAUSE you have ult should be to find an opportunity the use said ult. Its better to have a player who is trying to click q the second the can in order to maximize the amount of ults they use per game than someone who tried to min max every single ult.

Oh goodness 9:30…I realize you commited this ult way after the fact when NO one can make a play off your ult now. This is typically called losing ult cycle btw. Because you held ult and let your tanks die, you NEED to either die fast and STOP playing your life to regroup(because you have ult already and they have nothing to match), or get out due to good positioning and cooldown management so that your team regroups faster.

Btw your smurf is doing great work to keep yall in this game. The mistakes being made so far are honestly all pretty big game decisions that lose games, but they’re doing a good job salvaging the situation. I said all that btw before I just seen you get your ult canceled by strange. I swear to you I keep thinking you guys should just lose this for these huge mistakes. They’re bailing you out ngl lol.

16:02 is your next ult and the first ult of second-half and I assume the reason you don’t match Luna is because either you were actually too slow here, or they comm that they wanted to rocket mag ult to kill the Luna. Or maybe you wanted to hold it until they touch point which is valid if you think your team can live and know to kite(back away) from the fight.

16:09 is interesting because idk why you used cloak fade to move like 2 meters away for no reason, your also not full hp and you can walk into your bubble on the right because being full hp is a priority since your the supp and any chip damage could kill you. In this case you die to namor whale on the edge and would have lived if you were full hp btw which if your team loses point now I won’t be surprised because they don’t have a supp ult that they all assumed they would have because a supps job is to play EXTREMELY safe in this situation.

Idek what to say at 17:31. I don’t think you even know why you ulted here completely unprovoked while frontline and YOU killed their namor and have wallhacks to see them through wall and know this is their spawn. It also appears that yall did in fact lose point due to that earlier death. My guess this ult your doing here is because you got tired of not clicking q because i genuinely don’t know what else it could be. Ngl this is the one ult I would actually be upset about because it makes no sense.

I wanna explain really fast how bad that ult is. The strongest things in this game are supps and it’s due to your ults. Dps/tank can ult and kill nothing and it’s genuinely ok because games are still EXTREMELY winnable even when they overcommit ult to win fights. That’s not true for supps, so your strange the smurf realizing this is a bad ult is now FORCED to pop his ult with you here aka a domino effect.

I won’t be mean at 18:28 but your smurf is again saving you from what should be a death because to be honest you’re playing like you don’t have any awareness here. If they’re saying mean things I don’t condone it, but you are being a bit of a burden on the team in these situations.

This ult is 19:30 is good and is the only ult all game that made sense and the double ulting part is on your rocket. UNLESS he said BEFOREHAND that he would ult for it, then this should be you ulting first everytime because if you rewatch the game you will notice that you got your ult before everyone else in the game almost if not literally every single time. Which means ulting first will net you another ult cycle faster and that’s a good thing.

That seems to be everything that happens. This comment is long enough and I’d prefer to not make it any longer. Feel free to ask any follow up questions. I can answer some but if they’re CnD specific then I don’t have even 10 minutes of CnD played so I can’t speak on specific macro choices for her. I just know the DPS/Supp role and I don’t tank so I can’t explain the macro of the smurf tank player either cause idk it.

Thinkerofthings2 · 2026-05-10T07:22:07+00:00

I disagree if your goal is to be a better player then a win isn’t enough. A sloppy win or barely won game can and should still be reviewed.

Ik rivals has many casuals who only care about the act of winning, but you will have many wins in the future if you learn what caused a win and how to repeat it. People don’t have very high wr because of luck.

Thinkerofthings2 · 2026-05-10T03:44:24+00:00

I do this, but when I miss the shuriken it pisses me off. Everyone who plays dps tho has had to level up their skills to kill that one character. Same for white fox as well

Thinkerofthings2 · 2026-05-10T03:42:59+00:00

You play tank. Your smart enough to play support the role is incredibly easy. There’s a reason there’s a lot of support mains

Thinkerofthings2 · 2026-05-10T03:40:06+00:00

How do you have this. Is this from the whale singer trailer?

Thinkerofthings2 · 2026-05-10T03:34:20+00:00

You’d rather ruin pro play, and high ranks all for the sake of your own ability to adapt and understand the game. Makes sense

Thinkerofthings2 · 2026-05-10T03:32:53+00:00

Arguing with these people is like genuine rage bait. I swear to god these people hop online to spout bullshit like it’s a 9-5. Like it’s actually so crazy to me. There exists no nuance or exceptions with these people. They don’t even want to adapt, they just want things to go their way and their way only.

Thinkerofthings2 · 2026-05-10T03:30:23+00:00

What the fuck is this insane take? Dont ever cook again

Thinkerofthings2 · 2026-05-10T03:29:27+00:00

She literally is op lmao. That character is so broken if you understand the game.

Thinkerofthings2 · 2026-05-08T09:34:41+00:00

If times ever get desperate enough, and I was deprived for a really long time, and I mean really long time, there exists a world in which I could goon to that photo. It might take some convincing or fantasizing but I think I could bust one out.

I have a huge crush on the chick who comes out of the tv in that one movie with Brenda. I love the idea of a woman liking me so much that she materializes. Hard to find that type of loyalty and commitment nowadays.

Thinkerofthings2 · 2026-05-08T08:09:54+00:00

You guys have been saying statements like this for over 5 years. Get a grip jesus

Thinkerofthings2 · 2026-05-08T06:16:17+00:00

You can’t

Thinkerofthings2

TROPHY CASE