[Guide] Road To a Better/Professional Player

[Eric.Xie 81]

Introduction

Since you clicked on this guide, you very likely want to improve your game play or climb up the ladder. That is exactly what i will try to help you with. Well, who am I to teach you this, you might ask? I'm Eric.Xie, I've been playing this game since 2010. I will not teach you how to play the game, I will teach you how to improve youself. So what can you expect, and not expect, from this guide.

[+] Getting rid of your ego                                   [-] Specific in-game tactics
[+] Being realistic                                              [-] Mechanical guidance
[+] Focusing on the game                                   [-] In-dept details of itemization
[+] Creating a game plan and executing it
[+] Avoiding tilt and losing streaks
[+] Learning from your mistakes


Getting rid of your ego


Ego? What ego?


The first step to becoming a better player, is losing your ego. Now, what exactly is an ego?

"Egotism is the drive to maintain and enhance views of oneself, and generally features an inflated opinion of one's personal features and importance. It often includes intellectual, physical, social and other overestimation's."

Having a ego means you have a favorable view of yourself. It makes you overestimate yourself. It makes you think you can carry the game all alone to victory, but trust me on this one, you can't.



You make mistakes constantly


Everytime you do something sub optimal, you make a mistake. You have to realize that, because the only way to improve, is learning from these mistakes. Be hard on yourself, it's the best way to get better. You might be bad because you play at that level. I'm not saying this to bash on you, i'm saying this because it's the truth, and the first step to becoming better is facing the reality.



What could i have done better ?


This is the question you should constantly ask yourself, what the answer is, is for you to figure out. Make sure you always look at yourself. What could you have done better?

Don't blame your teammates, it makes you ignore your own mistakes. You might have something in mind that sounds like a better idea, but you have to follow whatever your team is doing. It's better to commit to a 'stupid idea' as a 5 man team, than to let them do it as 4 people.




TIME

I'm going to keep this chapter short, but i just want to point out that you're not going to become a professional level player by tomorrow. It takes a lot of experience, and therefore a lot of games played, so a lot of time, to get better. The game has so many aspects and has a high skill-cap, that it takes years for players to become professional. If it were easy and everyone could perform at the same level, there wouldn't be a pro scene.

Other aspects to consider
There will be better players than you at this moment of time. Watch THEM ! Best way to improve is to watch players playing who are better than you because they're doing something different for sure that made 'em different and better than you. Ask yourself 'why did he do this?'.




Tryharding


This may seem very obvious, but you have to try to win if you want to climb for the top. There's more to it than just trying your best. You have to keep a balance between trying and keeping you cool, you don't want to have a mental breakdown when you lose game. It's a game after all. Allow me to demonstrate some of my tryhard techniques.

Out of the game


1) Put your Skype to DND, Facebook notifications off ( or just close it )
2) If you listen to music while playing, put on your playlist before the game starts
3) If you're rolling with friends and are planning on using Skype/TS/..., start the call before the game starts

Make sure you're not getting disturbed while you're in-game. You don't want your Skype to pop up when you are busy capturing the flag.Not only will you lose the flag, it will tilt you because you'll be inflamed. This can cause you to lose the game.



In-game


Don't troll or underestimate the enemy team when your team is up 3 flags or 30 kills. I have made this mistake in the past, and it hurts so much to lose a game when you're on the verge of capturing the last flag, but something goes wrong and you lose the match.
Another example of this is getting bored during a game. Your team is 3-4 flags or well a lot of kills, and then you decide to do something stupid because of which you die. Your team follows up on your stupid decision, and well they die too and suddenly the game is even again. Don't give the enemy team a chance to come back, play the game by the rules and don't take unnecessary risks.





Join a clan/team

The more you play with others, the more you will learn. Join a clan/team. Join their sync's because the more experience you get playing against good opponents, the better you will get.


Creating a gameplay with your buddies




Alright, so you've decided to join a clan/team. Now, what are you doing to do? You can play defence, support or well you can be the one who rushes for enemy flag. You want to think what you're going to do before you execute it. Each and every position has its own importance and cannot be neglected. Discuss the position you're going to play with your clan/team. Don't just do things and pray they will work.




Tilt and Rage


What is tilt?


"When you're so inflamed from losing multiple games that you play worse and worse until you begin leaning over your keyboard screaming over every little mistake you make and complaining bout the game imbalances."
- Urban Dictionary

Everyone treats games differently and therefore reacts differently. But I'm convinced everyone has titled in the past. Some people will scream in front of their monitor, which please, don't do this if you're on Skype with me. Others will seem calm, but still play worse because they're upset. I belong to the second group.

Tilt is inevitable, and you'll have to accept that. Sometimes the worst stuff happens, that's how games - and even life works. Rage and tilt go along very well, so whichever tips i will give work for both stopping the tilt and stop getting mad.



Don't Rage at others





There's no reason to wish people cancer just because you're having a bad game. No discussion. Even if you don't actually mean it, just saying it is a bad thing to do. You wouldn't call someone waste of life if you were losing in a game of monopoly, right? Then why do it online?
Because you can't actually see or hear the person? That's a very poor excuse.

You're playing with 7 other human beings, some are more skilled than others, and some are having a better game than others. Accept the fact that not everyone is on the same page.
This fits perfectly with the first chapter of this guide: lose your ego, accept the fact that you made a mistake.

It's just a game


This is going to be my first tip : accept the fact Tanki Online is just a game. Yes, you're trying hard to climb the top and become professional, and of course you care about winning. It's only a game, don't pretend like it's the end of your life. You're probably going to wake up tomorrow morning, go to school/work and have completely forgotten about the game.

Take a break


Probably one of the best decisions you can make when you're tilted. Don't keep on playing until you've actually 'reset' yourself. If you're going to play another game, you're probably going to try and overcompensate with the though "Well i just lost this TO match, but I'm better at this game, so I will dominate in this!". You'll probably play too aggressive in that game, because you're trying to make up for the game you lost in TO, and end up tilting even more. My advice : don't play any games. Go for a walk outside, watch an episode of a series or well anything other than playing a game.


Forget time


I can hear you thinking, "What do you mean forget time? You're one vague human being!".
Well thanks. Anyways.
One of the reasons you're probably getting upset, is because you really wanted to win the series or well a clan war, and you failed at that. Play to learn, not to win. Every loss should feel like a knowledge win, yes you've made a mistake, but you learnt from it and won't make the same mistake again. This means you will play better in future games, which means you will eventually win your battles.

A loss where you've learnt something is better than a win where you've learnt nothing. The knowledge you gained from that loss is probably lead to multiple wins, which means that in the long run, you'll have more total games won.



Dealing with Flamers




First of all: don't be one.
If someone does flame you or someone on your team, think about the fact that they do it because they made a mistake. Their ego is too big to admit that, and so they try to find someone else to blame.


Never react to flame by flaming


This makes things way worse. A flamer flames someone, then that person reacts to it by flaming the flamer, then he responds with flame of course, and you can already see this never ends. There are only two good ways to reach to flame, which actually come down to the same thing :

* Ignore what the person says
* Mute the person

You might be thinking "Why would you not tell him to stop flaming and just play?". Most people that flame are too caught up and already led by their emotions, that telling them to stop, will make them angrier.


Being a positive player


So I told you not to be a flamer, which is very important. This stops you from losing won games. Now, how do you make sure you win?
Be nice to your teammates. It's always good to end a match with - ggwp than calling the other team "noob" just because they lost.


Final Notes
Wow, that was a lot of info.

I agree, it's a lot to learn. You won't just magically climb after reading this. Try to remember the important things, and apply what you've read.


Thank You

Thank you for reading my guide! If you have any comments/suggestions/questions, please do leave them! I will read and reply to every question asked asap.

Edited December 8, 2016 by Eric.Xie

[Maf 32,300]

Moved from Game Discussion

[r_I_already_won0 2,339]

Moved from Game Discussion

That's such a loophole. Just write an article in "game Discussion" and Avoid the process of getting your article approved.  :P  :lol:

[Maf 32,300]

That's such a loophole. Just write an article in "game Discussion" and Avoid the process of getting your article approved.  :P  :lol:

It's not. We never move topics here by our own decision. I approved this with reporters first.

Edited December 7, 2016 by Yisroel.Rabin
Finally, Maf posts in newspaper section so I could edit his post.

[r_I_already_won0 2,339]

It's not. We never move topics here by our own decision. I approved this with reporters first.

Nice to know. :)

[Ninja 10,468]

Great move, will read later!

[Blackdrakon30 2,943]

Decent. I will say that the formatting is pretty nice, despite all the bright white text being a bit hard on the eyes.

[VaudeVille 1,428]

Nicely done! It would be nice to see players actually putting this into practice.

[Phoenix.Rising 2,519]

I personally think there will be less raging if people had played FAIRLY.

[Eric.Xie 81]

I personally think there will be less raging if people had played FAIRLY.

Would ya mind telling what you mean by "FAIRLY" 

Edited December 7, 2016 by Eric.Xie

[Jwimmer 2,835]

 

Being a positive player 

So I told you not to be a flamer, which is very important. This stops you from losing won games. Now, how do you make sure you win? 

Be nice to your teammates. It's always to end a match with - ggwp than getting out several reasons because of which you lost or well calling the other team "noob" just because they lost. 

Very nice point here. I was in a game on my alt a few weeks ago, and someone on the enemy team said "gg noobs, thanks for the win". Made me think... apparently he forgot the meaning of "gg". Nice article. The little blue-green accents between headers and paragraphs looks very nice, and its well-thought out. The wording was a bit off in some places, but not so bad that I could not understand.

 

 

bry, this one is "best of AWC" worthy, imo.

[yonatanthesuper 314]

That's such a loophole. Just write an article in "game Discussion" and Avoid the process of getting your article approved.  :P  :lol:

Its better to know that a moderator accepted your topic than just posting it randomly without anybody viewing first,(my opinion).

[Viking4s 10,791]

Really nice article that stand out of the usual, very practical and definitively based on experience.

A lot of good tips and some out of the ordinary, that i will surely try.

 

Hopefully, we don't make mistake constantly. We make decision based on the information available and we do the best we can at the time when under pressure (it's a fast pace game). The main point here is to learn from those mistakes.

Training will help to get automatism, help keep focus under pressure and take better decision. 

 

Join a clan/team paragraph is a little bit short, i'm sure there is more to say (learn to be team member , learn to support each other, ...).

Edited December 15, 2016 by Viking4s