Overwatch Ladder Climbing Tips for the Easily Tilted

Overwatch Ladder Climbing Tips for the Easily Tilted by toolbear

1. Mute

The moment you notice yourself arguing with a teammate, mute them and squelch their chat. Communication and coordination are key in increasing your chances of success. Muting a teammate seems counter intuitive, but once you’re devoting your energy to arguing you’re negating the benefits for yourself and your teammates by clogging up comms and devoting mental energy away from the game.

Save that debate for this subreddit and get back to focusing on the game.

2. Wait 3-5 minutes before queuing again

Win or lose, give yourself a moment to shed the emotions of the previous match. Also, if you had a one-sided victory or one-sided loss, waiting reduces the odds of you getting matched with the same players.

Open a loot box, check comments on a reddit thread, watch a few minutes of an Overwatch guide. Keep the energy of Overwatch going, but take a brief break.

3. Start each match with positive statements to your teammates

You know that teammate, the one who’s salty or tilted or simply frustrated from a string of losses? They’re a downer before the match even started, they might already be critical or skeptical or pessimistic about your chances. Don’t be that person.

Don’t fake enthusiasm, because that veneer will peel away the moment things get tough. But combined with taking a brief break between matches, use positive comments to train your brain to think of each match as a fresh opportunity to win.

4. Give your teammates the benefit of the doubt

You’ve been matched with them for a reason and that’s because they’re about as good as you are at this game (maybe a little better, maybe a little worse). If you think they’ve made a mistake or are playing badly, give them the same break you’d give yourself were you the one doing it. Will you berate yourself for the rest of the game, or will you think “it was just one mistake, I’m doing fine, I’ll just be more careful”? Most likely you’ll do the latter. Give your teammates the same treatment.

Note: this isn’t the same as “I’ll give you a chance to prove yourself, XXX main, but you better be good.” That’s the opposite sentiment (and is pretty egotistical to assume you’re the arbiter of team comp or who needs to switch off what).

5. Ask everyone to come to team voice, then drop the subject

My Ctrl-V is “Team voice chat, please, for coordination and success!”. I avoid harping on teammates if they don’t join. I’ll do a “^ FarmerBoy83” one time in case I think they missed it. For groups with some teammates outside of team voice, I’ll ask their friend to ask them to join. But after that, I drop the subject after saying, “Be aware that our Ana isn’t in team voice, so use emotes when you need healing” or something like that.

Again, communication and coordination are a big part of winning, but badgering a teammate can set your chances back by frustrating them or turning them into an easy scapegoat for the rest of your team (and potentially distracting your team from the real problem your team might be having).