Rocket League Skills Needed To Rank Up To Gold

Rocket League Skills Needed To Rank Up To Gold by surfinbirdin

Preface

I just wanted to do a quick summary of important points and key mechanics for players in lower ranks to provide a basis and to help try and correct a few things that I’ve seen a lot that cause to get scored on/not score/lose games. Of course, the stuff I’ve suggested for Bronze players applies to Silver and Gold players etc. I’ve tried to include some sources from YouTube as well as training sequences where applicable to try and illustrate what I’m talking about or to provide a starting point for practising the mechanics mentioned. If there’s any better tutorials or whatever around for the stuff I’ve posted, let me know and I’ll chuck them up.

Rocket League, while a simple concept, is a complicated game with a pretty intricate meta that continues to grow and change. This makes it basically impossible to give a complete list of things you need to learn so this is just a general starting point for things to work on. Hope it helps!

Also note that I am not a high ranked or pro player. A lot of this stuff comes from faults in my own game as well as reoccurring mistakes I see being made. So, don’t feel like I’m saying I do all this stuff better than everyone and am a literal god. It’s a lot easier to critique and say you made the wrong decision in hindsight outside the pressure of a game situation.

General

Cars

‘What is the best car?’ is something that gets asked all the time on forums, reddit, YouTube comments etc. I guess the reason it gets asked so much is because there is no concrete answer. There is no car that is objectively better than the others, they’re just different.

A good starting point is the Octane, Dominus, Batmobile and Breakout. These are the most used cars (particularly Octane) and will let you find out what you like and experiment further. Just give each one a try and see what’s most comfortable and feels best for you.

Video Settings

TURN CAMERA SHAKE OFF FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT’S HOLY YOU WILL REALISE THE CANCER OF THE WORLD OF ROCKET LEAGUE THAT IT IS AND CRINGE WHEN YOU SEE IT THE WAY THAT EVERYONE ELSE DOES AS SOON AS YOU TURN IT OFF

Okay, now that’s out of the way, it can help to eliminate distractions and generally make it easier to see what’s going on around the field by turning off, depth of field, light shafts, bloom, and weather effects.

Camera Settings

The default camera settings are kinda bad and disconcerting a lot of the time, particularly when you’re on the walls or the ball is high in the air. A good starting point to finding your preferred camera settings is by looking through and trying the settings that pros use (accessible here: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/rocketleague/List_of_player_camera_settings ) and finding what you like and messing around with them to find your own.

Bindings

Following the trend of messing around with default settings, the controller bindings may not be the best for you. There’s really no way to go wrong when setting up controls if you’re comfortable. It is generally recommended to pick up an Xbox or PS4 controller (though there are a few high-level kb/m players around). The default key bindings are a decent start and there is absolutely nothing wrong with sticking to default controls, don’t be afraid to mess around with them and shuffle things around.

Faceoffs

This applies to every rank, so I guess I’ll just put this here. Faceoffs are hard to get right, and I feel like there’s people in every rank that still don’t really know what they’re doing with them. Here’s a couple of resources breaking down kickoffs and showing you how to win them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcJwP5K1sO4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8wQHq49QIg&t=354s

Bronze

Consistency

Consistency is arguably the most important thing in Rocket League, no matter your rank. In bronze, the biggest separating factor for teams is not missing (or ‘whiffing’) the ball. In these ranks, a large percentage of goals come from a defending team missing a clearance and presenting a tap in opportunity for the attacking team. If you eliminate these mistakes from your game, it counts a long way toward not giving away easy goals and getting scored on a lot less.

How to improve:

The most important thing is to feel comfortable and composed when approaching the ball. A lot of players panic and will side-flip and turn away from the ball right before impact, causing them to miss. The rookie and pro striker and goalkeeping packs give the most straightforward practice for this. Training in free play is also effective. Just knocking the ball around the field and making you can hit it 100% of the times you go to.

Ground play

In bronze, there are very few players (if not none) that can consistently hit the ball in an aerial situation. Because of this, majority of the game is played on the ground. Because of this, it’s vital that you focus on your ground play and making sure you’re solid and reliable in these situations before trying to learn how to aerial and working towards those sweet montage plays we all spend hours watching on YouTube (moi guys).

How to improve:

Play 1v1s! Solo Duel is the most rage inducing and tilting playlist that exists, often leaving it to be neglected by a lot of players. This is because of how punishing it is on mistakes. If you screw up and are out of the play, then there’s no one to back you up and stop shots. At all levels, majority of 1v1 play is on the ground, so the combination of this and its unforgiving nature will quickly make you realise your mistakes in ground play and make it a lot more solid quicker than other playlists.

Know when not to go for the ball

In Rocket League, it is vital that you can minimise the times that you get beaten by an opponent to the ball and become unable to make a play, leaving your teammate(s) in a 1v2 or 2v3 situation. For this to happen, you must become aware of the positioning of the opposing team and to judge their approach to the ball. If they’re in a more favourable position to get to the ball and will get there well before you, it is usually better not to rush toward the ball (which will likely result in the ball being hit past you and forcing you to retreat to get back into the play). Instead, it’s more favourable in these situations to ensure you remain in a position where you can attack the ball by playing more passively and waiting for your opponent’s hit and reacting to that.

How to improve:

As this is not a mechanical skill, there isn’t really a training pack where you can grind this out and get better there. Instead, it’s more an idea you must have in the back of your mind as you play and be constantly thinking about as you attempt to attack the ball. Save replays and watch them back, identifying situations where you rush towards the ball with no real hop of getting to it first. It’s a skill that will come with time and become an almost subconscious decision the more you play, but it is important to identify it as an issue as soon as possible.

Silver

Rotation

Rotation is the positioning system that allows a team to effectively apply attacking pressure as well as defending effectively.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THcMLWOEc_o
Just watch this, it’s kinda difficult to explain without pictures and video. There’s also a link in that video’s description for an explanation on doubles rotation. I also had a look at this guy’s other videos and he has some damn good advice. Definitely worth a look.

Ground shot accuracy

As your opposition improves and you climb through the ranks, there becomes a lot less situations where a clear opportunity to shoot on goal presents itself on the back of a whiff or misplay by the opposition. As these opportunities become less common, it becomes increasingly important to be able to capitalise on them as often as possible. There’s no way (or it’s highly unlikely) your shots will go in if they’re rarely on target. To score goals it is vital that you are able to hit your shots accurately exactly where you want them (on net most importantly, and away from defending players/goalkeepers as well)

How to improve:

There are countless training packs focussing in ground shooting. These are the most effective way of making your shots consistent. As the focus of these is consistency, work on each back until you feel comfortable hitting every shot, every time. These also act as an effective warm up/warm down before and after playing each day.

Here are a couple of the training sequences that focus on ground shooting:
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6EB1-79B2-33B8-681C

Consistent aerials

In the silver ranks, aerial play begins to become more prominent and the presence of players that can hit the ball in the air with reasonable consistency and accuracy begins to become more common. As you reach these ranks it becomes important to feel comfortable and composed getting off the ground and manoeuvring in the air. It’s important to focus on the initial take-off for an aerial, setting a clear path towards the ball and limiting the amount of yaw and boosting needed to angle yourself towards the ball.

Basic intro to aerials:

Training packs:
0A40-E21D-61C1-49C6 (the times on these are kinda short, so just focus on hitting the ball consistently first before worrying too much on getting the ball in the goal on the full every time

7E96-B9C7-3AC0-9B70 (there’s a few harder aerial shots in the first 10 or so shots in this
one)

Don’t allow shots

You can’t get scored on if they don’t get a chance to shoot, right?

As players become more effective at shooting and taking advantage of opportunities on goals, it’s important to be able to pre-empt attacks and shut down shots effectively.

The main situation where this occurs in the silver ranks is when the attacking team attempts to centre the ball by hitting it hard into the corner and allowing the curvature to carry the ball along the wall and into the front of goal. This is a bread and butter play at this level but can easily be shut down by closing the distance and clearing the ball before it is able to reach a shootable position in front of the goal rather than letting the ball come to you and reach a position where you must contest an attacking player’s shot.

How to improve:

Try to identify situations where you could possibly rush the ball and cut out an opportunity before it occurs instead of relying on a reaction save. Go back and look at replays of your gameplay and watch the goals scored in each game. Is there any way that the shot or pass that resulted in the goal could have been smothered or cut out?

Gold

Fast aerials

A’ight, you’re in gold now. Congrats! That ain’t bad. Now you gotta beat everyone.

The days of bronze where you could pretty confidently expect your opponent to miss their aerial when the ball goes up are gone now. Now you have to match them and get up to the ball faster than anyone else on the pitch. How do you do that? Fast aeriels. They will often allow you to win an aerial challenge, even if your opponent goes up first and offers a pretty massive advantage in gold ranks, where a lot of players are still using single jump aerials

I remember seeing an explanation from Kronovi that first taught me how to do this, but I couldn’t find it, this one is super clear too and breaks it down well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KhJJUrlL-c

Recovery Methods

Okay, there’s a lot to this bit and it might get a little wordy and be a lot to take in. Take a seat, this will be a long one.

The pace of the game also starts to become a lot faster as you get into the higher ranks. This makes it vital to be able to get back and defend if you get beaten, bumped, or are just in a poor position. The first step to this is to always land on your wheels after coming down from an aerial or getting bumped away.

Another important element of making a fast recovery is maintaining momentum. Getting back fast requires driving fast, funnily enough, and the best way to be driving fast is to not slow down. This bit was meant to sound smarter than this. Damn. Aaaanyway, if you’re able to keep your speed high, it’ll limit the amount of boost you have to use to accelerate back up to speed to get back and defend.

I can’t find any videos on this so I’ll try and explain it. Sorry if it sucks.

A way of doing this is to hold the powerslide button as you hit the ground, particularly if you aren’t facing the direction your momentum is carrying you (i.e. Your car is facing perpendicular to the direction your movement). If you aren’t powersliding, you’ll stop dead in this situation, meaning you need to waste a heap of boost or forward flip a heap to pick up your speed again. Instead, you can powerslide on landing, steering into the direction you’re travelling as you do.

Half flips! They get talked about a lot and are fundamental in getting yourself out of awkward positions. It works in any situation where you’re facing the opposite direction to the way you want to travel.

Here, have a tutorial!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9920AGZg620

And here! Have another tutorial on wavedashing! It’s a quicker way of picking up speed after getting off walls or if you get bumped into the air (or passing if you’re nuts and your name is Jknaps, but I think it’s best if we just leave that one for now).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xk-XWaauhdA

How to improve:

This is kinda hard to give ways to practise this stuff (except half flips and wavedashes which you can just do in freeplay) other than just saying ‘just do it in games’. So ahhh just do it in games. Probably get comfortable with it in unranked before trying too much in ranked games though.

Here’s a quick little training sequence I put together to try and put pressure on half flips and fast aerials to really make sure they’re clean and I have them down.
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Trust

This one is simple. Trust your team mates. Too many goals get scored after someone doesn’t trust their team mate to make a save, a double commit occurs and no one is there to make the follow up.

If your team mate has the ball and is dribbling, don’t come from behind and smash the ball away from them. If they’ve gone up for a shot or an aerial, let them have it.

I think the best way to put this is to say don’t feel like you’re always better than your team mate or that you’ll be able to make the plays that they can’t. They’re in that rank for a reason. Give them and space and don’t ball chase. Trust your rotations as learnt above.

Being aware of where you hit it (Don’t pass to opposition)

The way you clear and transferring defence into attack goes a long way toward winning games. Be aware of where your clearances are going and try to find your team mates instead of panicking and effectively just passing it back to the opponent.

50/50s and predicting opponent’s play

50/50s occur in literally every game countless times. Contrary to many of the opinions of toxic players in chat, winning them is not ‘lucky’ or ‘playing like a bitch’ and coming out on top more often than not gives a significant advantage over your opponents, as well as hopefully tilting them and making them play worse.

This is a great breakdown on 50/50s and gives a clear picture of how they work and how to win them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjvDwh0zogk

How to improve:

Play more 1v1s. They’re a great way of isolating players and forcing a 50/50 situation without having to worry about other players coming in and ruining the fun.

Conclusion

Phew! You made it! I doubt anyone made it to reading this part right at the end, but if you are, congrats for getting here, and hopefully congrats for making it through to Plat

Once again, if you have any suggestions on what can be added to this, let me know and I’ll chuck it up. I also didn’t really edit this, so if there’s anything that is wrong or isn’t clear, please tell me so I can fix that too