Season 4 Has Arrived!

It's been a long week, but finally the wait is over - Season 4 is here. 

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy playing in the off-season. It gives me a chance to play Heroes I wouldn’t normally play in Competitive, without the added pressure of worrying about my SR. That's not to say I don't play to win - trust me, I ALWAYS play to win. 

Last week I posted a blog summing up how my Season 3 went. Basically, I made the silly mistake of setting my Season 3 goal too high by trying to get into Platinum (I was, and still am, a Silver player). Yep, crazy I know!

Anyway, I want to make some clear and achievable goals for Season 4, and not focus on my finishing position or rank. If you think about it, this makes perfect sense. I am sure not every football team in the English Premier League say "right, this season we're going aim to win the league and become champions". No, they set key targets that are realistic, and focus on achieving these targets. Where they finish in the league will depend on how well they executed there target (sorry for the football analogy, but it helps demonstrate my point).

So, I’m going to set myself 4 realistic targets that I want to improve on, and my final position and ranking will take care of themselves.

Anyway, these are my 4 REALISTIC targets;

1. Be happy with WHO I am

I am going to stick to what I know this season, and play my "mains". 

Last season, for whatever crazy reason, I swapped from a support role (which I am most comfortable with) to a DPS role. Over this period I dropped 400 SR! NOT GOOD!

It wasn't until I reverted back to a support role that I started to climb the ladder again. So this season I am sticking with support roles, and by beloved Mercy. 

2. Be happy with WHAT I am

Right, this is easier said than done, but I am not going to fixate on my SR this season. I am a silver player, and I am proud of it! "Yeah right, you keep telling yourself that mate"

Honestly, I am going to try. Too many time last season I would go on a losing streak and could feel myself tilting. NOT GOOD!

So this season, once the game has finished, I am just going to leave. I won't even look to see the SR screen!

I am also going to try my hardest to keep calm, and keep playing. “So what if you lose, keep going, you'll be fine - honestly, you well”!

3. Positioning

This season I am really going to focus on my positioning. When I analysed a lot of my gameplay last season, I was shocked to find one of the main reason I (and the team) where losing, was down to bad positioning. There were times I would find myself in the middle of a massive 5 v 1 (remember, I’m a Mercy main) and get absolutely destroyed! I'd like to point out this wasn’t always down to me ha-ha. But seriously, there would have been loads of options I could have done to help minimise, or even prevent, that situation. What could I have done better? Maybe I could of hid and flew in after to revive everyone? Or maybe I could have focused more on boosting a fellow hero, rather than focused on healing another?

So, this season I am going to be more aware of my position and try to get my team to take up better positioning. This leads me onto my next goal..........

4. It's good to talk

This season I am going to communicate better with the team. I have no problem using a mic and communicating with people, however I really struggle to talk and play Overwatch at the same time. 

What I've come to realise is that you don't need to know the Reinhardt players life story, you just need to communicate short and sharply. "Reaper behind", "D.Va low", "They are two players down, push the point", "Need healing" (those 2 words haunt my dreams). Clear and to the point!

Also, I am going to try and be more of a leader if needed, because every team needs a leader! Someone with a game plan. Maybe it's communication an attack idea in the spawn, or maybe it's POLITELY asking a player to switch to a different Hero. I am normally happy for others to take this role, however, as I am a support I believe this is a skill/ role I should be comfortable with. So I am going to try and get better at this aspect too. Don't get me wrong, I am not going to start bark out orders and telling people who to pick. I am just going to prompt the discussion.

Anyway, these are my 4 targets. Hopefully they’ll help me improve. I'll do another end of year review at the end of Season 4. Let's see how I get on. As always, feel free to add any comments in the comments box below.