Does anyone have any motivational, non-condescending advice you'd give to those in a slump?
My usual squad mates (irl friends) have been bitching and moaning lately, attributing every loss to some random element they don't have control over, huffing and sighing over the mic and generally having a bad time of it.
If we get some momentum in our early games, normally we can end up having a good evening. But if we have a few bad drops or loot issues, they just shut down and we're crawling around the map never getting in fights, then inevitably die in the mid-late game.
It's getting a bit sad. Whenever I try to encourage/critique they either shrug it off sarcastically or get all defensive.
Anyone had any experience of this and managed to dig their way out of it?
I'll try and think but off the top of my head here's a few thoughts. First, one thing I would say is that if I'm having a run of bad games, we switch server region.
I don't think it makes a big difference but there's two kind of theoretical reasons why I do this:
- If the game has suddenly decided that I should only play the best of the best, then switching region potentially disrupts that. Sometimes it does indeed feel like it works
- The placebo effect, even if it doesn't work it gives us a sense of a 'fresh start'. You get the potential to gain momentum again.
It's most likely the latter, but possibly a little bit of the former. After all if you're losing matches back to back then you're probably queuing up with the same 120 ish players over and over, so forcing yourself into a fresh pool gives you a fresh chance.
Another thing I would say, is that you should try and minimise the risk that you're going to have a bad time. If you're hot dropping and taking a tonne of 50/50s, then you're going to have those days where you're going to lose those 50/50s 5 times in a row and feel like crap and want to get off. I always drop immediately down (because I want to fight fast) but I will only stick the landing if there's at max two other teams in a large POI. If there is one other team we get an even fight, if their are two I let them fight and third party. If there's 3+ it's too unpredictable so I land someplace else.
I also have specific spots that I always land in, and we don't like, follow a script, but by landing in those spots over and over we get a good feel for how they play, and learn to play them better and better each time. My win ratio is something like 30% and that's with sometimes solo queuing and also pushing every fight we can find post-landing. When I play I play for fun moments, cool clips, high action (aside the initial drop, where I avoid 50/50s as I don't get any fun out of dying without a gun).
If you want to borrow some of my landing spots and rotations they are:
KC
The houses outside Octane's Gauntlet (if contested find somewhere nearby, you're better off contesting half of airbase than contesting this tiny spot) > Push Octane's Gauntlet (take Octane's loot if it's uncontested though, then push airbase/salvage)
The houses between Caustic's and Watch Tower South > Then push Caustic's
Artillery (usually you get one team here, fight them) > Then push Containment)
Capacitor Top (building above on height, land here then push below), if this place is contested land at village to the north east then push into capacitor
Spotted lakes (land in buildings closest to the edge, failing that just land whichever side isn't contested) then push containment
Crashed ship (land at whichever set of buildings is uncontested then push containment)
Olympus
Ring buildings (land at the back middle then push one tower at a time, often we wipe 3 squads this way early) > Push Gardens
Hydrophonics (take half, kill the other team then push docks, if heavily contested try the spot below) > push estates after then go to wraith labs
Docks (usually contested by another team, take half and kill them, if contested by two teams land edge and push to third > push into Fight Night
Power Plant (or whatever its called, if contested take the back area which rarely is) > Push into fightnight
Solar array (usually contested but can accomodate 3 teams, take the safer side with your team) > Push Wraith labs
Obviously all of this is adaptive. After we drop we just push on any gunfire we here really, but those are our typical initial rotations. I think having a plan from the outset really helps.
Off drop in these contested spaces the other team doesn't 'take half' and spreads out then you want to pick the weaker side and stack one guy quickly then you have yourself an easy pick and a 2 vs 3. Often just getting that good start is all you need because a) you can snow ball off of it with good shields and guns and b) even if you die post having a good start, it doesn't feel terrible, you still did okay, got a few kills, it's easy to just roll into another game.
Lately I find myself getting frustrated too easily too to be honest, and blaming my team mates a lot. With that said, it's not like I'm blaming them wrongly, like yesterday for instance I remember saying to Vorlo that we lost a fight because he was looting a box while I was fighting, and what I said was completely true... but it kind of puts a negative tone on the evening to end up complaining. Sometimes I feel like I'm in a bad spot because if I don't call out their obviously questionable behaviour they're going to do it again, but if I do, it ends up just being a little frustrating all round because no one wants to play to be told they're doing something wrong all the time. So personally for me, sometimes I have to actively try and drop that attitude so that we can all have a little bit more fun, but it's all a balance because we want to get better at the game progressively too.
