How To Get Out of Bronze/Silver/Gold in 'Overwatch'

Warm up, warm up, warm up.

Seriously, you need to play a few quick-play rounds before entering a competitive queue. At the very least, hop into the training room and practice your tracking. Your brain has to recall the reflexes and muscle memory you’ve built up, and you can take this time to practice team communication and map awareness too. Also, make sure your hands are literally warm. Cold, stiff hands are no fun.

Learn a broader range of heroes.

I recommend you get very good at one hero from each class type (tank, healer, dps). This will be most helpful for your team. While you may feel like the best player when you're hitting sick headshots and picking off squishies (“4 golds and I still can’t carry this sh** team lol”), if you and your whole team are running DPS, you’ll get nowhere. This goes for healer and tank mains too, you guys aren’t off the hook. Being versatile in hero select will triple your chances of better teamwork and winning comp.

Get in 'the zone.'

This may sound silly, but it’s important to feel ready for competitive. Don’t just hop into a queue because you're hoping that number on your career profile will jump up. If, even after warm up, you just have a bad feeling about playing comp right now, trust your gut. When I’m not in the mood, my games go pretty bad.

Also, lower the volume of music, if you listen while playing. It’s crucial that you hear in-game sounds, like enemy footsteps and ult voice lines. Too many times have I blasted something through my headphones and gotten high-nooned out of nowhere.

Be aware of your surroundings.

This includes both map awareness and team awareness. Learn all the pathways of different maps, including sniper locations and flank routes. In game, look out for your team and tell them if you split off from the group. Monitor ult times so you can set up combos. Keep track of where enemies go, and tell your team. Memorize cooldown times for abilities, so you know when to predict the next enemy Roadhog hook.

Talk to your team (nicely).

I’ve found that my games go much smoother when the whole team is talking right out of the gate. Start by greeting everyone and suggesting a game plan or team comp idea.

Now, I don’t care if your previous comp team threw or your Mercy won't give you heals. There is no excuse for yelling, insulting, or getting salty. If you see a way for your team member to improve, tell them in a constructive way, like “Hey Mercy, their Tracer keeps picking me off, can you watch my back?” or “Rein, make sure to warn us when you’re about to drop your shield.” If a teammate keeps messing up, say something like “don’t worry about it, let's try again.”

Most importantly, listen to them! If someone tells the team to push left side, don't be that dude who tries to "flank" right.

Don’t wait for overtime to push.

I’ve played so many games where my team messes around for 5 minutes on attack and then finally pops all their ults at overtime for the big push. Maybe it works, but pushing the time limit in competitive is a serious disadvantage. Group up, coordinate a strategy, and go for a hard push about every minute or so.

Watch gameplay on YouTube or from professional players.

If you're serious about improving, try watching Overwatch guides online, or watching pro players on your main heroes. I’ve learned so much about Zarya bubble and grav timing from just observing how other people use them. See how the pro players communicate with the team too.

Realize that your goals may not happen quickly.

For some reasons beyond your control, you may not climb as high as you want. It is extremely difficult to increase 1000 SR in one season. Set reasonable goals for yourself. If you got placed in the middle of silver one season, try to get placed high silver next season, or even low gold. I climbed from middle silver to middle platinum in 3 seasons, but I wasn’t worried about how long it would take me, I just focused on improving myself.

In all honesty, don’t take yourself too seriously here. Just keep casually practicing and trying to improve, and have fun with the game. It really does make a difference on your attitude, which affects your gameplay.