Practice Regularly and Record Your Games
Playing first-person shooters is like any other skill. The only way to get better is by practicing regularly. If you aren’t practicing all the game mechanics, you won’t improve. And if you don’t improve, you won’t climb up in the rankings.
This doesn’t mean you have to spend hours each day playing the game. Just know that the more time you spend practicing correctly, the faster you’ll improve and gradually rank higher.
Practicing the right way is essential. If you get on the game and play the same as always, you’re not going to make much progress. That’s why it’s important to figure out what you need to improve on. Sometimes the answer is painfully obvious, but not always.
It’s a terrific idea to record your games so that you can rewatch your gameplay. You can break it down to figure out what you need to improve. It’s easy to miss things while you’re playing, so make sure to record. Research what high-level gameplay looks like, and see if your playstyle pairs up. Depending on the game, you’ll want to ask yourself these questions:
How is my aim? Is my positioning good? Do I need to improve my movement? Am I using my abilities and utilities effectively? Are my sensitivity and crosshair optimized? Am I making good decisions? Do I need more help from my team?
Use these questions to help you figure out what you’re doing wrong or could improve on. Then, practice on improving in those areas. For example, if you find yourself losing gun battles, focus on improving your aim and movement to catch your opponents off guard and make yourself harder to hit.
Hone Your Skills to Climb Steadily
Rather than playing as many games as possible for days, weeks, or even months, focus on honing your skills to climb the ranks steadily. It’s a poor use of your time to play non-stop, grinding tirelessly with hopes to rank higher.
Of course, it’s possible if you win most of your games. It’s just not nearly as effective as honing your skills. As you hone your skills, whether it be improving your aim, movement, reaction speed, or decision making, your rank will also climb.
Think about a professional or high-ranked player playing in a low-ranked match. Since their skills are better than the low-ranking players, they’re far more likely to win their games and steadily climb the rankings. Their skills enable them to rank higher, not by hoping to win most of their games against players with similar skills.
So, rather than focusing on winning 15 out of 20 games a day, focus on playing better than the current rank you’re at.
Play With Friends
Does your FPS allow you to invite friends to play with you? If so, know that playing with friends is one of the best ways to consistently rank higher, especially if they’re better than you. Playing with friends is usually more comfortable than playing with strangers. You feel more relaxed and know how to back each other up. And if your friends are better than you, they can give you valuable tips throughout the game.
Conversely, playing with strangers can feel more self-reliant and tense. You don’t know how the strangers on your team play, so you have to pay more attention and act accordingly.
However, this doesn’t mean you’ll lose more games by playing with strangers. As long as you’re communicating effectively with your team, it shouldn’t be too different from playing with friends. As the game progresses, you’ll start adapting to how your teammates play, learning to play together as if you were friends.
Stop Blaming Your Team
In team-based first-person shooters, you’ll often find players blaming their teammates for a lost game. Although your team may have made a few mistakes, there’s no need to point fingers and bring down the team dynamic.
Just like anything else, everybody makes mistakes. As a team member, you should encourage your team to learn from those mistakes. You don’t have to be the team leader, just be a good teammate. If you made a mistake, you wouldn’t want your team to scream at you and put you down, right?
Instead, everyone should focus on improving their individual gameplay and learn from any mistakes that were made. This is key to ensuring your team stays in sync, focused, and determined to win.
Avoid Feeling Burnt Out
As a competitive FPS player looking to rank higher, feeling burnt out after extended gaming sessions is easy. This is especially true if you lose most of your games.
The feeling of being burnt out is similar to playing on auto-pilot. You don’t really think about the decisions you’re making. Your brain feels like it’s on standby as you move your mouse and type on the keyboard instinctively. It almost feels as if you’re not even playing the game, even though you are.
If you hope to climb the ranks, you should take a break from gaming as soon as you start feeling burnt out. Most first-person shooters won’t allow you to take breaks during matches, so you’ll need to focus up until the game’s over. Once the game’s done, stretch your body, grab some lunch, drink some water, and take at least a 30-minute break.
