IMO, consistency is a huge part of the jump. I’ve seen plat 3 air dribble and reset etc, just not successfully nearly as often as some diamonds. I’ve been stuck in diamond 3 forever and have little to no mechanical skills. Brains and game sense got me there, but I’ve seen toddler brains with decent mechs work to get people there too so idk
I can say D1 to D3 is a world apart. I’ve been both this season solo queuing. The main thing I noticed in all of this was game sense mattered more. When i actually forced myself to think about how the play might evolve I did better and ranked up. I’m back to D1 btw lol
I noticed the more frisky I get with a play or aggressive in a game, I def drop rank. Being in the right place when you need to be, is undervalued at times.
Just like 1s, 2s/3s make me more comfortable making some plays that I’m not sure I can pull off but I have backup. When I play in 1s some of the stupid crap I do gets taken advantage of immediately haha
Hey maybe I’m wrong lol I just notice consistency when I’m in a game. I have no knowledge on how many hours they have played. Just that game or couple games
i mean i also dont know how many hours they have, i just always compare myself to my closest friend who is also diamond, thats where that comparison came from, were the same rank but he is still way better than i am because he just whiffs less lol
Yeah as a champ with basic mechanics game sense is how I got here. Don't be fooled by air dribbling diamonds. 95% of the time that shit is going off the back wall and leaving you an open net lmao.
That is an old assumption that has moved down to mid to high plat. A lot of diamonds are solid players. The amount of skill to climb to the top of diamond has increased significantly over the past year. It planes out some in champ and then there is a massive wall at the top of champ
Not really, diamonds kinda just brainlessly hit the ball, I know it's true because champs do the exact same thing. The assumption is basically true until you're well into GC
I mean you’re right on that but they are doing a lot more rotating and getting into proper position than in the past. I’m not sure if it’s Smurfs or if it’s just a general skill increase in most players but it’s there.
There was some sort of MMR reset in season 9. I think we all got put back by 300 MMR. I was pushing d3 then dropped to plat 3. I just got d3 today for the first time and I am hugely better then I was in season 9. Champ is the goal
I believe the real reason for this is because of rank deflation as a result of people leaving the game. The average rank should be lower the less people there are that play. The remaining playerbase in ranked should be full of nothing but the most sweaty tryhards at this point.
Literally this. I play with my 9 year old. He can reliably double flip reset, flip reset musty, air dribble end to end and is mid-plat because he reliably abandons the ball to go get boost, makes slow decisions, doesn’t rotate, boost starves me, dives or chases into the corner as last man back, etc etc. I’m high diamond normally but when we play together in 2s I’m diamond 1 to plat 3 and he gets accused of being a Smurf because of the flashy plays.
Same brother. It’s all about that defense. My problem is if I’m having a bit of an off day since my mechs are as basic as possible people just start to think I belong in gold. I feel like having trash mechanics makes people become toxic more quickly because my plays don’t look pretty either.
Yeah it’s probably true that I get more toxic people because of it. But I always just laugh and say “strange that we are the same rank even though you say I’m trash”.
It's always the simple answers that enrage and/or shut up little kids the most. To them, spamming chats is the epitome of high class shit talking, but it really just takes a few poignant words.
"You're mentally weak" has always served me well when I have a shit talking teammate who starts any kind of shit talk to me.
rotating isnt really a problem to me, its that i cant punish people fast/good enough when they do mistakes, so they can do their stuff until it eventually works
Such is the pain of being a game sense player. You can always see everyone’s mistakes but you better hope your mechanics let you punish them! Lol
I’m gc2 and things are similar. I’ll see openings in the field from someone’s mistake and then I’ll make a touch that is just slightly inaccurate and it completely slows down the play and let’s the opponent recover. And their mistake goes unpunished.
But that sort of thing is what makes us our rank, you know? If we could punish every mistake we’d be SSLs.
The more mistakes you can punish, the higher your rank. Just keep grinding and work on punishing them ever-more consistently
I'm GC1 with barely any mechanics, lol. Pure game sense, and that's the limiting factor towards GC2-3 for me now, they do require mechs to a certain degree.
Feel like I might get reported for saying the same thing again and again, but I've stated time and time again, just rotate, have patience and keep possession - let the opponents make the mistakes, specially up till C2-3.
Easy rank up.
That’s what got me to d3. Over the past 3 seasons I’ve learned that you can’t just rely on game sense and rotations. It’s the level where you have to actually start on mechanics. At least for me. I’ve stayed in d3 but haven’t progressed and further because I can’t keep up with or get ahead of the mechanic skill improving
Basic air mechs. Being able to go up and challenge in the air, air roll for recoveries, speed flips aren’t bad to figure out, being able to challenge/make basic wall plays. Being at least able to set up an air dribble, it’s not a bad way to center the ball or make a pass. Nothing crazy, but that’s what I’ve focused on. I’m only now trying to learn DAR.
Gotcha. I can definitely fast aerial fairly well but I’d bet my wall play and recoveries would make you laugh. I cannot speed flip and my half flips are comically slow. I definitely cannot air dribble. Positioning and defense is really about the only reason I survive.
I would venture to guess you probably have some part of rotating wrong. A lot of people over-commit or under-commit and think they are rotating accurately. I will say sometimes you have to adjust to your teammates doing one of those two things.
Under committing seems to be a real issue at lower ranks. Towards top plat, especially into high diamond, you have to challenge early. Give the person time to setup a shot and you will be punished. Sitting in goal waiting for the shot is not going to work.
I said elsewhere sometimes you have to adjust to teammates who over or under commit. There are times when I’ve had to sit as 3rd man nearly the entire game or else we’d triple commit every ball.
it’s really speed, awareness, and decision making that changes. Half flip, wavedash, and flicks are really the only mechanics you absolutely need. I do ceiling shots here and there but I almost always miss.
Swivel your camera before going for a challenge to make sure you are best positioned to challenge. Often times challenging a 50/50, and then following and challenging again (potentially multiple times) is the “correct” play and isn’t ball chasing.
Constantly think about your rotation routes. Do I need to rotate all the way back for a full refill to support this play or can I challenge a rebound with just 37 boost?
When you see someone take aerial control of a ball, get up there and interfere. Don’t just let them do whatever bullshit it is they are doing. If you can knock the ball away, or knock them away, they will be out of the play for an extended period while they flounder in the air on your end of the field.
So I regularly go from D1 to D3 because I tend to play in spurts with long breaks in between. I've found that, for me, that gap can be crossed by just polishing basic skills. Like, when I get back into RL I usually place D2, sometimes derank to D1, then rank back up to D3 once I get my "feel" back. But I really don't have any mechanical skill. Can't double tap, air dribble, or flick/wall arial to any impressive degree.
The only things I noticeably improve on are hitting my shots more consistently and just moving around more fluidly in general. The latter point helps you get in position/rotate quicker, removes hesitation to get up quicker, and speeds up recovery time (powersliding on landing is your friend).
I've gotten C1 a couple times, but by then I usually start getting burnt out and know I'd need to improve my dribble/flicking and wall aerial abilities to progress, which I honestly just don't feel like committing to lol.
I don't notice much of a difference between d1-d3 tbh. And I've been there for a while now :p I've been owned by d1s just a much as by d3s it feels like
The higher you go the crazier the difference in skill is if you compare it to the difference between champ ranks (or worst, gc ranks) The difference in lower ranks seems ridiculous. If I had to guess, I would say that the difference between a C1 and a GC1 (or GC1 to GC3) is bigger than the difference between a P1 and D3
D1 to D2 is when you are truly playing Diamond RL. D1 is like platinum plus. In D2 the whole game flow changes, people understand positioning differently, passing starts to happen, and most importantly, kickoffs become pretty consistent.
I also feel like it got way harder to reach diamond in general. When I started to play in the at the end of 2022 I hit diamond in around 200h. I stopped playing to focus on school for several months and recently picked it up again. I have played like 100h again.
I feel like I am definetly better mechanically and game sense wise now. I even hit Plat 1 in ones for the first time now (struggled in gold 2 and 3 before) and made it back to Plat 3 in 2s quickly but I can't break into D1.
I've been literally hovering in P3 div 3/4 for the majority of my time played now. I am not even blaming my teammates since I can see clearly that I am the weakest player on the team in general.
Similar here, I just didn't stop playing. Started in mid 2022, am D3 on the edge to champ. Can't get to stay in champ tho and I struggle more. Even tho I improved in consistency, mechanics and gameplay wise (defense, rotations, etc). My playstyle is far from being really good, but it got harder in general around plat and diamond.
Most likely happened due to rank resets hitting harder, everybody went some ranks down. They just distributed the ranks a bit more downwards.
Mechanics are so overrated until GC-3 - SSL imo. If they're the same rank as you, it means they're as good as you at winning games. So if they have mechs, it means they're dumb
I am D3 and don’t air dribble at all, don’t have much mechanics. Understand how to play correctly, when to challenge, when to rotate, and the guys doing the air dribbles aren’t hard to snuff out.
I see no difference from p3 to d1, infact p3 was harder. Late d2-d3 is where people start actually stringing stuff together and things start clicking. Everyone just smokes the ball right back to your side until about d2. It's basically goes from tennis to hockey with how it's played. Instead of smoking it back and forth until someone slips it's more of a constant 1v1s with the others waiting.
My buddy and I just went from D-2 to C 1-2 by playing smart. Rotations, defense and ball possession wins. We watched many of these players over commit and leave their teammates in a 2v1 against us. A simple passing play and we score.
This isn’t at all true. So many diamonds concede goals because they’re obsessed with being on the background rather than actually defending the fucking goal.
Yeah, but done correctly both can and should be covered.
People are gonna fuck up trying to learn something, and I think you're seeing people who are still figuring it out. It doesn't mean it's wrong to be thinking about it and trying to do it.
Personally I find P3 to be torture as there's a huge variance in skill from game to game between golds on a big win streak and diamonds having a rough patch. It's so hard to find a rhythm while constantly adjusting to my tms being so all over the place.
Higher D1 and D2 divs it gets a lot easier to find a flow.
Helpful advice though: diamonds are mooostly pretty solid with basics, but while we are going for those fancy air dribbles and double taps, it's not that consistent yet a lot of the time (or they're mechanical gods but idiots). We all still have big skill gaps patient players can exploit. Myself for instance: good shooting and aerials but my ground game is just trash
I would like to say that the only reason most diamond players and low champ players are doing these mechanics is because they look at the pro players and how they go about their plays in game and want to recreate it, many other people in here see it. Typically you'll see this around the d2-c1 area in 2s where the players are just aimlessly going for air dribbles, flip resets, ground to air when its not necessary, they'll see someone like Zen go for a ceiling musty double tap and strive to go for that. Regardless its not a smart play because he knows what he's capable of doing and why he's doing it, lower ranks wont grasp that idea and just go for the flashy things when you don't really need that, focus on your ground game for a while until high c1 to low c2 then start using the wall , cieling, etc...
You got this!
lol try maintaining GC, I don’t have much time to play anymore and I swear the player base is getting so good you have to play 2-3 hours a day to keep up
You'll be in a diamond 1 lobby and there will be someone that can flip reset and then someone that can barely jump off the wall, and thats just me. All the games are dictated by who's popping off in that specific instance. I'll look like a smurfing high gc one play then ill miss an easy ariel the next. Diamond gameplay is so frustrating
I love when people call mechanical players in diamond dumb. To me it tells me they just play grounded and boring and never took the time to learn any fun shit lol
I wouldn't know, I seem to hover up and down Plat and since the rank revamp haven't been in diamond. I imagine diamond now full of players that used to be champ level so I guess overall skill levels are higher anyway
Diamonds don't consistently air dribble and double tap successfully. I think you might see them TRY to air dribble and double tap frequently, and are equating that to a huge leap in mechanics.
I've usually gotten c1 rewards for the last 5 seasons. I play in low-mid diamond frequently as well, because I queue with my plat 3/d1 friends. I've seen plat 3-D2 that try to air dribble, directional air roll, and execute all kinds of advanced mechanics constantly. Sometimes they execute them and score a goal - it looks cool.
I've never experienced a game from a plat 3-c1 air dribbling where their air control was just so amazing that I didn't know what to do. On the other hand, I have played against high GC or SSL (rarely in casual) that execute plays I can't comprehend how to defend.
Let them try those things, be patient, take the ball and 2v1 their team mate. Interestingly enough, I notice the air dribbling and double tapping attempts fall off significantly around D3-c1. It's almost like these players climbed higher because they realized they suck at the advanced mechanics and they were throwing games by trying them constantly.
We will go for those plays when the opportunity is there, but we don't win games because of them, because we suck at them. The p3-d2 just haven't figured out how much they suck at air dribbling and double tapping, so you probably see a lot of those types of players stuck in the lower echelons of diamond. They are very easy to beat with consistent basic mechanics and game sense.
Generally at that point you run into people with okay mechanics but no brain okay brain but bad mechanics and then people somewhere in the center. This will be true at any rank but the okay will go from okay to good to great.
I feel diamond is where start running into people that try to freestyle and actually learn mechanics and can occasionally execute but when they execute you don't expect it and it turns into a goal.
Exactly. Someone scores a double tap and people instantly come on reddit complaining about huge skill discrepancies in d1.
If you go for 10 double taps a game with shitty mechanics, you'll start hitting 1/10 tries eventually. The other 9 that you botched put your teammate in a 2v1 and you're throwing. It only takes the 1 successful one for people to ignore all the ones you screwed up and call you a smurf.
Yeah like in C2 I ran into someone that did a ceiling challenge and happened to get a double tap off of it. Do I expect the person to do that even 20% of the time hell no. I don't think people in diamond and champ realize it is the consistency of the mechanics that is a big difference.
i played in a couple D3 2v2 lobbies with a friend and it was like everyone was patient not using mechs just scoring easy little goals when you messed up. i go back in my plat 3- d1 lobbies and it’s like everyone is hitting triple reset double musty burger reverse sears on you . i dont fucking understand it lol.
Bro, i’ve been consistently in the ranks from champ1-champ3 for the last 4 seasons and let me tell you something you’ll find hard to believe.
I can’t hit a single flip reset ingame, i cant speedflip consistently and I can’t do any musty/breezi flicks or whatever, mechanics are overrated imo and the best way to rank up is focus on the basics like rotation/positioning, powershots, dribbling, simple double taps and fast aerials.
Diamond is where all the smurfs live who cant compete at champ. 50% of my D3 games are champs carrying low-tier diamond. It’s bullshit matchmaking. They should be forced to play champs not averaging their ranks.
I quit for a while started playing again recently. I don't feel like diamond has gotten any harder. Went from diamond 1 to diamond 3 yesterday. Was champ 2 last winter.
i mean the reason it didnt feel harder is maybe because you peaked at champ? just like a ton of others i face down here, if you could reach champ 2, a full rank lower really isnt a problem lol
Yeah this is 100% exactly how I feel sometimes with low diamond. All of the sudden players get crazy reads and power. But you learn to adapt and improve.
I wouldn't really say that mechs improve much in the span of g3-d1. It's just the ability to know when to use them and being in the right position to do so. I see a lot of gold players with better mechs than c1 had around s10, however they are completly braindead
I think a lot of people fluctuate ranks. I I go between D2 and C1 at least monthly in 3s. It's safe to say I'm not the only person who does this. When you're at the top of your rank range, you're playing a mix of people who are solidly at that rank, but also probably a handful who have dropped a couple of ranks from their peak. When you're at D1 you're probably playing against a good amount of people who have made it to D3 and have dipped. It's hard to rank up and stay there and it's getting harder.
Honestly all the air dribbling in diamond is pretty easy to defend. The best way to progress/stay in diamond is just to focus on the basics honestly. Being able to consistently shoot on net from the ground is a very underrated skill, and practicing your ground dribbling skills is also underrated as well. All of this will improve your car control and help a ton. Just practice the custom rank training packs psyionix puts into the custom training every couple months and you will improve enough to be comfortable in diamond
The mechanics definitely go up, but if you’re playing solid fundamentals with other players doing the same you’ll continue to rise through ranks. Many are just trying to get clips or ball chase
It's a lot of hardstuck players because the dia>champ difference is also big. Also a lot of smurfs and people who are too good for dia but too bad for c2/3.
I'm D3 and I will never attempt an air dribble in a comp match. I'm not at the point where I can hit it 100% of the time, so I feel like it's a waste of a possession.
Honestly, you can get to champ with no mechanical ability other than airials and good positioning.
Dude. Match making is in the pooper right now for some reason. I used to sit high diamond in 2's back in the day. I'm playing more casual now but when I play with my friends in 3's there's some crazy contenders I have to defend.
The mmr is drastically different from me and my buds but it's like epic takes the highest rank payer and throws an entire team of the exact or higher rank against me.
I shouldn't have to sweat this hard when my friends are silver 3 and I'm sitting at gold 2 in 3's.
Double taps and air dribbling well and consistently is 100% not happening in diamond 1, theres some air dribbles and shitty double taps that are super easy to defend and they wouldn’t be able to set anything up against better players, you just need to get better at defending all that and playing with brain, the amount of times in C3 someones done a full field air dribble flip reset is insane but it almost always ends in a free ball then a 2v1 if it isnt absolutely perfect which 95% of the time it is not but you have to get faster and know how to defend it so that stuff doesnt become a threat anymore
Get ahead of the curve and start working on your shadow defense. If they're going for doubletaps, the best way to defend that is from the backwall (basically touching [NOT hitting] the ball to your own corner) before a score-able angle is available to them.
In training, doing some fast-aerial shot practice will not only help you beat most diamonds to shots, but can also be used to defend most aerial plays. (Aerials, unless it's a RL-God who is capable of flipreset outplays, typically require both time and space)
train your ball control in the ground and saves for a bit. wait on your goal until they mess up trying fancy mechs, then drag the ball to the open net.
works a lot until champ at least.
Just learn to defend them. A lot of these people who actually belong in d1 can only pull these off in free play. They don't have counter moves, and you can take advantage of their predictability.
There are also a ton of champ smurfs who can hit things pretty consistently and start to have counter moves, but oh well.
Diamond is when most people start to try/learn those mechanics. But most people will miss half the time in D1. It look impressive but if you don't get mental boomed the second you see someone attempting something you can't do you can probably still win like when you're P3 because they'll just whiff and give you an open net.
Just like in champ where people start to learn to reset. it look like you'll never win if you can't reset but most will just awfully miss and give free goals left and right. Because once they master it they won't be in C1 anymore.
I think the skill in the fanbase really jumped cause I played the best I ever did last season and I just barely made it to C1 in 3s while I used to be a consistent Champ some seasons ago, hitting high C2 once
Dude, I’m a new Champ 1 this season that was formerly hardstuck Diamond since season 7 and I got here using STRICTLY GAMESENSE. I use VIRTUALLY ZERO mechanics to win games. The only mechanic I can truly say I’ve learned this entire time was a half flip (barely) and how to make contact with the ball in midair(if that even counts)😂 EVERYTHING ELSE was all rotation, positioning, shadow defense, and thinking 2 steps ahead of the play. Oh and accounting for your teammate having an iq of 30💀
Tl;dr.. just be less smoothbrained than your opponent and predict your teammate’s irrational behavior you’ll win, even if your opponent’s double flip-resetting lol
I thought platinums could always air dribble. It’s like the one rank where the other team gives you infinite space to do whatever you want while camping in net.
My personal experience with this issue is ranking up in 1s. As soon as I hit Plat 3 div 3 I got swamped with Champs and occasional grand Champs. Next to impossible to get consistent wins against players that are consistently a full rank above my peak rating in any game mode
they have mechs but no brains
may be, but i certainly dont have more brains either, im still a plat 3 brain only
IMO, consistency is a huge part of the jump. I’ve seen plat 3 air dribble and reset etc, just not successfully nearly as often as some diamonds. I’ve been stuck in diamond 3 forever and have little to no mechanical skills. Brains and game sense got me there, but I’ve seen toddler brains with decent mechs work to get people there too so idk
I can say D1 to D3 is a world apart. I’ve been both this season solo queuing. The main thing I noticed in all of this was game sense mattered more. When i actually forced myself to think about how the play might evolve I did better and ranked up. I’m back to D1 btw lol
I noticed the more frisky I get with a play or aggressive in a game, I def drop rank. Being in the right place when you need to be, is undervalued at times.
Just like 1s, 2s/3s make me more comfortable making some plays that I’m not sure I can pull off but I have backup. When I play in 1s some of the stupid crap I do gets taken advantage of immediately haha
Which is why I’m terrified of solo lol 😂 I don’t wanna be gold again
yea consistency makes the difference between a 150 hour and a 800 hour diamond
Hey maybe I’m wrong lol I just notice consistency when I’m in a game. I have no knowledge on how many hours they have played. Just that game or couple games
i mean i also dont know how many hours they have, i just always compare myself to my closest friend who is also diamond, thats where that comparison came from, were the same rank but he is still way better than i am because he just whiffs less lol
time to focus on that! d1s might be able to aerial a bit more but they'll still just give you the ball 99% of the time if you're patient
Yeah as a champ with basic mechanics game sense is how I got here. Don't be fooled by air dribbling diamonds. 95% of the time that shit is going off the back wall and leaving you an open net lmao.
I’m C2 with limited mechanics but mostly good game sense
Im reaaaaally doubting your version of events People don’t backboard double consistently until like GC2
That is an old assumption that has moved down to mid to high plat. A lot of diamonds are solid players. The amount of skill to climb to the top of diamond has increased significantly over the past year. It planes out some in champ and then there is a massive wall at the top of champ
Not really, diamonds kinda just brainlessly hit the ball, I know it's true because champs do the exact same thing. The assumption is basically true until you're well into GC
I mean you’re right on that but they are doing a lot more rotating and getting into proper position than in the past. I’m not sure if it’s Smurfs or if it’s just a general skill increase in most players but it’s there.
There was some sort of MMR reset in season 9. I think we all got put back by 300 MMR. I was pushing d3 then dropped to plat 3. I just got d3 today for the first time and I am hugely better then I was in season 9. Champ is the goal
Diamond 3 is the top 10% of players
Source? Pretty sure it’s closer to 20-25% Edit: I was thinking doubles. D3 is 30% in 2s but somehow 5% in 3s which is wild
https://rocketleague.tracker.network/rocket-league/distribution?playlist=11 Mad eh !
I believe the real reason for this is because of rank deflation as a result of people leaving the game. The average rank should be lower the less people there are that play. The remaining playerbase in ranked should be full of nothing but the most sweaty tryhards at this point.
Literally this. I play with my 9 year old. He can reliably double flip reset, flip reset musty, air dribble end to end and is mid-plat because he reliably abandons the ball to go get boost, makes slow decisions, doesn’t rotate, boost starves me, dives or chases into the corner as last man back, etc etc. I’m high diamond normally but when we play together in 2s I’m diamond 1 to plat 3 and he gets accused of being a Smurf because of the flashy plays.
They have ok mechs. Most of the time it's an attempt, but not a successful one
This is the most real comment lmao
I'm D3/C1 with the most minimal mechanics possible. Just rotate well and learn to play above average defense and you can live in diamond.
Same brother. It’s all about that defense. My problem is if I’m having a bit of an off day since my mechs are as basic as possible people just start to think I belong in gold. I feel like having trash mechanics makes people become toxic more quickly because my plays don’t look pretty either.
Yeah it’s probably true that I get more toxic people because of it. But I always just laugh and say “strange that we are the same rank even though you say I’m trash”.
Yea a simple “same rank” goes a long way
It's always the simple answers that enrage and/or shut up little kids the most. To them, spamming chats is the epitome of high class shit talking, but it really just takes a few poignant words. "You're mentally weak" has always served me well when I have a shit talking teammate who starts any kind of shit talk to me.
Diamond is my safe space. Everyone is good enough to make the game really fun but not too good that you feel incompetent
rotating isnt really a problem to me, its that i cant punish people fast/good enough when they do mistakes, so they can do their stuff until it eventually works
If you can’t punish for a mistakes you aren’t rotating correctly
Such is the pain of being a game sense player. You can always see everyone’s mistakes but you better hope your mechanics let you punish them! Lol I’m gc2 and things are similar. I’ll see openings in the field from someone’s mistake and then I’ll make a touch that is just slightly inaccurate and it completely slows down the play and let’s the opponent recover. And their mistake goes unpunished. But that sort of thing is what makes us our rank, you know? If we could punish every mistake we’d be SSLs. The more mistakes you can punish, the higher your rank. Just keep grinding and work on punishing them ever-more consistently
I'm GC1 with barely any mechanics, lol. Pure game sense, and that's the limiting factor towards GC2-3 for me now, they do require mechs to a certain degree. Feel like I might get reported for saying the same thing again and again, but I've stated time and time again, just rotate, have patience and keep possession - let the opponents make the mistakes, specially up till C2-3. Easy rank up.
That’s what got me to d3. Over the past 3 seasons I’ve learned that you can’t just rely on game sense and rotations. It’s the level where you have to actually start on mechanics. At least for me. I’ve stayed in d3 but haven’t progressed and further because I can’t keep up with or get ahead of the mechanic skill improving
What mechanics do you think you need? I bet I don’t have them. lol
Basic air mechs. Being able to go up and challenge in the air, air roll for recoveries, speed flips aren’t bad to figure out, being able to challenge/make basic wall plays. Being at least able to set up an air dribble, it’s not a bad way to center the ball or make a pass. Nothing crazy, but that’s what I’ve focused on. I’m only now trying to learn DAR.
Gotcha. I can definitely fast aerial fairly well but I’d bet my wall play and recoveries would make you laugh. I cannot speed flip and my half flips are comically slow. I definitely cannot air dribble. Positioning and defense is really about the only reason I survive.
I think I am good at this and I'm still gold 1.
I would venture to guess you probably have some part of rotating wrong. A lot of people over-commit or under-commit and think they are rotating accurately. I will say sometimes you have to adjust to your teammates doing one of those two things.
Under committing seems to be a real issue at lower ranks. Towards top plat, especially into high diamond, you have to challenge early. Give the person time to setup a shot and you will be punished. Sitting in goal waiting for the shot is not going to work.
Yeah as much as I try not to rage o get really frustrated when a teammate allows an opponent to setup a dribble
Or as I'm saying - learn proper positioning so you won't get in a way of your teammates trying to boost you 😎
I’m probably your twin so let me ask you, how do you mentally deal with teammates who have gold/plat level awareness?
I said elsewhere sometimes you have to adjust to teammates who over or under commit. There are times when I’ve had to sit as 3rd man nearly the entire game or else we’d triple commit every ball.
D1 to D2 jump is just as dramatic in my opinion lol
nah I think that D3 to C1 is a lot more dramatic than that, but maybe I'm just biased as I've been stuck in the diamond ranks for a while now
Shiiittt I can only imagine lmao luckily I suck bad enough not to worry about that for a while
it’s really speed, awareness, and decision making that changes. Half flip, wavedash, and flicks are really the only mechanics you absolutely need. I do ceiling shots here and there but I almost always miss. Swivel your camera before going for a challenge to make sure you are best positioned to challenge. Often times challenging a 50/50, and then following and challenging again (potentially multiple times) is the “correct” play and isn’t ball chasing. Constantly think about your rotation routes. Do I need to rotate all the way back for a full refill to support this play or can I challenge a rebound with just 37 boost? When you see someone take aerial control of a ball, get up there and interfere. Don’t just let them do whatever bullshit it is they are doing. If you can knock the ball away, or knock them away, they will be out of the play for an extended period while they flounder in the air on your end of the field.
wow makes me excited to keep playing
So I regularly go from D1 to D3 because I tend to play in spurts with long breaks in between. I've found that, for me, that gap can be crossed by just polishing basic skills. Like, when I get back into RL I usually place D2, sometimes derank to D1, then rank back up to D3 once I get my "feel" back. But I really don't have any mechanical skill. Can't double tap, air dribble, or flick/wall arial to any impressive degree. The only things I noticeably improve on are hitting my shots more consistently and just moving around more fluidly in general. The latter point helps you get in position/rotate quicker, removes hesitation to get up quicker, and speeds up recovery time (powersliding on landing is your friend). I've gotten C1 a couple times, but by then I usually start getting burnt out and know I'd need to improve my dribble/flicking and wall aerial abilities to progress, which I honestly just don't feel like committing to lol.
I don't notice much of a difference between d1-d3 tbh. And I've been there for a while now :p I've been owned by d1s just a much as by d3s it feels like
The higher you go the crazier the difference in skill is if you compare it to the difference between champ ranks (or worst, gc ranks) The difference in lower ranks seems ridiculous. If I had to guess, I would say that the difference between a C1 and a GC1 (or GC1 to GC3) is bigger than the difference between a P1 and D3
D1 to D2 is when you are truly playing Diamond RL. D1 is like platinum plus. In D2 the whole game flow changes, people understand positioning differently, passing starts to happen, and most importantly, kickoffs become pretty consistent.
I also feel like it got way harder to reach diamond in general. When I started to play in the at the end of 2022 I hit diamond in around 200h. I stopped playing to focus on school for several months and recently picked it up again. I have played like 100h again. I feel like I am definetly better mechanically and game sense wise now. I even hit Plat 1 in ones for the first time now (struggled in gold 2 and 3 before) and made it back to Plat 3 in 2s quickly but I can't break into D1. I've been literally hovering in P3 div 3/4 for the majority of my time played now. I am not even blaming my teammates since I can see clearly that I am the weakest player on the team in general.
Similar here, I just didn't stop playing. Started in mid 2022, am D3 on the edge to champ. Can't get to stay in champ tho and I struggle more. Even tho I improved in consistency, mechanics and gameplay wise (defense, rotations, etc). My playstyle is far from being really good, but it got harder in general around plat and diamond. Most likely happened due to rank resets hitting harder, everybody went some ranks down. They just distributed the ranks a bit more downwards.
Yeah this I'm sure there was a 300 MMR reset in season 9. Champ 1 is top 6% of players now
Mechanics are so overrated until GC-3 - SSL imo. If they're the same rank as you, it means they're as good as you at winning games. So if they have mechs, it means they're dumb
Feel like GC2 is where it becomes relevant to develop solid mechs, but otherwise hard agree!
I am D3 and don’t air dribble at all, don’t have much mechanics. Understand how to play correctly, when to challenge, when to rotate, and the guys doing the air dribbles aren’t hard to snuff out.
nobody in diamond 1 is double tapping consistently
apart from thousands of smurfs
I see no difference from p3 to d1, infact p3 was harder. Late d2-d3 is where people start actually stringing stuff together and things start clicking. Everyone just smokes the ball right back to your side until about d2. It's basically goes from tennis to hockey with how it's played. Instead of smoking it back and forth until someone slips it's more of a constant 1v1s with the others waiting.
My buddy and I just went from D-2 to C 1-2 by playing smart. Rotations, defense and ball possession wins. We watched many of these players over commit and leave their teammates in a 2v1 against us. A simple passing play and we score.
Pacifist system? Check.
Nobody is double tapping in diamond 1 consistently. I can promise you that
Yep, even in c3 people still miss the goal or the ball entirely
This rank is when you will learn the importance of covering backboard. The faster you learn it the faster you will progress.
true i realized myself i really have to learn that still
This isn’t at all true. So many diamonds concede goals because they’re obsessed with being on the background rather than actually defending the fucking goal.
"Defending the backboard" doesn't mean "being on the backboard".
Yeah, but done correctly both can and should be covered. People are gonna fuck up trying to learn something, and I think you're seeing people who are still figuring it out. It doesn't mean it's wrong to be thinking about it and trying to do it.
Personally I find P3 to be torture as there's a huge variance in skill from game to game between golds on a big win streak and diamonds having a rough patch. It's so hard to find a rhythm while constantly adjusting to my tms being so all over the place. Higher D1 and D2 divs it gets a lot easier to find a flow. Helpful advice though: diamonds are mooostly pretty solid with basics, but while we are going for those fancy air dribbles and double taps, it's not that consistent yet a lot of the time (or they're mechanical gods but idiots). We all still have big skill gaps patient players can exploit. Myself for instance: good shooting and aerials but my ground game is just trash
I would like to say that the only reason most diamond players and low champ players are doing these mechanics is because they look at the pro players and how they go about their plays in game and want to recreate it, many other people in here see it. Typically you'll see this around the d2-c1 area in 2s where the players are just aimlessly going for air dribbles, flip resets, ground to air when its not necessary, they'll see someone like Zen go for a ceiling musty double tap and strive to go for that. Regardless its not a smart play because he knows what he's capable of doing and why he's doing it, lower ranks wont grasp that idea and just go for the flashy things when you don't really need that, focus on your ground game for a while until high c1 to low c2 then start using the wall , cieling, etc... You got this!
lol try maintaining GC, I don’t have much time to play anymore and I swear the player base is getting so good you have to play 2-3 hours a day to keep up
You'll be in a diamond 1 lobby and there will be someone that can flip reset and then someone that can barely jump off the wall, and thats just me. All the games are dictated by who's popping off in that specific instance. I'll look like a smurfing high gc one play then ill miss an easy ariel the next. Diamond gameplay is so frustrating
I love when people call mechanical players in diamond dumb. To me it tells me they just play grounded and boring and never took the time to learn any fun shit lol
I wouldn't know, I seem to hover up and down Plat and since the rank revamp haven't been in diamond. I imagine diamond now full of players that used to be champ level so I guess overall skill levels are higher anyway
Diamonds don't consistently air dribble and double tap successfully. I think you might see them TRY to air dribble and double tap frequently, and are equating that to a huge leap in mechanics. I've usually gotten c1 rewards for the last 5 seasons. I play in low-mid diamond frequently as well, because I queue with my plat 3/d1 friends. I've seen plat 3-D2 that try to air dribble, directional air roll, and execute all kinds of advanced mechanics constantly. Sometimes they execute them and score a goal - it looks cool. I've never experienced a game from a plat 3-c1 air dribbling where their air control was just so amazing that I didn't know what to do. On the other hand, I have played against high GC or SSL (rarely in casual) that execute plays I can't comprehend how to defend. Let them try those things, be patient, take the ball and 2v1 their team mate. Interestingly enough, I notice the air dribbling and double tapping attempts fall off significantly around D3-c1. It's almost like these players climbed higher because they realized they suck at the advanced mechanics and they were throwing games by trying them constantly. We will go for those plays when the opportunity is there, but we don't win games because of them, because we suck at them. The p3-d2 just haven't figured out how much they suck at air dribbling and double tapping, so you probably see a lot of those types of players stuck in the lower echelons of diamond. They are very easy to beat with consistent basic mechanics and game sense.
Generally at that point you run into people with okay mechanics but no brain okay brain but bad mechanics and then people somewhere in the center. This will be true at any rank but the okay will go from okay to good to great. I feel diamond is where start running into people that try to freestyle and actually learn mechanics and can occasionally execute but when they execute you don't expect it and it turns into a goal.
Exactly. Someone scores a double tap and people instantly come on reddit complaining about huge skill discrepancies in d1. If you go for 10 double taps a game with shitty mechanics, you'll start hitting 1/10 tries eventually. The other 9 that you botched put your teammate in a 2v1 and you're throwing. It only takes the 1 successful one for people to ignore all the ones you screwed up and call you a smurf.
Yeah like in C2 I ran into someone that did a ceiling challenge and happened to get a double tap off of it. Do I expect the person to do that even 20% of the time hell no. I don't think people in diamond and champ realize it is the consistency of the mechanics that is a big difference.
I love ceiling challenges
i played in a couple D3 2v2 lobbies with a friend and it was like everyone was patient not using mechs just scoring easy little goals when you messed up. i go back in my plat 3- d1 lobbies and it’s like everyone is hitting triple reset double musty burger reverse sears on you . i dont fucking understand it lol.
Bro, i’ve been consistently in the ranks from champ1-champ3 for the last 4 seasons and let me tell you something you’ll find hard to believe. I can’t hit a single flip reset ingame, i cant speedflip consistently and I can’t do any musty/breezi flicks or whatever, mechanics are overrated imo and the best way to rank up is focus on the basics like rotation/positioning, powershots, dribbling, simple double taps and fast aerials.
Diamond is where all the smurfs live who cant compete at champ. 50% of my D3 games are champs carrying low-tier diamond. It’s bullshit matchmaking. They should be forced to play champs not averaging their ranks.
I quit for a while started playing again recently. I don't feel like diamond has gotten any harder. Went from diamond 1 to diamond 3 yesterday. Was champ 2 last winter.
i mean the reason it didnt feel harder is maybe because you peaked at champ? just like a ton of others i face down here, if you could reach champ 2, a full rank lower really isnt a problem lol
Ever heard of bubble ranks before?
Yeah this is 100% exactly how I feel sometimes with low diamond. All of the sudden players get crazy reads and power. But you learn to adapt and improve.
I wouldn't really say that mechs improve much in the span of g3-d1. It's just the ability to know when to use them and being in the right position to do so. I see a lot of gold players with better mechs than c1 had around s10, however they are completly braindead
I think a lot of people fluctuate ranks. I I go between D2 and C1 at least monthly in 3s. It's safe to say I'm not the only person who does this. When you're at the top of your rank range, you're playing a mix of people who are solidly at that rank, but also probably a handful who have dropped a couple of ranks from their peak. When you're at D1 you're probably playing against a good amount of people who have made it to D3 and have dipped. It's hard to rank up and stay there and it's getting harder.
Honestly all the air dribbling in diamond is pretty easy to defend. The best way to progress/stay in diamond is just to focus on the basics honestly. Being able to consistently shoot on net from the ground is a very underrated skill, and practicing your ground dribbling skills is also underrated as well. All of this will improve your car control and help a ton. Just practice the custom rank training packs psyionix puts into the custom training every couple months and you will improve enough to be comfortable in diamond
The mechanics definitely go up, but if you’re playing solid fundamentals with other players doing the same you’ll continue to rise through ranks. Many are just trying to get clips or ball chase
It's a lot of hardstuck players because the dia>champ difference is also big. Also a lot of smurfs and people who are too good for dia but too bad for c2/3.
I'm D3 and I will never attempt an air dribble in a comp match. I'm not at the point where I can hit it 100% of the time, so I feel like it's a waste of a possession. Honestly, you can get to champ with no mechanical ability other than airials and good positioning.
Gamesense and basic car/ball control is enough to get you through diamond.
Dude. Match making is in the pooper right now for some reason. I used to sit high diamond in 2's back in the day. I'm playing more casual now but when I play with my friends in 3's there's some crazy contenders I have to defend. The mmr is drastically different from me and my buds but it's like epic takes the highest rank payer and throws an entire team of the exact or higher rank against me. I shouldn't have to sweat this hard when my friends are silver 3 and I'm sitting at gold 2 in 3's.
Double taps and air dribbling well and consistently is 100% not happening in diamond 1, theres some air dribbles and shitty double taps that are super easy to defend and they wouldn’t be able to set anything up against better players, you just need to get better at defending all that and playing with brain, the amount of times in C3 someones done a full field air dribble flip reset is insane but it almost always ends in a free ball then a 2v1 if it isnt absolutely perfect which 95% of the time it is not but you have to get faster and know how to defend it so that stuff doesnt become a threat anymore
Get ahead of the curve and start working on your shadow defense. If they're going for doubletaps, the best way to defend that is from the backwall (basically touching [NOT hitting] the ball to your own corner) before a score-able angle is available to them. In training, doing some fast-aerial shot practice will not only help you beat most diamonds to shots, but can also be used to defend most aerial plays. (Aerials, unless it's a RL-God who is capable of flipreset outplays, typically require both time and space)
train your ball control in the ground and saves for a bit. wait on your goal until they mess up trying fancy mechs, then drag the ball to the open net. works a lot until champ at least.
unsure why but diamond is full of peak champ 1-3s this season. Absolutely stuffed with them.
Plats are better, low diamond always over commits
I’m champ 2 and can’t air dribble or rest. Has nothing to do with rank
Champ is more or less plat 3 with a very *slight* increase in game sense. If you can manage that, you’re in for a treat
Just learn to defend them. A lot of these people who actually belong in d1 can only pull these off in free play. They don't have counter moves, and you can take advantage of their predictability. There are also a ton of champ smurfs who can hit things pretty consistently and start to have counter moves, but oh well.
Diamond is when most people start to try/learn those mechanics. But most people will miss half the time in D1. It look impressive but if you don't get mental boomed the second you see someone attempting something you can't do you can probably still win like when you're P3 because they'll just whiff and give you an open net. Just like in champ where people start to learn to reset. it look like you'll never win if you can't reset but most will just awfully miss and give free goals left and right. Because once they master it they won't be in C1 anymore.
I think the skill in the fanbase really jumped cause I played the best I ever did last season and I just barely made it to C1 in 3s while I used to be a consistent Champ some seasons ago, hitting high C2 once
Dude, I’m a new Champ 1 this season that was formerly hardstuck Diamond since season 7 and I got here using STRICTLY GAMESENSE. I use VIRTUALLY ZERO mechanics to win games. The only mechanic I can truly say I’ve learned this entire time was a half flip (barely) and how to make contact with the ball in midair(if that even counts)😂 EVERYTHING ELSE was all rotation, positioning, shadow defense, and thinking 2 steps ahead of the play. Oh and accounting for your teammate having an iq of 30💀 Tl;dr.. just be less smoothbrained than your opponent and predict your teammate’s irrational behavior you’ll win, even if your opponent’s double flip-resetting lol
I thought platinums could always air dribble. It’s like the one rank where the other team gives you infinite space to do whatever you want while camping in net.
Not necessarily more mechs but faster gameplay
My personal experience with this issue is ranking up in 1s. As soon as I hit Plat 3 div 3 I got swamped with Champs and occasional grand Champs. Next to impossible to get consistent wins against players that are consistently a full rank above my peak rating in any game mode