For any old school Counterstrike player, there are many differences between what you’re used to and what you now have. It’s not just the graphics, it’s not just the new skins and labelling system for your weapon collection and it’s not just the fact that in-game comms now works. It is the Competitive Ranking system.Movie Carol (2015)
Undoubtably one of the most frustrating aspects of the game thus far, especially when you are in a group of people that all play at different times and at varying amounts. Even us here at the Nomads have a massive divide between our members, making it very difficult to compete for fun unless five of you are all on at once.
This because a very evident problem with myself and my son, who after all was the reason why I reinstalled steam and started CS:GO for the first time. My son wanted to game with his dad. Imagine his dismay when his Dad suddenly reaches Gold Nova 3 whilst he is still stuck at Silver 1. A gap far greater than 5 ranks means it is impossible for us to play competitively together even if it is for fun.
I have watched him for weeks struggling with random teams, ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime, winning, losing, and everything in-between. I couldn’t believe it was that hard to get out of that opening rank.
So we had a little fun over the weekend trying to get him out of Silver 1 and on his road to gold. A little tutoring, a little help, stepping in every now and then and trying to help him improve how he plays irrespective of the team he is lumbered with.
One thing that came as a great shock to me was the number of idiots there are playing in competitive games, at one point we played alone with 4 bots because the other players all left; the loss effects his rank and through no fault of his own. That combined with people that Team Attacks, the kids that just think it is fun to kick you because you don’t speak whichever language they’re using and peoples clear inability to work as a team.
“Rush B” is a term that begins to make your heart sink as the opening games begin.
StormShadow said “But it is impossible to get out of Silver 1, these people are idiots and all it does is makes it worse”. His dismay and frustration very evident. So we begin. “Sneaky peaky like” into Silver 1 competitive.
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As you can see, it isn’t easy and we didn’t bother keeping a screenshot of the losses, well lets face it, nobody is happy when you’ve just lost to “Smurfs” or lost because you had a team of bots, as good as Ernie is, he isn’t quite good enough. That was most of Saturday taken up, 6 wins with at least 3 losses and a draw. It was heavy going and mildly depressing, until of course, Silver 2 suddenly appeared!!! The excitement and joy on his face was evident, he was beaming like newly fitted LED headlights on a supercar.
Had to keep at it though, despite my telling him that he couldn’t play with his school friends if he wanted to continue his success, its nice to be able to play with your friends, but when they’re not interested in the tactical side of things, its very difficult. “Why would you bother wasting your time with that, just play casual with them until they decide they actually want to win.” That is what I said and he actually understood it.
Silver 2 unfortunately is more of the same, but the wastes of space become less and less, giving rise to more and more appropriate players wanting to get better. Wanting to play in a team that both enjoyed it and had fun. He made at least 5 new friends, all on at differing times during the day, perfect, meaning he could always have at least one other player on his team that he got along with and knew wanted to play to get better.
It took a lot longer as Silver 2, despite some amazing scores which you can see from the screenshots.
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He ended the weekend as Silver 3, no mean feat that’s for sure and it’s still a way to go before he is good enough to play in a game with anyone to many ranks in front of him as his game isn’t consistent. But, and this is very important, he now has a renewed interest in playing, a renewed vigour and hunger for getting better as the thought of “Silver hell” is slowly coming to a close.
So remember, when you’re down at the bottom, don’t play with people that are to far ahead of you or that can “carry” you through games, there is no point, you won’t actually get the opportunity in game to get any better and evidently you want to get better.
Good Luck and Have Fun with your ranking and competitive play. If StormShadow can go up two ranks by having a little focus and playing consistently, you can do it to!
Had a good read. I believe that he will get up to our ranks but even tho it sucks to play with the silvers and be a silver it does teach you how to aim and you learn allot about the maps that are in the competitive rotations.
Me myself started at Silver 1 as I had been playing my 10 first matches with another silver 1. And I worked my way from Silver 1 to Gold Nova 4. It takes time, it forces you to learn. But once you get there you feel really good about you’re self.