The introduction of the 1v1 and 3v3 playlist to the live server this week was the last thing I expected to help me not only become a better player, but also to feel confident in my ability as a player. But after playing them both nearly nonstop since their introduction I feel like it might have been the best thing to happen to me so far in this game.

The first time I queued up for 1v1s I was sure that I was going to be absolutely destroyed. I was confident that I was a horrible mechanical player, and that I would be torn apart by whomever I was pitted against. then the unthinkable happened. I won. not once, but five times! I even went perfect as McCree vs McCree! I was certain that it was a fluke, that the next game would be a wash and all would be right with the world. Then I won a few rounds and ended up going 5-4 with a close Mei game. and I realized "Hey, maybe the reason I was doing so badly in QP and Comp wasn't because I was bad, maybe It was because I had convinced myself I was? Maybe I really was Seagull's long lost brother? Then I lost 0-5.

But instead of letting that put me back into my "I'm terribad and should stop bringing my team down" mode I decided to look at what I had done wrong. I recorded my next couple games and looked over the losses, and It helped me see all the little mistakes I was making, all on my own. The things I had never been able to catch in all the hectic frenzy of 6v6. the fact that I was always leading too little with projectile heros, the fact that I tend to aim for the neck with hitscan. The things that I had been letting slip through the cracks in my own mechanical play.

Then I thought "What about 3s? Maybe that can show me something too?" And it did. It showed me how to move as a group, how easy it is to be separated, how important having good coordination is. These smaller modes made it so much easier for me to see how much each piece actually mattered. All the way from having good positioning to making sure your team comp is balanced. It was almost like playing under a magnifying glass, It made everything so much clearer. It allowed me to really see that I wasn't just "bad" but that I was making real, tangible mistakes, and now that I could see them I can work on them. Maybe this realization Isn't as grand as I feel like it is, but to me seeing the game played on this smaller scale was the change of perspective I needed to boost my morale and to help me improve. Maybe it could be for you too.