These are my top 4 tips for being a better gamer, you will find that they are applicable to a lot more than just gaming. These tips do not focus on mechanical skill within a game or even necessarily the game knowledge itself as there are plenty of players who are strong in both of those areas but still struggle to climb. These are things that I see successful players (and people in general) do on a regular basis.

1. Be less toxic

Stop being toxic to other players sure, upsetting/annoying people will never get you the win. But it is equally important to be less toxic towards yourself. What this means is letting go of the negative thoughts you have regarding how a game may be going or the actions of the players in it. Holding onto those thoughts will not change anything other than how you feel and feeling angry or upset because you don’t know how to let something go is pretty toxic towards yourself! The only person it hurts is you.

Try and change the way you interact with the thoughts that you have, notice them, acknowledge them and then let them pass by, try and imagine them as boats on a river. They may be your thoughts, but they are still external to you and they do not define who you are or how you feel. When you have an angry thought e.g ‘they should have healed me but they didn’t they are so s**t we can’t win with this noob’ take a second to examine it and you may realise that it is not fair or even that it just does not matter in terms of achieving your goal as that thought and the information in it does not get you any closer to a win and with that realisation let go of it. The headspace meditation app is fantastic for helping you develop this talent.

Being relaxed and calm is hugely beneficial e-sports where physical strength is not a limiting factor and focus and decision making are important. Remaining calm and relaxed allows you to enter into a ‘flow state’ where everything is clicking and you are able to execute seemingly without trying. So learnt to let go of the toxicity, not just suppress it and the wins may just start rolling in!

2. Analyse yourself

Analysing the decisions you make and the actions you took helps identify the areas that you can improve. The more practice you get at breaking down what happened into small pieces the better you get at identifying opportunities to improve. A few good ways to get started with this are:

- After a match identify two things you did well and one thing you didn’t. It is important to be positive and maintain the fun! Remember to give yourself a pat on the back for the things you did well and think about how you could do them even better next time; people will often fall into the trap of thinking ‘this was not a problem so I don’t need to work on it anymore’.

- When you die in game take a moment and ask yourself these three questions: Was it worth it? What should I have done? How do I make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Sometimes it absolutely is worth it! But ask if this really was one of those times? What did you gain from it, what did it cause the opponent to lose? Even if it was worth it what could you have done to get more out of it? If it was not worth it what do you need to do in the future to make sure that it does not happen again?

When you are analysing what happened make sure you are only looking at YOUR actions, there is no point dwelling on what someone else should have or could have done, you cannot affect that!

3. Set Goals

Goal setting means you can get a continual sense of achievement and it drives your improvement. There should be three sets of goals you work towards:

- A goal for the match

This is a self-improvement goal not ‘I want to win’ think ‘ I want to make sure that I do not die during the laning phase and I will make sure I check the mini-map every five seconds to make sure that I am not about to be ganked or to communicate what you are doing on voice chat.

- Goals for the season

This should be a realistic goal, not going from bronze to grandmaster! A reasonable goal could be to play at least 50 games, in most cases this will be enough to significantly increase your rank and it does not apply performance pressure.

These goals will make sure you realise when progress is being made, stops you losing motivation and helps you keep track of what needs to happen next to improve. Having goals keeps everything in perspective when things go wrong!

Long-term goals

How seriously do you want to take the game and how important is your rank to you? If you are playing for enjoyment your goals should be different from if you are playing to be competitive.

4. Know when to take a break

Know when to stop when things are going well as well as when they are going badly. It is important to maintain your motivation and your enjoyment of the game. Make sure that you stop while you are still in a good mood otherwise you might burn out and become toxic!

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About the Author: My gaming tag is Arena and I am a high-level Heroes of the Storm player. In my professional life, I have worked in a variety of industries at well-known companies and have been the founder of several companies.