Hey,



This is a long post for people serious about improvement.

*Intro Section*

Recently I've been playing more and more heroes and thinking about my long history with the game.

Just as a bit of a catch up, I played a lot in Hots' early days. I competed in a lot of heroes hype tournaments, was a part of 3 teams, beat dunktrain's early cloud9 roster once, lost to Idra twice, got sponsered for a short time, went toe-to-toe with teams like Panda Global and Blaze in the early days, Got schooled by Erho's zeratul and really enjoyed Heroes for a long time before becoming a grouchy old man for a long time. Too long.



With that history, I've learned a lot about the ranked System - I've played over 10,000 matches across 5 accounts - with games played on NA and EU and China. What I've learned is that a lot of people are frustrated with Hero League. People are frustrated by Hero League, and their own community shuts down any attempt at trying to make sense of their frustrations.

People often become frustrated with:



-Hero League feels punishing, even when you win, as in the struggle doesn't outweigh the cost



-How quickly you can lose ranks is very tilting (lose streaks happen)



-Game Knowledge is all over the place across certain ranks, with players of great game knowledge being paired with players with zero game knowledge commonly enough, or one team stomping another into oblivion.



When a player voices their opinion on the frustrations, the community responds,



"If you lose at a rank, you belong at that rank. You just aren't good enough to advance"



"The enemy team has more chances of having trolls than your team does"



"The odds are always in your favor, its your fault you lose"





This general mindset the community has is one of the greatest reasons why people have a frustrating time in ranked. Players don't feel vindicated when they have these negative experiences outside of their control, and then when they try to find some people to understand their plight - they get nothing but blame on themselves.

If you complain about quitters, bots, or trolls, you get shut down. If you complain about the lack of quality matches, its your fault. If you complain about anything at all, its your fault. This is primarily reflected in game and in reddit - where most of the common players reside. Less so on Twitter and twitch, I feel.

I believe that players aren't looking to be told it's their fault - they're looking for advice, or help or any kind. They need to be told "The game is like that, but you can get through it. Here's how".



I think that the negative feedback is real deficit in the community, and I want to talk to you guys about what is really important if you want to improve and be good at heroes of the storm (as far as hero league is concerned, at least.) Because you're not going to get quality advice on public forums like Reddit, or quality advice from teammates mid-game. You're going to get all the wrong responses that distract you from focusing.



Most Community focus for teaching (like Kala's community coaching for example) is on picks, map knowledge, mechanical skill -- all of the things necessary to be good at this game and how to maximize your time spent in game. There is more to what you can bring to the table though before that; There are more fundamental things that you need to master. We're here to talk about that here today.



*End Intro Section, now real content*



First, Let's talk about Mindset - then secondly we'll talk about Character.



Your mindset in ranked is what determines your ability to persevere through the bad times, to reach the good times. Most players play Hero league FOR RANK. For the prestige of being a higher rank - the Verifiable PROOF that you are a good player, or an improved player. They use their RANK as a signal to their friends & Communities of their qualification, time put in, etc.



This mindset is damaging to your improvement, as a player.



Seriously, lets talk about it - Some examples.



Ladder Anxiety. That hesitation to queue up for fear of losing your rank points. That possibility of failure. That stress - derives from valuing your rank above your experience. It comes from a lack of that desire to just play, to just compete, to just win.

its the wrong mindset.



Rage - Most commonly derives from losing ranked point, though not only. Most commonly derives from bad experiences you feel are out of your control. A lack of Focus - because you care about your ranked points. Your verification of your identify as a heroes of the storm player. You want to be good. You want to win, but you say your team mates are holding you back.

Its the wrong mindset.



To be good at heroes of the storm, you need to play the game. The rank points are not the game. Silver is not the game, gold is not the game, platinum is not the game. Draft is the game. Post draft is the game.



The game is what happens from the 00:01 to the finish line of every match. The game is when the gates lower and when the core is destroyed. Rank is not the game. Rank is a distraction, a point based system trying to measure skill but ultimately will never accurately represent it. If you can ignore rank - if you can ignore gains and losses of points, you will get the most value out of your play time. If you hunger for victory and experience above rank points - you will better shrug off defeat and circumstances outside of your control - and infact, you will become SO FAMILLIAR with situations outside of your control, that you'll spend less time tilting about it, less time losing hope - and more time figuring out if there is anything you can do to counteract it. You will know your enemy, and you will know how to defeat them - even if that enemy is manifested in the mistakes of your teammates or your own screwups.

Your Mindset is the most important part of playing heroes, because it is what helps you queue up, draft seriously and competitively, and play aggressively for victory. You're not here to grind rank - you're here to play heroes and you're here to win and THAT is the mindset that will help you grind out games.



As for any competitive game, you have to play the game. 100 games, 200 games, 300 games it doesn't matter, you just play the game. If you want to improve, you play the game over and over and over again because WIN or LOSE you need to play. Play a game, Lose? Play a game. Win? Play a game. Over again.

I'm not talking quickmatch. I'm not talking unranked draft. If you want to play competitively, you queue for heroes and you compete to win over and over and over.



That is how you improve. You focus, you put your head to down and grind it out - and you focus hard the entire time. Rank is a distraction that prevents you from focusing and improving - and if you do away with that distraction, you'll see drastic improvements. Do not use your rank as a benchmark, do not use your points as a value of satisfaction from your games. Win or Lose your play matters every single time, focus on that.



When the distractions fade away, all that is left is yourself, and your enemy and the game - and its all about who has more practice time put it - more experience - and more skill. You can't be better than them if you have the wrong mindset. You can't be better if you are creating roadblocks for yourself. Furthermore, you can take all the knowledge in the world - all the information from streamers, coaches, watch pro games, watch your own replays - but if you do not put it into practice over and over and over again, you'll gain nothing. No, you'll gain worse than nothing - you'll dangerously thing you know something, but until you've put it into practice over and over again, you've not learned a thing - and that is more dangerous than knowing nothing because you'll lead your team astray just as well as yourself.



Next Topic, Character.

Aaron Gordon once said, "I understand that time management is crucial and being punctual is part of character. Having high character leads to winning."



True words. When you watch a streamer you look up to, Like Grubby, or NubKeks, or whoever and you aspire to be like them - Good at the game, Knowledgeable, decent people - you get inspired to play heroes. You pick up the mouse and keyboard and you queue up.



These inspirational Personalities in the Heroes community have Character and it influences their play. If you show up to Heroes with 110% and you Say that you're hungry to win, hungry to just play, HUNGRY to just COMPETE - you don't care who it is you have to beat, you'll beat them. You'll play them 5 times. 10 Times, 20 times you don't care, you just want to beat them - then you have the right mindset - but you MUST pair that with the right character to achieve victory. You need to not exhaust yourself raging at teammates, being "Toxic" doesn't just poison your team, it poisons you. You need to show up ready to play.



Example, I once won a game by screaming at my team to do the right thing until they did it. We won the game because of it but I had to stop playing for the next hour to calm down. In the end, the win wasn't worth it and even then, I had to force them to win for me so what value did I really gain? Temporary Rank points? Useless.



Serious players don't rage at their teammates because they take the gamer seriously. If you're raging at your teammates, you're not taking this seriously, and you're not trying to win - you're trying to tell other people to win for you. You need to uphold your character in communication with your team, and in your own play.



Improve your etiquette, improve your character and you'll stop poisioning yourself and becoming the largest road block to your own improvement/success.



Lou Piniella, a coach, once said "The biggest part of this job (coaching) isn't on the field, it's in the clubhouse"

And it's completely true - you need to act like a winner if you want to win. You need to put on your game face and take things seriously if you want to improve - if you act entitled, you will not get far. If you act disrespectful to your enemy, you'll ultimately end up disrespectful to your team, and to yourself - and then you aren't taking it seriously anymore - you're not winning - you're losing in game and off game.



If you do these things, you'll improve your ability to win, you'll improve your attitude and how long you can go before needing to take a break - you'll improve your ability to shrug off defeat and things that do not matter.



These are the keys to success in a competitive environment people. You need to be a go-getter, and go-getter's don't have time to quit, pout, or get ragey. They just don't have time - and if you take those things out of your Ranked play, you'll find that the extra time invested in winning will pay off. - It might be 100 games before you see a pay off. It might 200 games, but the pay off is there and if you're serious about getting it, you will go get it.



You should rather lose 500 games, than win 500 games if at the end of those 500 losses you would be a better player than you would be if you won 500 games. And honestly, that is playing heroes.





Thanks.