5 Tips Gamers Need to Know to Improve Their Performance
You don’t need fancy ergonomics or hacking devices to become a legend in competitive video games. In fact, you can’t precisely learn from asking around the internet, and you can’t buy the skill necessary for coming out on top of the leaderboards. For that reason, we’ll go over the key factors that will help you become better at any game you play.
1. Take Awhile to Study Maps and Controls
Video game developers purposely position and create objects in maps that give players an advantage over their opponents with strategic planning. If players don’t know the controls of a game the moment they set their hands on the keyboard or controller, they can miss out on key features in the game where they’d have to go in and relearn it later. Before you ever begin playing a competitive game, study the maps, learn about the controls, and make adjustments to the controls to match your gameplay style.
photo/ ExplorerBob
2. Train Your Eyes and Ears
In competitive games, you’ll often hear distinct sounds when passing over textures; for example, a small metal strip placed on the floor of a warehouse. If your opponent passes over that metal in a specific spot of the map, you’ll know exactly where they’re at and you’ll be able to catch them off guard. You should also train yourself to watch the player action list, so you can know who has died or who has defeated an opponent on the map. Combine that with the sound of their actions when it happens, and you’ll know exactly what’s going on in your environment.
3. Team Communication is Key
If you’ve ever played competitively in games, you’ll notice that the team with the most cooperation and best tactics ends up winning the matches. Though serious gamers end up joining clans, online groups, or private voice communication channels for this purpose, you’ll only have an in-game chat to rely upon if you’re playing solo. If the communication is slow while you’re going it alone, learn your teammates’ play styles, and plan how you’ll back them up.
4. Use Input Delay to Your Advantage
Each video game is unique in the way developers have optimized their graphics for performance and how they code action abilities. You can find certain quirks in a video game and use it to your advantage, or pull off a skill that would leave most gamers scratching their heads. If your character’s body slides as it’s performing a “rush” ability, you could start at the top of a hill and jump with the rush ability to get to launch yourself. Take time to learn how fast your character would pull out a grenade and toss it, so you won’t end up throwing it too late.
5. Not All Games Feature Lag Compensation
Some video games today include a feature known as lag compensation, which essentially meters and averages your connection speed to that of your opponent. If your opponent has a slow connection, your connection would match up and there would be no network delay that would cause your fight to be unfair. However, not all games offer this feature and otherwise give the player with the fastest connection a better advantage. If you cannot accept lag as a reason for the defeat, then shop around and find the best VPN for gaming. Also known as GPNs, this technology prioritizes speed between your router and game, reducing lag, ping spikes and jitter.
Author: Carol Trehearn
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