Fixing Your Results-Oriented Thinking 

when gem started listing reasons we could be performing poorly he really felt like a father

The "why" and "how" is more important to answer than the "what". A mentality to improve at any game, and even in real life situations. It's helpful for anyone struggling in any problem, and it shows.

Man this video really reminded me of the ABSOLUTE number of times adults in my life when I was young would scold me for failing at something, and I would immediately identify the mistake I made, or the thing that happened that I now know to look out for, but I would be interrupted by them saying “Stop making excuses.” All they cared about was the result, not the mistake I made or the thing I didn’t know to account for, that I’m now learning about so I can fix the mistake and get it right the next time. It was literally the dumbest possible response they could have made and it was infuriating the absolute number of times it happened.

There's something so funny about how even small things like "cold hands" can affect your win ratio. But it's true. Cold hands mean shivering, and shivering affects your aim, and aim affects individual encounters, and each individual encounter affects the result of a game. So cozy up, and concentrate on finding ideal conditions so that you have an easier time either winning or studying your games.

This man is making me question my life more deeply than my psychologist

This was a very well-timed vid for me! I've been going deep into negative S+ lately so it's been easy to tilt. Thanks king

I'm so so SO happy that you mentionned all those potentially disturbing factors at the end, because oddly enough I don't recall many comp people even talking about these. And how huge of an impact something like not eating/drinking/sleeping healthily and consistently (ha) or being in a bad headpsace can have on your gameplay.

First time looking at thumbnail, I was bit skeptical. 5 minutes in and it's already one of my favorite videos Gem put out.

Such a nice take! If you're ever feeling stressed about your progress, take a step back. Instead of "I have to win consistently", think "I have to do things that win me games, consistently". You may be queued up with different players and weapons every game, but if you look into what positives you can do consistently, it becomes easier to respond if something random happens. I also can't stress enough having a routine - which are things you do to keep your focus, reset your mentality before going into tilt. I take a deep breath after a bad death, reset my controller position till I'm comfortable, only then that I jump back in.

Please don't forget to take care of yourself people. Have you eaten or had a drink? Have you taken anything for the headache or cold-like symptoms you have? If not then I'm gonna march my happy backside to your place and do my best to take care of you! You need a hug? I'll give you the best darn hug I can give because you and your health matters!! Edit: I hope this comment managed to make you smile because that's what I intended it to do. To make you, yes you dear random person reading this, feel happy.

This was surprisingly encouraging Thank you for making this kind of content gem!

I saw you in my lobby earlier today, felt really nice to see a celebrity in game. Very glad I didn't play against you, but I'm getting better watching your videos. Lots of very sound advice, not only for the game, but psychological advice that I can take outside of the game. Thank you for being a great teacher and putting this kind of info out where people can see it ❤️

3:09 - 319 is the advice all mid level players need to hear. Just this will break you into high level and beyond where you feel satisfied. I was absolutely like this in fighting games, my results mattered more than anything, and there the skill plateau only kept getting higher and flatter due to my own mental blocks. When you stop caring about your results and you focus within yourself and the game you're playing to feel satisfied with your journey that's what makes you break into the next level, and everything else becomes "What can I do to improve? Who can I talk to? What drills do I maybe need to try and get movement right?" When you do get that high result you wanted out of your hard work, then only then you can say "I did it, but I know I can do better" And that fabled hunger to get better starts to come out. So long as you still enjoy the game you're playing. Also give props to your opponent when they do good. That's also important cause someone else behind that screen could be feeling good that day and finally did something they wanted to do, or hell they could be tilting. Mutual ggs is a good thing.

you're such a blessing, i wish there were more people like you in all kinds of communities

This was kinda deep and reminds me of what I taught people back when I was in marching band and drumline. That you shouldnt treat a competition like a competition but instead like any run you do of the music. You practice the music hundreds of times. In a perfect world you give it all your effort every run or at least the strong majority. You don't practice the competitions you practice the music. If you treat it differently then you'll stress because that's not what you practiced for. You practiced to get the music as perfect as possible. You didnt specifically practice just to win. Don't focus on the results just do what you practiced all those hours for.

This might be the most helpful video I've seen on this channel. It's so hard for me to break away from general despair over bad results, especially when the game gives so many results-based rewards and highly visible metrics for tracking stats. I love playing, though, and when things go bad I try to center with the types of questions you pose here. Thank you for making this as a reminder to breathe and keep perspective.

other than splatoon i have played multiple shooters and tried to get good at them to the best of my ability and mental is something i have always struggled with. This advice is super helpful and frankly I think its funny that Splatoon is the game where I’m finally finding someone who goes into as much detail on mental as you do. Thank you!

Come for the Splatoon tips, stay for the life advice.

Mental state ABSOLUTELY has a factor i how well I play. If I play after a particularly stressful day at work (which is not uncommon), then that stress impacts my decision-making and causes me to me more impulsive in general, but especially when I'm playing a game like Splatoon. That just makes me more frustrated until I realize what's happening and decide to do something else. Conversely, when I came back from an in-person meetup at a bar and had the best time I've had since the pandemic started, I went on Splatoon and won seven Anarchy matches in a row. Managing and reducing your stress wherever you're able to will improve your entire life, but it also has the nice bonus of improving how you do in Splatoon.

I watch for the splatoon help, but stay for the deep introspective questions about my personal self... I needed that.

Splatoon has been fun. I only think about two things when I want to enjoy the game while not getting to enthralled by an unfortunate turn of events. 1) Quick Super Jump. If I don’t have atleast one sub of it, the game is not fun, I can’t make the insertions and picks that I usually go for and be safe. Get good with navigating the map and utilize QSJ and you will very much love this game a lot more trust me. 2) abuse your weapon’s RANGE. I do not focus on getting shots. 9/10 I stay away from the splash/Luna’s range and shoot at a distance so that they’re picked by fight me for too long and a teammate rolls the enemy team. Another thing to note. THE MORE YOU ARE ALIVE THE LESS LIKELY THE ENEMY TEAM WILL EVEN START PUSHING. Kills do not matter when you’re constantly dead during enemy pushes just think about it. Anywho find a play style that’s fun and try to polish it.

for years, i've shyed away from playing chargers because of a feeling of inconsistency ("it's fun to hit shots but i can never tell when i'll actually be able to do it" was a common sentiment for me, leading to me only really playing them in turf where stakes are low or salmon where the targets are usually larger and slower). the controller i've been using started malfunctioning recently so i've been essentially relearning the entire game on joycons so i can still keep up with my catalog. this video has helped me with my mindset on both of these. i've been trying to let go of a focus on short-term performance both because i've working to be more tactical and reflective in terms of improving my game sense and thought process for a while, and because i'm now also interacting with the game completely differently in terms of how it feels to play in a tactile sense. i think i jumped around a lot and probably wasn't very coherent but essentially what i mean to say is that breaking down the idea of "consistency" is a really helpful concept, as it's something i've struggled with both in and out of splatoon since honestly about as long as i can remember, but i couldn't quite find the words for it to fully start working through it until you laid it out like this. in short? thanks, teach. i needed this.

Thank you for this! I reached S+ again after ranking down at the beginning of the season and immediately went on a huge losing streak. I was finding myself with unlucky comps and also against completely cracked teams. PMSing also doesn’t help. I shouldn’t play online games when I’m hormonal and exhausted/stressed from the holidays 🥴

This is a very important topic that many people, including myself struggle with. It's good to talk about this in any competitive community, because people just get caught in that loop.

An underrated aspect of a competitive mindset. Good video, my dude.

Consistency in practice is important, though, for learning a new skill. Like, for example, how to do a standing backflip.

This is rather inspiring, I've been making progress to this by trying to understand why I get splatted here and there, but now I see there is a grander self reflection. I think this might help calm me on some bad loss ratio days, thank you :)

Good video, Gem! I'm going to write some of these down and refer to them after a match! I've been unable to get back into S+ since Splatoon 2 and I've been watching my replays to figure out where I'm going wrong. This will definitely help too 😁

Really good advice. It is always better to see the things you can improve upon, or the things you can do something about it and work on these, instead of looking for a goal that is written in a way that isn't clear how to aproach it. "Just win" can be so many things that even complete luck without learning anything could count, and that doesn't lead to improve yourself.

Gem you are super smart. It took me many years to figure this out so I'm very glad you are sharing this knowledge to others who need it.

I main Blaster and I've got about a 60 to 70% win rate in TC in Anarchy Series, and something I've noticed, is in a lot of the games where I loose or struggle, my team lacks paint, and the enemy team has it in surplus. For a while, I tried switching to Junior since that has paint and Bubbler and Bubbler was what I liked most about Blaster, which fixed paint, but made me struggle for kills. However, it gave me a wonderful insight on what Junior is doing, and when I switched back to Blaster, I also spent time in Open using different weapons I struggled with to see what they suck at, and it really helped me improve. My point is, pay attention to internal factors, but also look at external ones too, because those are much easier to identify and formulate strategies for.

literally the best advice ive ever heard for a game

Not just good advice for Splatoon, good advice for life

the medals in this game are so depressing, especially for some types of weapons, some support or anchor weapons dont get very good medals for doing what theyre supposed to do, which makes it look like they did bad in the game, which can completely change ones mindset. honestly i think if they just completely removed medals from the game many players experiences would be a lot better

this is such good advice in general, even outside splatoon

I need to be more consistent never stands on its own I always use it as an adverb, I need to consistently acknowledge where my teammates are or I need to be more consistent in living

I wonder if part of the issue here is competitive culture in general. Coming from a competitive Smash background, I know that I myself have been conditioned over many years to avoid "Johnning," or giving an excuse as to why one would lose games. "My hands were cold!" being the classic example that led to the term's creation. This kind of mentality does serve as a reminder that the common denominator in all of your losses is yourself, but I think it ignores the reality that game results don't happen in a vacuum. Sometimes your hands really were just cold! The important thing is that you recognized it as an issue and can take steps to fix it (i.e., warming up and stretching your hands, etc.).

Thanks Gem, this was well-timed for me. I’m recovering from a major surgery that affects my arms, and so I can’t quickly pop a 180 when an opponent surprises me like I used to, and am generally a little slower to react. I was already basically breaking even in S+0, points-wise, but now I’m losing about 70% of the time in Series or X and it feels bad. I’ve had to just ban myself from playing ranked modes other than Open for the time being, so I’m not in huge debt by the time I’m recovered more. I might try turning up my sensitivity all the way, but relearning how to aim presents its own set of challenges.

It's also important to remind yourself of your goals. Are you trying to be the best solo queue player? Are you just playing to improve? It's easy to lose focus and develop tunnel vision. You're gonna lose a ticket every now and then. Better to accept that and learn from those loses rather than beat yourself up about them.There's nothing wrong with feeling burnt out and wanting to take a break from the game.

Wow, I really needed this. I've been calling myself inconsistent at a lot of games for a long time, vaguely aware that it's not helpful but unsure of how else to identify it. Hearing an expert lay it all out like that gives me plenty to think about. Thanks bruv 💗

I was slightly tilting, time to poop and watch squid school, thanks Gem and SS, your content is awesome.

thank you gem! your videos are absolutely some of the most impactful advice for me. i have been feeling the slight annoyance of how i get bad results and good results day to day, and this is a good thing to look out for :]

Splatoon has driven me to take care of myself day to day in a way I never expected a video game could. I remember the day it released I had planned my meals and physical activities 2 days in advance just so I could be in prime condition to play. Tryharding has never been so good for me but I also found I can preform surprisingly well without a 2 hour warm up ritual if Im in the right mood so don't get so caught up you end up wasting time!

In splatoon 2, i had a pretty weird consistency. Some months id get 2400+s, while others id get 2100 or 2200. I think i never got two 2400 of the same mode in a row. I didnt and still down know why it was so. One thing i noticed is that i would do really good(80%+ winrate on blackbelly tc, but i had all

I've been tilting a lot in x battle recently and all I can think about mid game is "I'm gonna lose x power if I don't win!". thanks for this video. the number one issue I'm aware of with myself is my mental while playing.

y'know like I don't even play splatoon myself, but this video genuinely helped a lot and not just for games, but as a good way of thinking about tasks in general too a very good reminder to actually think about what I'm doing wrong instead of just getting annoyed at myself for "not winning more" whenever I'm not performing at my best

I loved the list of problems. I'm thinking of making an electronic checklist

I come from a background of playing card games where the "consistency of a deck" is a pretty important concept, so I was initially wondering where this was going. But I think you're absolutely right and you've given me a distinction that I may have known intuitively but hadn't yet put into words. Even in card games it's very different to say a deck is inconsistent - a kind of statistical measure of how often it can do what it wants based on how it's built - vs saying a player is inconsistent - a kind of lazy analysis approach as you said in this video.

I actually used this mentality a lot back when I played competitive mkwii. In that game, just like Slpatoon, I tended to be more proud of matches in which I played better only to still lose, and less so for matches where I play worse only to win. That allows my reasoning not to be biased by the overall result, but analysing my individual plays better for the sake of putting into question my decision making. It's an effective way to think of things, especially in games as jank as Splatoon, Mkwii or Smash.

I personally find that I'm inconsistent at the game because it's so rare for me to be playing at my best. It takes a good hour of me playing the game for me to get "in the zone" and then I can lose it from mental fatigue, either from playing too long or getting a really bad loss streak

this has got to be one of my favourite videos on this channel, seriously thank you Gem you always have the most helpful and insightful advice

Great vid🙏🙏I have been watching a lot of this channel recently and these videos have rlly heped me change my mindset while playing and i've felt more accomplished while playing (and I think my technical skill has improved too!) 👍 interestingly as an artist a lot of these splatoon things I've found also apply to art/drawing as well! so double usefulness effect ahah. Thank you for the vids!! :D

when he got into making sure i ate and slept well enough....splatoon is life lessons not just game!!!

Consistency is what you are improving, so to call it useless is to miss the point of what you are doing. The best players are the best because they are consistent in their conversions, their movement is consistently amazing, and they consistently make good decisions. It's easy to say "I need to improve my aim, movement, or decision making," but what are you really improving? Increasing your TTS and reducing the average delta between optimal and actual performance. That's why grinding the mundane will help you improve. Get into that layup line. An "inconsistent" player hasn't completely harnessed the mental aspect of the game and tend to not be focused on what to do. Maybe the inconsistencies come only from macro results rather than diving deep into what's occurring. A bunch of up and down games in a set vs. a team you are better than is extremely concerning, where that same set vs. a stronger or same level team could be seen as a positive.

Consistency is a very useful word to describe everything that the .96 isn't

This is kinda unrelated but has anyone else found it really funny to play turf war ever since christmas? On christmas morning a ton of new people got splatoon so turf war lobbies were like 90% new players so if I ever want a few easy matches generally turf war will give me that There is also the other side of the coin which is where I get all new teammates and the other side gets none so I just lose anyways but it's still fun that way

Honestly, I feel like you should be somewhat inconsistent. I main the splatana wiper and one of my main tactics is using ninja squid to hide in a place where the other team doesn't expect me to, then splat them or throw a torpedo at them. But, if I keep going back to the same place to shark, I end up splatted because they know I'm going to be there.

Hey Gem glad to see the content stream keep on coming 😊

Gem tricking us into improving our lives

Another factor behind consistency can obviously be related to strategy or playstyle. A "high-risk, high reward" playstyle will tend to either win big or lose big, for example. In many games, certain characters are described as being inconsistent if they have a lot of polarizing matchups. In Splatoon, some weapons are probably inherently more consistent than others, for example, shooters are probably more consistent than chargers. With a charger, whether or not you're landing shots swings the game in a way that shooters don't really have to deal with.

I agree with all this completely, I like to think of the goal in mind first and then think about what steps are best in order to get to said goal, so if I want to win a series I don’t think “just win” I think on how I need to win in order to achieve that goal, such as pushing up when we have tower to effectively halt the opposing teams progress on stopping our push, or popping rainmaker and taking it the most effective route, etc. As you think of those goals new goals will come and go, and using the steps you used for a smaller goal to achieve a bigger goal is key, along with knowing that you won’t win every game, the only people who have never lost a game of splatoon, haven’t put many hours into the game, anyone who’s played 10+ hours of splatoon has probably lost at least one game. It’s mainly all a bunch of different factors contributing to the eventual growth.

Consistency is something that should only be used to describe aspects of the actual game rather than the one playing them. It makes way more sense to say that a particular weapon or character is inconsistent because can get screwed over by a bizarre amount of different matchups rather than saying that player has had a 50% win loss rate and is therefore inconsistent. The former actually teaches you something that you can use to your advantage while the latter is just spouting useless numbers.

damn gem i wanted to know about squid game but this ended up as an analysis on how healthy my lifestyle is

(running analysis for no reason, so don't mind me spouting all this. If it helps others, then good. xD) Yah, but what if the results oriented thinking is the only way we're able to push forward to improve? Knowing there's something wrong but not what and figuring it out via investing time into practice and analysis is typically something worth doing, especially if its on your own time without a coach or someone else who does have valued time. I suppose you've got a point though, that not all thoughts need to be about 'oh we're about to lose'. I do know that I have thought 'I can handle this' and got surprised when I couldn't and the rest of the team I was on just fell down like dominoes, making a very easy victory for the opposition. There were times I wasn't certain and managed to hold on just long enough for a victory. Consistency is very much not a thing in a game like Splatoon, but even knowing that does not dissuade having results-oriented thinking given the game modes and what each weapon and play style tells you. Even if one has a group that plays well together, consistency won't work unless you've been discussing strategies on what to do for ALL the things you'll go up against. I wouldn't put thinking into goal-oriented format just yet. Most people don't think in goals that work outside of having instant results, especially in a game where you get instantly visible results on a very constant and consistent basis. The most important thing to think about isn't the overall objective, as that in itself can cause heavy stress since you won't think about just the one thing....there will be the entire process of what has to happen and will easily scare people out if those needs are not being met. If you know one goal and currently you know that your weapon is fit for that role(which everyone is going to think even if you know your play style does not fit it), you will attempt to make that goal happen. Breaking free of this method of thinking may help temporarily, but there are a lot of things in life that demand the results-oriented thought process. Being able to be trained to think in both methods does come as a 'luxury' rather than a skill or something one would find useful. I don't wanna discredit your ideas, but its facing an 'in an ideal situation' kind of phrasing instead of settling down with the reality of what these people are facing while playing. Yeah, its not healthy but if other people are gonna just throw it onto others to figure out, then there's gotta be some answer given so they don't just keep demanding help.

There is one thing that definitely is consistent, though Gem is consistently based

I've only been playing Anarchy Open for awhile now because there's no pressure to winning games like in Anarchy Series. After watching this video, I think I can figure out what's causing me to perform worse in Series. Great video, and thank you :]

"Consistency" as a metric is fortunately more helpful to describe sleep schedules and nutrition and exercise and practice sessions than winning a competitive match, since the former are all easier to control and schedule than teammates or opponents or moment-by-moment encounters. There's unfortunately a significant amount of players (even in 1v1 fighting games) who derive fun from winning and seeing numbers go up, so they quit or complain the moment they could not win.

Very good vibes. Gem, you're doing such a good job with these videos and your streams. Keep 'em coming :)

This is a very good mindset set tip. Great video it was very funny and informative!

Excellent 😊 thanks!

5:07 one day. it will happen one day...

So to summarize, stay hydrated and you’ll be fine 👏

Remember kids, this is also dating advice

Would love to hear your thoughts on Intensify Action? Good/bad in general or for specific weapons?

im not a splatoon player but this might help me with something else... if i can find the process in the first place, which i probably need to ask a professional about

When Gem started listing the reasons people may play worse than other times, I started realizing that I'll likely never be good at this game xD

The attractive coworker is me

Yeah im consistent, i consistently lose every clam blitz match😎

Awesome video, thank you

I've been maining the splatana for a while, and one thing I like to do is I go back the entire oponent team, hit everyone to get their attention, then die with no kills or one trade (I have quick respawn), so I get a quick easy push or two or 3 picks a lot of times (funny)

Thanks. I need a Tylenol now. I just have fun, and do my best..hahaha

This is exactly why one of my work supervisors frustrates me, he talks about getting things done quicker, but never actually points out a reason why we may be, at least to him, slower than anticipated, nor does he give us something to do about it. Just says a vague thing _while_ also grabbing all of our attention to distract us from our tasks lmao

I play splatoon to play splatoon, not to allways win lol But i learned: if i dont feel good for some reason, my gameplay is also not good

Good luck with your attractive coworker

I probably still suck because I still have trauma from the harassment I've dealt with from this community to the point where it's the only thing I think about, even while playing or trying to distract myself. I can never have peace of mind

Day 1 of seeing Gem in my lobby (writing a comment whenever I turn on my switch and see his inkling)

I think I found you in my plaza 🤔😯

omg i am in the VID, but i played so poorly

One view and four likes nice.

Very good, game irreverent, video.

Honestly Gem, thank you for your videos. I first started watching just because I wanted to get to a decent skill level so I wouldn’t die every match. But the emphasis on constant learning made me fall in love with the competitive scene! I’ve been really struggling with perfectionism in general for the past few years and I’ve been trying to be kinder to myself. Seeing that even top level pros are constantly learning and improving and that it’s just part of playing the game really helped my outlook on life become much healthier :)) I’m working on letting myself be bad at things before I’m good at them, and that that’s ok. You’re awesome !! 🫶🏼