X Rank's Role for a Competitive Player 

I’m going to assume this is also dating advice

Managing my emotions is my biggest problem in this game, and my win/loss ratio really shows that because I’ll be super easy to frustrate after just one bad game and then I’ll play like trash for multiple games in a row. I’ve gone through this same situation with bowling, and it’s interesting how much my mental problems in that sport paralleled with my problems in Splatoon. I need to have more chill when I fail at stuff, because failure is how I get better (as long as I learn what I did wrong).

Yeah the weapon comps in x battles are beyond me sometimes. A lot in x battles i'll just go backline so that no matter what, at least i know what ill be playing. It leads to double backline games or even on an extreme, a triple backline game, but most times it works fine and i get some consistency.

Gems finally top 500

I knew it wasn't just my imagination! X Battles felt WAAAYYY more consistent with the skill level of my teammates. I felt like I could trust them more and I didn't have to babysit them as much. Unfortunately I was only at S+ before the new season came out, so now I'm back to playing Anarchy mode in S rank hell. It feels like there is a wide range of players all forced to play in the same pool for no good reason. I swear I get stuck with people who don't even know the basic rules of the game. It's incredibly frustrating. I'm already in rank points debt and I just have to pray to the Splatoon gods to give me good teammates. Why doesn't every mode function like it did in Splatoon 2? I gave that game a hard time for it's ranking system but I was wrong. It was far FAR superior to what we have now.

You talked about how the 5 ticket systhem isn't that bad, but during that you only mentioned the side on which you win, and neglect to mention how utterly soul crushing it is to get a -10.0 score, knowing that you lost points overall, not because of your fault, not because of your teammates fault, but because you got matched into one top 500 player while you are 1900, or the same good charger player (because you're a charger and that's apperantly the only other charger online right now) multiple times in a row, knowing that this ticket systhem screwed you over. Like, it's very hard to keep a positive mindset after experiencing that. I don't often blame my teammates, but fuck, knowing that the game screwed me over with this new makes me really blame the game, becase the game makes me feel like I have good reason to blame it. Also, the difference between weapon ranges is jarringly noticible, I was a backline player for a bit, and decided to use mini for fun in X rank, expecting fully to lose. Instead I win multiple series in a row, some 3-0. Am so much better at mini than explosher or e-litre? hell no! did I get like 200 more X power by switching to using that weapon? yes! The X rank matches feel much, much more unbalanced to a backline player

There are times in solo queue where it is hard to adapt to what your teammates are doing. This can cause someone to be even more mad with their teammates in those situations. If you don’t understand why they are doing something then you might say they are doing it wrong.

its funny how going on twitter the majority of the complaints of bad teammates come from low-mid level players and the top level ones barely complain despite the fact that they should be the ones suffering most from them

I think X battles are good for learning adaptability. Solo cues are generally unpredictable because you never know who you’re going to be playing with or against, so by playing X you can learn to take up different roles depending on what the situation needs.

Yo gem, I’m a comp player grinding for +3 atm and I find your content very useful! Especially when thinking about how to approach the game and trying to improve my game on an intellectual level as well as mindset-wise. Keep up the good content man

I know you already did a video about splat3s ranked system but I’d love another one. As a casual player I’m very perplexed/frustrated by it. In splat2 I never got higher than s+ seven in any mode, so I never got to try X rank. After a hellish climb to S+ I got to try X rank for the first time and matches were sooo much easier (low powe 1500-1900 depending on the mode) I actually felt like I dominated half of my matches in x rank. Now that the season has reset I’m already in the negatives in S rank getting spawn camped 30s into matches. It’s overwhelming an frustrating for someone who plays less than 2 hours a week. My goal was originally to try to get to s+10 but now I wonder what the point is when X rank match making seems more fun and less brutal.

I feel like stuck in S is like slightly a real thing cause its the biggest "you have to make better decisions" wall and you can't win if you are the only one making better decisions? while stuck in low-X and

This actually does apply to Anarchy Series too, especially rank up battles. The other week, I spent a lot of my day playing the game and did several rank up battles to regain my S from chill season. Lost all three and got upset, having been under the impression that rank up’s were 50/50. I really should’ve stopped for a few breaks and took a minute to cool my inkjets. And as someone who struggles to pay attention to their teammates and sometime opponents, I’d recommend finding a group and playing Salmon Run. I paired up with a lot of people during the Big Run just gone, and I feel as tho I started to pay more attention to the Salmonids and my coworkers more. It’ll take you a few games, but you will click with any players you’re paired with. Also, cheers Gem for catching this slow learner up to speed :)

I feel x rank puts a way higher weight into weapon class than skill or even range. Also missiles seem to have their own category. Still remember the worst match I had of my team being reef goo under shot vs flingza eliter brella pro. Complete range difference and the dps output wasn't even close. Matchmaking can be weird.

Man I went through this vid and kept thinking, damn Gem is really smart

To answer the question "is this what he's thinking when [you] make a mistake," quite simply yes. It sounds like your friend readied very harsh words from another aspect of their life and simply forgot to change their verbal loadout for the videogame. It isn't so much that this friend meant to target you or anyone though. They just confused themselves in an unhealthy and unfortunately unpleasant way, and need to trim the deck of words they bring into this environment if they want to stop doing this. Easier said than done, but worth it.

I really like how the Power level actually gives me a better view of how good I am compared to my friends and isn't afraid of dropping when I'm not performing good unlike the regular rank in Anarchy which seems to want to just make me feel good about having an S+

2:11 Sees 2 chargers, a Nautilus and a Brella... *cries into my Dynamo Roller*

When I first found the channel back during my grind to splatoon 2 x rank, your tips on positive mindset single handedly got me there. Even circling back to splatoon 3 x battle, when it first released I had largely forgot how important mindset was, and when I remembered my winrate immediately improved. There is no point wasting energy on things you cannot control. X power is not the end all be all of skill. If you are not having fun, get off the game. Please

I honestly always feel better after a play session when I'm complimenting plays my teammates and even the enemy team make, as opposed to getting mad at either. Realising where the enemies are making good plays and even where my teammates are helps me learn WAY more than just getting mad at either. And, if either one makes a mistake, I make those too. And I can learn from them. Sessions where I start getting mad at either team always end pretty briefly (partially so I don't get MORE upset), and sessions where I'm focusing on improvement and complimenting enemies for good plays make hours feel like minutes.

17:14 And that's basically why I haven't played much of S3 since about a week before chocolate fest lol. I've literally had a more difficult time climbing in S3 than in S2 so all I really have been doing lately is logging in for my "free" Shell-Out reward (the 5k BC daily one), and only really actively playing anymore for events. Logging off as soon as I finish a frustrating match has legitimately improved my mental health. I'm not getting any better at the game, but I've simply learned to accept my skill caps off at a certain point in most shooters when I'm being forced to aim with my right hand - being left-handed, this makes my aim measurably worse, because my right hand can be really shaky while my left is just fine. If only I had the option to use my left joycon's motion controls, which it DOES have because left JC can be used for motion steering in MK8...I'd be able to climb higher. But as soon as I reach the plateau I'm like "kklol this is it ig" and stop trying to "grind" rank trhen and there. I still mostly play ranked tho but that's simply because I really only like Zones and Tower.

The only thing I disagree is the weapon part. Some weapons are more teammate dependent as others. In the last video from ThatSrb2Dude about the new Jet Squelcher, he said that the weapon in Splat Zone need support from the other players in the team and he felt, that he could not just take the initiative with that weapon. I felt the same playing backline weapons, hot headed plays from teammates as we are in a already disadvantage and you can nothing do except hold the ground try to fight back until they are back. Which mean most of the time 1 v 3 or 1 v 4 and they have there specials and in that moment where I must fled, there are 1 or 2 jump in. 🤦

As someone trying to form a competitive team, THANK you for this video. Unrelated side note I went against Gem in anarchy open the other day and he’s a beast

thanks gem, i needed this vid

Thought it was just me on the judging thing, it gets so bad for me to the point where I always try to edit enemy player's names out when posting a clip publicly because I wouldn't want that happening to me. The fear of being in someone's kill montage holds me back a lot and makes me overthink every move I make or every push my team makes

Greeting, Gem. This comment is completely unrelated but my friends and I ran into you in Rainmaker on Friday. I must say, it was an honor to be obliterated by my own teacher 😅

This season I'm working on adapting to whatever the heck my teams are trying to do in series. I actually won a series. I haven't won a series in 2 months. Admitting I partly hurt myself sticking to one role, but the roles I used to play physically hurt after an hour. I still cant understand some folks, or the matchmaking (I got placed on triple back line so much) but im trying to take it more in stride. I just do my role, and ignore the alled luna trying to hang out in my back line. Guy might help if something got past my arrows and the others, or perish in a fire whatever. What's important is fixing my ability to adapt. Im not always gonna have space, im gonna get bombed, counter sniped, specials launched at me like a target of the us military. Im in anchor, the opposing team wants me gone, and that's true in both solo and teamplay. I know in teamplay I need to work on callouts, I know I have a tendency to not call "(weapon) in backline" and perish with no help. That's on me, I can't blame anyone for that.

This was really helpful. I'm currently S rank and have gotten rejected from a lot of teams, and this made me finally realize it's not just that I'm playing bad, it's that I keep doing badly because I'm focusing on the pre-conceived notion I will do bad and thinking about that instead of doing the best I can

The judging teammates thing in this video is so interesting and true…

16:35 putz12 take notes you need it

Just got double tri stringer, vanilla charger, neo clash blaster in x rank... AND WE WON (well we won once and then requeued together for some reason and lost the next one) tbf it was tower control and 3/4 of those weapons are at their strongest in tower control but still

Top players play the 'easy' slayer weapons. As a full support JR its very hard to make a difference in games.

As someone who recently started playing X after an anarchy hiatus, this is good info to learn. I've been thinking about trying to get some higher competitive experience in with organized teams, and might look for one since there's different skills to learn. (also i lost a crushing 122 points in one of my X series recently, it exists)

this wake-up call is exactly what i needed gem! I think I'll go take a shower now and then get back on a more mindful grindset...

I noticed there are people who enjoy the game /only/ when they are winning, missing the point of learning being a valuable experience. "I'm angry because I treat every match seriously!". If they did, they'd really work on their mental skills and try to direct their focus to the aspect of the game that would help the team win. Maybe they could delay the push for the sake of the teammates instead of rushing, even though they think it's the right moment, instead of blaming the others for lacking the skill to follow. Maybe paint the teammate's feet when they're stuck, so it's 2 on 1 and not a trade, etc etc There's a lot to work on in Splatoon and I think it's great and engaging.

This information can pretty much go well with any competitive video game or any sport, basically it's all about the mindset!

10:55 so true I do that all the time but I just can't stop blaming myself for it.(I knew that this happens)

2:01 i really do like this system but with how little mid-range charger players there are, squiffer bamboozler and goo tuber all get matched with e-liter and charger/scope. Again i wouldn't have an issue with this but i play squiffer and have nothing to deal with the e liter in my kit, point sensor can't poke and big bubbler will just redirect the liters attention and back up a bit

Hi Gem, definitely agree with a lot of this video. I’d like to hear your thoughts if you have any on something that I guess is at least somewhat related. While we do all get the same teammates in X Rank, do you think being a recognizable player can influence things? For better or for worse? For instance, if I am teamed up with someone like Kiver, even though I play an aggressive weapon, I’ll tend to play more reserved because I know kills shouldn’t be very hard to come by so seemingly the only way we’d lose is if objective is neglected. Whereas if I don’t recognize any of my teammates, I’ll continue as a traditional slayer and hope my teammates will take care of the objective. Do you think recognizable players like that are having an appreciably different experience in solo than the rest of us? With how many top players seems to play under anonymous names, I wonder if they at least feel they do.

Do you have any references to studies regarding the idea that making/hearing harsh judgements of others increases self-consciousness? That could be really interesting to look into if it hasn't been formally yet

I have related question. Does the game put you against harder opponents during rank up battles? I was demolishing one ticket, 5-0. Then rank up battle ticket went 2-3 and I felt like the games were way more skilled and definitely much more difficult and I got kicked back down and next ticket felt super easy 5-1. It’s like I got put in a lobby of higher ranked players and I wonder if that’s exactly what was going on

not me out here learning all about competitive play and x rank when I'm still in B- 💀

Rank X in Splatoon 3 is a frustrating and awful experience where basically the match depends on how lucky you were with your teammates. We can rant how much we want but this is a team game and if the skill level of the people in your team is plain awful you will lose.

Once again advice for a funny game about squids translates surprisingly well in how we should treat others around us and how we can facilitate growth as an individual in all aspects of life. Great video Gem!

What was your first XP in Splatoon 3?

I look at it like this - if you can win consistently in X rank and know how to play off random teammates that you haven’t played with before and you aren’t communicating with, then in a team setting where you are communicating with them it’s just going to make you that much better. Like basically if you can hang in X rank then playing on a team where you are coordinating should be a cakewalk. X can train you to play on a team without actually coordinating so when you are on a coordinated team, you should be pretty proficient.

11:36-11:52 This is a good philosophy for real life

I wish I had a team I don’t have any friends or friends that like splatoon

I wasn't fully paying attention to the actual question prompt. I really just saw "X" and not "power" so I don't know if that changes anything. Not in 3 where anyone who gets past S can play. The only thing in it's favor is that you could say it's self selecting in that some people will be too intimidated to play on it, and that kind of thing. It's funny, because I was talking to someone about it during 2s reign and they were saying that X in that game was too permissive. Basically, the skill level of people in lower X was so far removed from from higher X that there's no comparison - and it was always possible that they could still end up in the same match. Basically, there should have been more ranks between the highest skill and and lower skills.

The biggest problem for anyone playing X Rank isn’t you. It’s the system. We’re playing a game where a brand new player can be rolled by high level people and instantly lose 250 for it

I like how the video is about splatoon but can be applied to any game or competitive mindset in general. banger vid

How important is it to assess the capabilities of you and the opponents team?

In my opinion, points mean nothing in the long run. They don't provide anything useful, just clout. Clout is temporary, and very few won't know/care that a player has high points. The large majority of people (I might be wrong about this) aren't into the competitive play due to their very own reasons, like, aren't into it or don't have the time, for example. People see points as a measure of individual strength, not collective. When the points get lower, they might think that they've gotten weaker and want to do everything possible to get 'stronger' again. This is a team base game, after all. Individual experience is much more valuable, and applying that experience into a coordinated team it's the best way to go.

I dislike the mindset that soloq is just like "worse comp" or whatever. Soloq is its own skill aside from comp. I really wish there was advice content oriented towards helping people get better at soloq specifically.

As an s2 Soloq warrior I lost all form of joy grinding the new X rank Between the fact that I can’t find games and that the new ticket system is awful to me Most wins don’t make me feel anything now I don’t care if it’s more rewarding because no matter if I win or lose I don’t feel like any game has an impact I miss the old X rank If they fixed the matchmaking on s2 it would have been perfect for me but even still I preferred the « flawed old system »

Congratulations Gem

Yeah about the negative thinking When my teammates leave in x rank battles or lag out it carries on the game When the other teams player leaver the game just stop immediately

Feel like the only thing the weapon match making system does is put you against the same weapon you are playing

Last season I reached my goal of getting to S+, but I'm unsure where to go next to improve at the game. Anarchy battle, X battle, or just try and find a team to play scrims with?

you talk about weapon roles on team comps so let me ask something; how come you consistently play supportive with ttek? For example in the first game you had a comp that had naut, jr, and nzap. In this scenario Jr would play pure support and naut would sweep (not really a good case for backline) leaving you and nzap. Nzap is undoubtedly a better support weapon than ttek yet you play for tristrikes instead of for kills. Is there something I'm missing here?

A pure glicko system is what this game desperately needs. Overhaul the letter ranking and implement pokemon showdown's elo system devs, pleeeeease

Bro really said “Touch grass when you’re mad” 💀 He aint wrong though lol

The Anarchy system is SO weird, and it's even crazier that if you don't grind to S+10, they kick you out at the end of the season; literally doesn't matter if you're at 3000 X Power. The "Rank-Up Battle" thing just sucks... I always just pray a good team shows up in the one Rank-Up series because that's the only time it matters.

"...focus on what you could do better, don't blame others..." this is more dating advice ain't it

You know what helps? When you are at a 30 - 15 win rate stay clear of ranked and play turf war or maybe open untill it stabilizes to a 50% win rate. I swear they put you in impossible situation's when you have won too much to even it out. Of course you can ignore that when you are really good and perform consistent no matter the comp etc

Hey gem! nice video, is this also dating advice

That being said I have little interest or time to invest into MAYBE getting into competitive play. Mostly I'm looking to have fun at a decently high level of play, and that's good enough for me :)

can someone please tell me what the hell a "glicko" is??? he said it 500 times and I am so confused haha, thank you in advance.

Kinda rough finding a team when you’re a 2300 with no competitive experience😅

I was playing open with a youtuber and i was in a game with gem and i won because gem and an other player dc

Isn’t x rank just s+ with another color?

LOL GEM SAID TOUCH GRASS 🤣

14:37 I would rather have bad confident player than bad players who get nervous cause that shows they know theyre bad meanwhile the confident players stay consistent and possibly play better due to shrugging off bad criticism. Youre in X-Battles, you made it here with your skills to fight off bad players, why are you nervous?

I think mindset in general is something people don't pay enough attention to, because getting angry at yourself or your teammates (or game balance, which is what usually happens to me) definitely does affect your ability to play the game more than people give it credit for. The other thing I noticed is that in almost all of the games that you showed in the background, whichever team captured the Splat Zone first had a massive advantage and that attacking into a zone the enemy has captured seems to not work very often, which makes sense but seems to indicate that rushing to the zone to get it first is super important.

Absolutely ego crushing message to some degree but a very good one nonetheless

This is going to sound crazy, but I don't put too much thought into my X Rank power. As a support player, my primary goal should be painting, pushing/defending the objective, and helping teammates in fights. As someone who wants to develop by skills, I can practice this more in Anarchy Series than X, since Anarchy Series rewards me with medals to see if I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing

Should’ve carried harder it’s a mindset issue

And yes as you all know: this is also dating advice.

so just carry your teammates.. in a team game?

The discussion on twitter is just plain pointless. The X rank discussion started because it is the salt from Splatoon 2 “bad teammates feeding etc.” but on steroids. I have vod review matches and had to tell my friend: “There was nothing you can do to win the match, your team had no coordination and even if you followed them up you would have feed just as much. All I can do is tell you some good positions to go for and hope next match has better coordination. Just take a deep breath and don’t beat yourself too much” You may not like 2 splashes going 1 15. But you are not trying improve their skills, focus on what you can control and that is you. And that includes shaming players for doing anything. Including swapping X rank regions.

X Battles is basically like F1 racing, you don't get littie Tinas or Timmies driving 1000+hp track missiles, you get people who are mentally and physically tuned for such a demanding league. Same goes for X. Also, while soloq will help one mechanically improve, at least in my case, it caused some selfish habits to develop that are extremely hard to get away from once you're in a team and you gotta keep an eye on everything, while keeping your mental state in a somewhat stable, composed manner. You don't get bad teammates when you're in a coordinated team because everyone is doing something to help.

Also, a lot of top players are very negative about EU/NA players joining the JP X rank. Because 'they are not good enough'. Top players should be more helpfull and less toxic.

Sixth

you need to stop making so many videos i don't have time to watch them all(they are too good)

Good thing I don't play comp. I don't have to deal with these nuances.

First

And yes, this is also dating advice.