Time investment for playing competitively?

Question to those of you who play competitively at a medium to high level: how much time do you need to put in for that? As in, how many matches a week?

I like the game a lot and want to learn how to play better, especially better micro and multitasking, better grasp of unit strengths, etc. If I play like two matches a week, am I likely to ever get there? I realize this probably depends on the person, but I'm curious what experiences other people have had. I need the time for real life stuff... and to be honest, also other video games, of course.

The game radically changes over the months - consider what it was like in February, compared to March, compared to April. To me it seems like this means constant re-learning of balance and strategies which is cool but also time consuming and prohibits learning the game gradually since the meta is different every month.

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Two matches a week? Sorry but no, maybe 2-3 a day minimum to get to just a decent level. With two matches a week you'll barely even be able to improve in comp stomps let alone 1v1 play.

According to Steam I've played for 773 hours now, and I would consider myself at a medium to high level. Two games per week is not even close to enough.

2 games a week wont get you anywhere.

I got to 700 in the vCoH Wehr ladder once. I played at least 4-6 hours a day.

I was also a high school freshman/sophmore though (a bit stupider with plenty of time on my hands)

I'd say you gotta play 5 days a week at 4 hours a day at least.

It depends on how much you study replays vs actually playing. I would rate this at the absolute top of important effects on play ability

But I'm mediocre so...take words at face value

2-3 games a day is what I've averaged when I'm interested in CoH. Thats usually averages to something like 2 hour sessions a day. I have ~ 410 hours played, so you don't have to have thousands of hours invested to play at a medium-high level. It helps to watch replays of your matches to see what you did wrong, but as well as see what you did right. Watch replays from other high level players, watch twitch streams if you have time.

2 matches a week and you will be learning for this game for a long time.

Actually the biggest advantage you can have is coming from CoH1. I came straight from CoH1 and played that from 2006-2013 with some brakes. But I had some thousand games in those years. Don´t know the exact amount because of smurf accounts. But it has to be somewhere around 1000-1500 games played. And this practice is a gap that´s hard to close if you are new to the CoH series.

Yeah, being a CoH1 vet made a huge difference for me.

Analyze your replays, watch casts, watch pro's replays and think when you play. That's as important than investing time in just playing.

Sorry, Lucas Troy, but what the others above me have written, is undoubtedly correct, if you want to attain a very high level..

If you cannot afford the time,then maybe go 4v4, if you want to attain a level of sorts,without investing the time? 4v4 is much easier to play on CoH2, than vCoH.

The others will probably explain it better, but you have to know the maps almost instinctively in 1v1, where the green cover is placed naturally,and where you will have to create cover, and how the Army you use works best within those maps - and how the pathing works. You can then develop the intuition about how the opposing armies may work, and how to start countering them with simple and more complex tricks/moves.e.g. mines (of different strengths)/sandbags/wire at salient times within the game; the strength of one unit vs another @ short/medium/long range

At 2 hours per week, I would hazard you are constantly refreshing yourself to attain a level of knowledge you had before, without progressing much further forward.

Having said this,Twitch is an invaluable educator...as long as you mostly concentrate on the Streamer,not the Twitch chat

gl hf

Analyze your replays, watch casts, watch pro's replays and think when you play. That's as important than investing time in just playing.

This, totally this. "Play smarter not harder". Also, ask advice from forum guys.

Also, use SU-152 while you are learning. Good crutch is good.

try to get a couple of games a day. i started working a full time job and i can usually squeeze in 1-2 games a day

This is totally dependent on your innate RTS skills. I barely play and still smash fools.

CoH really just comes down to timing attacks. The micro/macro skill isn't as heavy as any other RTS games.

Thank you for the input, everyone. Noted about streams, replays. I'm a fan of watching those anyway and hadn't factored that in, so if you include that, there's more...

To clarify, 2 games a week or so is what I would tend to do, but if upping play time just a bit could bring me into the lower half of midlevel, that might just be worth it. I was curious how much I'd have to step it up, as it were.

Also, was just generally curious about what an "esport" type game entails. The concept is new to me but it's something I'm interested in. Competing in a sport generally requires at least like ten hour a week commitment so what you're reporting makes sense.

So maybe a total of six hours a week in various MP stuff (mostly matches, a replay here or there) and that might be enough to play at a decent level?

I actually win slightly more than 50% of my matches when I do play, but that's usually against new players or other people who don't play frequently.

Thank you for the input, everyone. Noted about streams, replays. I'm a fan of watching those anyway and hadn't factored that in, so if you include that, there's more...

To clarify, 2 games a week or so is what I would tend to do, but if upping play time just a bit could bring me into the lower half of midlevel, that might just be worth it. I was curious how much I'd have to step it up, as it were.

Also, was just generally curious about what an "esport" type game entails. The concept is new to me but it's something I'm interested in. Competing in a sport generally requires at least like ten hour a week commitment so what you're reporting makes sense.

So maybe a total of six hours a week in various MP stuff (mostly matches, a replay here or there) and that might be enough to play at a decent level?

I actually win slightly more than 50% of my matches when I do play, but that's usually against new players or other people who don't play frequently.

Professional Starcraft and League of Legends players practice at least 9+ hours a day. And at least you are winning 50% or more of your games

As one of the highest ranking players(top 5 at one point) in 2v2 ranked for CoH1, I have to say that you need a fair amount of time/games played. I have over 2200 hours of actual playtime for CoH1, so it's been relatively easy for me to get into CoH2, and won't be long before I get into the top 10 for both 2v2 ranked and 1v1 ranked.

Basically, you won't get anywhere if you only play 2 matches a week or so; you need to play a lot more than that if you want to compete in the upper echelons of the CoH2 community.

This is totally dependent on your innate RTS skills. I barely play and still smash fools.

And I play a bunch and get smashed by fools. So yeah, there's definitely truth to this statement.I wish I picked a game to really like that I was actually good at.

CoH really just comes down to timing attacks. The micro/macro skill isn't as heavy as any other RTS games.

+Watch other good players.
+Stick to few "builds" till you get used to them.
+Do you a favor, use hotkeys. Try with grid configuration, use autohotkey to bind the keys to your liking.
Start using some abilities and control groups, and then slowly start to add a few more.

Finally, what mode do you play and what´s your ranking at the moment? If you win more than 50% you can easily be top500 at the moment. If you are between 55%-60% you can easily get top200.