Time investment for playing competitively?

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.

Hehe I 2nd that

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

Hey,

You sound like an awesome guy. Can I get a man-hug from you? Maybe I can absorb some of your radiating aura of skillfullness by rubbing myself against you, Daniel!



OT:
I think it's vastly different depending on a lot of things. As was previously said, every RTS to a degree requires the same initial skillset. Having experience with RTS will certainly help, else you'll have to play a lot more initially the make up for that. If you aim for low to mid tiers I'd suggest 2-3 games a day, a different faction every time. When you lose a game, watch the replay and note down the problems. Like, literally write them down - that not only helps you to actually memorize it, but also helps you greatly long term to keep track of your issues. Do you always make the same mistakes with a faction, but you just can't learn to avoid them? Then that's probably not your strongest faction if you compete in tournaments. Sometimes their playstyle just so differs from yours, that even knowing what to do you fail.
If you really aim for higher tiers I'd suggest finding 2-3 scrim partners. Make play sessions against them, specifically targeted to counter certain strategies. Ask your enemy to play the current flavor of the month strategy and try your counter. Afterwards watch the replay together and analyze if it worked (maybe just needs a bit better execution) or not.

1-2 hours a day might be a good starter, then adapt to how good you want to get. Just as a comparison, when I was playing World in Conflict we had like 40 to 50 hours a week training or tournament games. I use that as a comparison since it's similarly big (though more people there played competitively) and since I always just played CoH2 for fun. Find a good scrimming partner who you enjoy playing with and who is roughly your strength. You need some reliable opponent that sometimes does exactly what you want him to do, even if it's the most annoying abuse.

I haven't played an automatch 1v1 in about a month and I'd say I'm still top 100/200 material (Totally not pretentious/cocky or anything). Back when I still used to play 1v1s fairly regularly, I'd play about 2/3 times a week (Although I'd play maybe 10/12 games in a single marathon on a single day every fortnight where I had work/university off).

Of course, there are players out there who have, like, 1k games in 1v1 and are still top 1000.

Although people don't like hearing this, I think most if it comes down to innate skill. A lack of "natural" finesse can be compensated by just full on spamming games and perfecting build orders (e.g Sage/PanzerGrenadierAngriefen) but it's time consuming.

When I watch people like Jesulinn, Barton, Twister, Cruzz (and other top players) play, there's something about their micro and attentiveness which just seems unparalleled. I don't watch many replays(or at all now that I think of it: Only if a replay is crazy insane good and has been recommended to me by at least 2 people which has yet to ever happen) and play with a hugely diverse number of players, but something I've noticed is that there's a huge difference between someone who is just naturally good at something like an RTS and people who are too clumsy or slow with their micro/tactical thinking to truly ever excel. I've got people on my friends list with 1.8k hours in game who are really quite bad.

Of course, at the end of the day, it's only a video game so don't overdo yourself unless you truly enjoy it. Personally, I generally hate playing 1v1s. I'm not necessarily bad at them but it's just not enjoyable to me, so I doubt I'll ever be top-tier at them. It's different for everyone I guess.

+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.

Yeah, that's pretty true. Just know what kind of builds people are doing, set up some defense or harass/deny their builds and it's pretty much game.

I've been playing CoH since 2006 and CoH2 off and on. I don't really play as competitively anymore but my win ratio was around 75% when I was playing 1v1 and around 60% in 2v2. I don't have time anymore for CoH but it's still fun to do some team matches whenever time allows.

Is playing 2-3 matches a day enough to get you to a rank of say below 500? Currently 1191 as Ost and am wondering whether I can reach there. I plan to reach below 100 eventually. I play mainly 1v1

Is playing 2-3 matches a day enough to get you to a rank of say below 500? Currently 1191 as Ost and am wondering whether I can reach there. I plan to reach below 100 eventually. I play mainly 1v1

Considering you're currently on top with Ostheer, the least favoured Army, you seem to have made a good start. Just keep going!

Considering you're currently on top with Ostheer, the least favoured Army, you seem to have made a good start. Just keep going!

Thanks, I always had a liking to doing something that is the least popular or hardest.

Honestly, if you like the game and you'd like to improve your skill I would stick with 1v1's. Those are the only ones worth playing atm. They are the best balanced.
2v2's, 3v3's, ..., is just a blobfest and nobrain gameplay.

Ping > skill

Pros don't want you to know.

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.

Lucas Troy, what is your favourite faction? Do you have one, or you play all factions? Based on your answer, I can give you a piece of advice.

Having a big amount of CoH1 is huge too, apart from having some different units they game play very similar micro wise at least so having 500-600+ hours there helps a lot too

I've only got about 180 hours in CoH2 (only had it since June) but played at least 600-700 games if not more in CoH1. And probably like 1/4 to 1/3 of that is 1v1 yet my best rank is ~1000 for OKW.

I got to the top 100 playing 3 games a day but it's different for everyone. I have been playing coh since 2008 though

I got to the top 100 playing 3 games a day but it's different for everyone. I have been playing coh since 2008 though

I hate you......

I hate you......

You shouldnt. He's THE Shit

I hate you......

Rude.

Rude.

LOL

I got to the top 100 playing 3 games a day but it's different for everyone. I have been playing coh since 2008 though

Playing 3 games a day and reaching that rank is something never achieved by any human before.

Playing 3 games a day and reaching that rank is something never achieved by any human before.

To clarify: I have a long history with RTS games and have been playing this series since 2008. Also my 3 games a day included watching/analyzing replays of my played games and watching streams/replays of other top players.

I guess most of the points about that topic had been said and it's done ^^

2 games per week are at least not enough, if you are a beginner to CoH. The reason is simple, you have to get a good knowledge of the game (to play competitive):
e.g. my enemy (US) is building a AA HT, how do I counter him (as OKW), which is the average time a tanks appears by this and that faction (I have to know it in 1v1 and 2v2, because the times are different).
All this facts you are just learning through playing by yourself at the beginning. You have to train, to take care about "all that many" information on the screen at once (Ress, fighting units, Map, Enemy, etc), to still make clear that you got an overview at all.
I would recommend (as a beginner) to play 2 games per day, just to get to a descent level, as well as:
- watch and analyze your replays
- watch Replays/stream of high skilled players
-> I would recommend a stream, because through this you can see their micro and watch them playing during a match
- Discuss and read in forums
- Take a look onto the changelog, when new appears
- Read guides onto CoH2.org, they are written by experienced players
- Train, train and train

Many of the higher ranked players got vCoH experience (I personally had been playing vCoH since release and that helped a lot in CoH2). So if you want to play competitive you have to invest a lot of time you fill this gap of experience.

You should also focus onto a mode at the beginning (1v1 or 2v2) and then try every faction in that, to get a detailed overview about them.

Joining a Clan can also help really much, if they do weekly training, special Replay analyse sessions and all this stuff

But you also have to ask yourself, do I want to invest that much time in CoH2? Or do I want to stay a "normal" gamer and playing all my games with the same time investment. Because both is not possible, if you are a working person.