keeping it at a fun level during competitive gameplay

As soon as I join people in automatches in Teamspeak, I often witness a lot of frustration in and after the game if people lose their matches. There is swearing, there is blaming, there all sorts of frustrated reasoning……..and I am not completely immune to that either. Especially in 1v1 automatches, too often I feel a tension that is beyond fun.

Then again, there are people like complexity, who seem to be having enough mental distance to the game to keep it fun. I see him laugh when he yolos a vehicle into AT…..stuff like that. And I like that attitude a lot.

For me it is an attitude of not getting frustrated over losing units or games, but keeping it fun while still playing competitively on a really good level.
I want a piece of that.

less stress, less tension, more relaxation and fun. In the end, that is what I am playing it for.

Any recommendations? your own experience?

Dont play 2v2 random, hatred will seek it's way into you then!

Wait for when relic finally decides to add a mute chat button so I don't have to listen to my opponent egging and swearing at me when they are losing/winning. Sometimes, it's just better to have silent games rather than listen to whatever BS rant people want to give out in their rage from real life.

The game would be more fun if there wasn´t a downrank like there is now.

Sometimes I feel cheated about the win. For example any game where the opponent fields double snipers is imo cheap. We can go around theorycrafting how this can "easily" be countered. But as a matter of fact in 2v2s double Snipers from any faction is vastly overpowered and can destroy whole games.

Further there is a lot of rng involved. A Panther can go down with some hits or stand there being hit 15 times, still not taking any damage.

This is all very frustrating in a game where you invest so much energy. Coh2 can be exhausting, while ego-shooters etc. are just "die and respawn".

That´s my explanation for the bad mood of most players in the game. Oh, and fuck people who spam snipers.

To be fair, I wasn't always like this. It is actually really hard to strike a balance between "I want to be the best at this game" and "I actually don't care." Those two feelings are at odds with one another, because it takes a very conscious investment of time, energy, and thought to be great at something, while still not getting so invested you get angry at what's going on.

Company of Heroes at its very worst is extraordinarily frustrating in this regard. This most recent CoH tourney is actually a great example of that with BkModTest. I gave credit over and over again to Hulk for preparing and planning for that CoH tourney, but man did BkModTest just get totally boned when it came to his snipers in that match. BkModTest is an extraordinary wehrmacht player, probably the greatest. Losing in the way he did, it definitely affected him emotionally. Especially when people in chat were calling him BkSaltTest and all matter of dust-kicking that really would make anyone never want to come back to this game ever again. He was asking me to ban people, to kick them out, because well, his ego was seriously hurt.

I didn't kick those people, but I explained to him that he just needs to cool his head. This was a fun tournament which frankly had a small prizepool, and just because he lost doesn't mean he's any worse at the game. In fact, that's all any of this really is: it's just a game. There's no way your automatch rank, your tournament placement, whatever, can define what kind of player or person you are. You can't control the RNG in Company of Heroes, but much like EVERYTHING in life, you CAN control how you respond to it.

Sure, sometimes you can't, and I say this over and over again, we're only human and emotions run high. You get that out of your system, or better yet, you have a plan in place to deal with when it happens, and you move on. For me, it's really as simple as taking a deep breath, staring at the ceiling, and just putting it into perspective. It's just a game, and if I want to get better, I can't be crying to RNGesus just because an engagement didn't go my way, I need to change something to keep it from happening again. Finding what that change is can't come from an emotional place, it has to come from a logical and reasonable one in the context of getting better.

I have a lot of fun on my stream, and sometimes I don't consider playing against players better than me fun. Then again, if I keep avoiding it, I'll never get any better, so you've just gotta do what the british do: keep a stiff upper lip and crack on.

stuff

Damn hippies with their positivity

+1

In other games the salt can be reduced by having a ranked mode and non-ranked. It is frustrating loosing when anything counts towards stats or play cards. It forces people to follow the meta and not want to try new things or join automatch games.

If you could opt for nothing to count then maybe the rng gods insta wiping 3 squads in a row won't leave me grey before my time and a fist imprint in the door.

If you are in the mood and want the match to count you can do it when you are in the mood.

Damn hippies with their positivity

+1

it's that Colorado weed maaaaaaaan mile high state

lots

good to hear that even you struggle with this topic.
It probably already helps already to, as you said, “take a breath and put things into perspective”.
And I like your ending: keep a stiff upper lip and crack on :-)
I will try to keep treating as a game.

Thank you a lot for the detailed answer!

Fun whats that? never heard of it.

Just shout "For the fuhrer" at the end of the match, it'll help.

I generally take a positive approach to games because I want to win, but I know if I emotionally invest, when I lose it can be heart wrenching. When RNG squad wipes occur I sigh, when I get freezes I roll my eyes, when he blobs his stuff and wins I groan, but nothing worse than that and I maintain a level head.

Except for those very special games where you get beaten by cheese, they wind you up, you get micro freezes and short DCs, frame drops, input lag, then everything calm about me goes and I simply just bang my mouse on the table because it's honestly the most satisfying thing to do apart from cry.

So if you don't think in a situation you can look at it positively, don't. Mute yourself on TS and let it all out, hit things (try not to break them), swear, shout, scream, huff and eyeball, let the hate flow through you fast and pure, it's satisfying venting. Then take a short break, think about what made you lose and come back. Never respond to an irritating opponent.

Its just mind set. I used to not be able to play for than 2 1v1s a day. Now if something bad happens I just say "welp thats not good" and move on. Its honestly a mind set. There isn't a trick.

I have found the amount of fun I have while playing goes up dramatically when I just move past stuff.

good to hear that even you struggle with this topic.
It probably already helps already to, as you said, “take a breath and put things into perspective”.
And I like your ending: keep a stiff upper lip and crack on :-)
I will try to keep treating as a game.

Thank you a lot for the detailed answer!

Its really important to remember that its the rank that depends on skill not the other way round. So if you loose you can always get back to your old rank becouse thats simply how good you are at the game. This also means that if you get some easy wins and pump up your rank fast you shouldnt expect to keep it that way too easily.

“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.” - Marcus Aurelius.

"If humble souls are contradicted, they remain calm; if they are calumniated, they suffer with patience; if they are little esteemed, neglected, or forgotten, they consider that their due; if they are weighed down with occupations, they perform them cheerfully." - St. Vincent de Paul.

“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.” - Marcus Aurelius.

"If humble souls are contradicted, they remain calm; if they are calumniated, they suffer with patience; if they are little esteemed, neglected, or forgotten, they consider that their due; if they are weighed down with occupations, they perform them cheerfully." - St. Vincent de Paul.

“My approach to life can't be summed up in a pithy quote, and if yours can, you're in trouble.” ~ Mark Rogers

Luvnest usually wins his 1vs1´s but also says that ranks dont really matter since people can still play bad after having high ladder rank, "PanzerGrenadierAngreifen" has played about 6600 matches of COH 2 and sometimes even he makes idiotic mistakes,


when i first started playing COH 1, i accidentally clicked the PLAY button on the top of the mainmenu and the it threw me in 1vs1 immediately as PE that i had no idea of how to play, so i got my ass kicked since i only had AT grenades and 221 scout cars to fight a sherman crocodile, but the same fear of "losing" followed me to COH 2 so that my first 5 games of 1vs1 i just went AFK and watched what my opponent did when he got the whole map to his control, but after those 5 games i decided to actually try and managed to win and it feld damn good to win, since the otherplayers were actually equal to my skill lvl (maybe because i lost 5 matches in a row on purpose) but atleast in 2vs2 you can always depend on your teammate and blame eachother if you lose..

(me and my friend managed to get around 70 winstreak in 2013 with Maxim spam, and only CcArt and his teammate were our toughest opponents, they learned to counter our tactics and we rage quited after they cut our streak and we kept facing them again...and again in AUTOMATCH)



Old picture of Oka River when Relic forgot to delete the 2 Combat Engineers from the map

Its just mind set. I used to not be able to play for than 2 1v1s a day. Now if something bad happens I just say "welp thats not good" and move on. Its honestly a mind set. There isn't a trick.

I have found the amount of fun I have while playing goes up dramatically when I just move past stuff.

100% this!

Had exactly the same. Only played 1 or 2 games of CoH2 and was happy when I won them. Now I can just keep on playing a whole day. When I lose its unfortunate, but just go to the menu and start the search for another game. Just think what you could have done different and enjoy the game!

100% this!

Had exactly the same. Only played 1 or 2 games of CoH2 and was happy when I won them. Now I can just keep on playing a whole day. When I lose its unfortunate, but just go to the menu and start the search for another game. Just think what you could have done different and enjoy the game!

Keeping the bobross mindset helps too. Happy Accidents KappaRoss