Hey hey hey, after 600 hours in Apex Legends, I finally hit Diamond in solo queue.
I started in S14 with a 0.6 KD. I reached Platinum in my very first ranked season, but after that, I mostly played casuals; ranked was basically ‘I give up’ once I hit Platinum. This season, because the maps were rotating and reaching Platinum was relatively easy, I spent about a week trying to see if I could push to Diamond. It took around 50-60 hours, and boom, Diamond achieved 233. But I feel like this push to Diamond consumed all my enthusiasm, so now I’m trying to calm down - -.
Rank Up!
Looking back at my years of gaming history: in elementary school, I played FPS games like CF and AVA; when everyone in middle school was playing LOL, I was still into FPS or Minecraft; I didn’t start playing LOL until high school; in university, I just switched between LOL and CSGO; and I only started playing Apex after seeing my roommates at UCAS play it. It seems I’m always one step late (except for Minecraft) 233.
But regarding ranked, it seems I’ve only reached Diamond twice: once in the PC version of Teamfight Tactics, and this time. Reaching Diamond in PC TFT also took a lot of grinding; I remember a Dawn Buff was too strong back then, getting strong synergies early and mid-game made me basically guaranteed top 4, and with a little late-game management and a formation switch, I had a chance to win. However, I’ve never reached Diamond in Summoner’s Rift 233. If Arena had ranked, I’m sure I could hit Diamond (confirmed).
Reaching Diamond in Apex solo queue is indeed not easy. I remember when I was Platinum I, I even got matched with Gold carrying Silver - -. My aim is just average; at least, I should have no problem one-tapping someone with a big side peek, big back peek, or finishing someone low on health. For close combat, being able to roam around is basically enough. My KD is also average, dropping from around 1.6+ when I hit Platinum to about 1.1 after reaching Diamond. The ranked maps this half-season were rotating; I played all three maps. Except for Crescent, where I got fewer wins, I got quite a few wins on the other two maps. I played different legends on different maps. On Crescent, the pressure to rotate into the circle was high, so I basically played Wattson or Gibraltar. Storm Point had too much verticality, and some circle shapes were easy to get stuck in, so I played Wattson more there. On World’s Edge, I basically played Gibraltar.
In solo queue, what I hope to see most is teammates who are willing to communicate and want to rank up. Some people like to roll for loot immediately upon landing. I don’t mind rolling with a team, but if you see 3 or 4 teams landing and you still insist on rolling, that basically means you don’t want to rank up. At that point, you need to remind them to rotate. You can try to persuade them; if they don’t rotate, just sell them and move on - -. Some teammates who play well will see other teams trying to rotate and run faster than me; it’s always good not to get caught by a rotation. I feel that in the latter half of my Platinum games, the quality of teammates was quite high; basically, everyone was willing to use voice chat. I would call out locations and damage for them. When pushing forward, I always called for my teammates, because sometimes they might not see the downed information.
Besides communication, there’s also game sense. I learned some things about positioning, judging strong/weak sides, and understanding the circle mechanics from watching PUBG matches. Plus, since I mostly play Wattson and Gibraltar, who have good rotation capabilities, my decisions regarding entering the circle are generally correct. Some teammates can’t understand the pressure of rotating into a strong side; they push in against the pressure and basically either get stuck or get wiped out by rotations. I usually choose to lead teammates to the weak side and enter the circle first. If there’s nothing to do, just enter the circle to scout. If that doesn’t work, you can also choose not to rush into the circle immediately; just use the Bloodhound flow to push. This is basically learned from Apex pro matches (many people don’t actually understand this point), because the expected return from fighting early is just too low.
Speaking of expectations, you can calculate the expected risk and reward of fighting a team based on your ranked points; this basically tells you whether you should fight. If you have no resources, you must find a team to fight. It’s worth it to fight a team to enter the circle or to engage in a 3v3. If you are caught first and have to force a 3v3, you need to judge the situation.
Also, there’s the game environment. I feel like I occasionally encounter cheaters, but the probability is okay because basically cheaters have no brains; even if they are cheating, they can still get wiped by rotations. You can tell if someone is a cheater by their aim. A good player isn’t necessarily a cheater, but pre-firing is definitely a sign. You can also judge based on the distance and the damage dealt. If someone is cheating, just leave the game.
After reaching Diamond, I haven’t dared to play Diamond ranked yet,after all, there are too many weird things - -. But after I finish my current work, I’ll try Diamond ranked. Maybe I’ll hit Master XD.
