How did I know Sombra was next to me at 12:25 ?

Seeing Awkward vs ML7 is a joy, 2 players that I both massively respect as a support main

I'd love to see you try doing in depth reviews of your VODs in GM1/Top 500. That would give you the time to explain these concepts you teach with more nuance and depth than you even can vs metal ranks. I know the plan is always the same no matter the rank, but as a high masters Kiriko trying to break into GM I think a more in depth breakdown of why you do certain things would help me a ton. You tend to say things like "I use swift step because I am in danger" but you rarely have the time to explain why you know you are in danger. The point in this video where you know Sombra is near you is a perfect example. Seeing your insight in the VOD afterwards is super helpful, and more of that could help give me context into how you're able to play like this without being punished by GM players. I know you're trying to help the average player and might not want to make content catered towards the top 5% of the playerbase, but I think most players could still benefit from more in depth explanations.

I understand this. I went from diamond to GM2 on support, then the queue times bumped up to 15 minutes. Now I mostly off role or play competitive mystery heroes. If I'm going to play a game, I want to spend my time actually playing the game.

quite simple, bro suffers from success

Love how you included loss at the end and admitting your mistake.

The first lobby he loads into has 2 OWL players and ML7. LMAO

the lucio shittalking his ana who doesn't even exist is fucking hilarious

at 7:10 you read a comment that asks about starting the gym. He said he doesn't know what to do at the gym and I can understand that feeling. Some advice I have is bring a friend with you that knows what they're doing or ask someone at the gym if they could help teach you some exercises or even ask an employee, because I bet either party are willing to help! Good luck in the gym friends :3

Hey Akward you're probably never gonna reply to this but i just want to say that i appreciate your educational videos, after watching your videos i've been consistently in Diamond to Master rank. I greatly appreciate your hard work and will continue to look forward to more educational videos.

That's like how I was playing Magic The Gathering, when I was in High School (I'm 40yo now) I would always play and win most local tournaments, and after a few years I just didn't want to play these tournaments anymore, so I still went to the tournaments, but I would mainly go to help others (especially new young players) on how to build decks.

I played for short periods at my peek in the upper echelons of top 500. The difference between lower half and upper half top 500 is something that hit me hard and will stick with me. Having played with and against ML7 for example, you just witness him do so much whilst still under immense pressure and its borderline art. When you play against contenders and ex ow league players like eqo or Poko, you just get punished for the slightest mistake and the game is so much more fast paced its hard to explain. I can confidently say that the difference between GM1 and top 50 is higher than between low masters and GM 1. This is not to brag, Im just a trash player who grinded a lot at one point, but really to share some insights on this almost esoterical realm that is upper top 500 after this video reminded me of it.

Awkward could you do voice overs of top 500 games so you can explain without having to worry about doing it in real time? I guess the only problem is that you can’t do that on stream. Also, I do think it is helpful to show it done in low ranks so that you can see how you overcome bad team mates.

These guy not only teach us how to improve in game but also tell us how to improve in real life... Respect man❤

You can also see in high elo lobbies that people actually stop ALL movement when they get hit by pulse bomb. Even in masters I still see people run and put others in danger when they get stuck with one.

I like the pressure you put with the heroes (Kiriko/Zen) that some NPC's would say there’s no value from them

Always nice to see your Zen as amazing as ever. Also thank you for the workout tips along the way.

Normal. I think many players can identify with that. Once the high end challenges in a game have been reached, you find yourself with no other challenges other than knowledge hunting through off meta experimentation and finding noobies that you can be a sort of sensei to. There is a real pride when you see one of your students reaching levels and then start dominating in their own way

Instead of smurfing constantly, you could do replay commentary in top 500. The game is too fast? Pause the replay, explain things.

TL;DR: It is way more fun to stomp noobs than to play in your own skill bracket and also way more lucrative contentwise.

hey awkawrd loved your "unraked to GM with tracer" im learning a lot form it. I'd love to see you doing an unranked series with tanks, in particular with Junquer queen because she's so aim intensive, i think you would have a lot of fun playing with her.

New to the game and just discover you a few days ago and I think you’re the best overwatch 2 content creator. Keep up the great work dude

see, awkward is so good that blizzard moves the lamps mid game to nerf him

Honestly more content like this, it doesn't replace the unranked to gm but it's entertaining to watch. I'd suggest even keeping the entire gameplays

In the beginning, you're acting like replays aren't a thing You can always re-watch, replay and repeat those key moments that you think are too fast for someone to catch. Changing perspectives must be handy too Do that while queuing, feels like a productive way to spend downtime in-between the games. 13:55 is a good example

I know alot of pros when talking about games at high level, do voice overs of their high level games since it's easier to pause/ point out an key talking points. Just an idea. Love the content

The best advice i can give you:"just actually go on Thursday". Awkward you are truly a cool person who sticks the the reality. love your mindset

Thanks for laying this all out for us. I watch a lot of Flats, too, so I was already aware of the queue times and totally understand when top 500-level players just don't want to play in top 500. That shit sucks. Regardless of your own skill level or how well you play in a top 50 lobby, your videos are incredibly helpful and improve my gameplay. I couldn't care less if you played in Bronze - the results are good from your videos to my games. Looking forward to more vids!

i enjoy ur videos for lower ranks but vod reviewing ur top500 games and trying to explain more complicated/fast paced gameplay would be really nice as a top500 player trying to improve

Aye dude watching your content got me from hard stuck low plat on dps for 4 years to diamond 1 in 2 weeks. Keep up the good work your shit is the best out there.

16:45 I think on stream he was confused on how he was spotted but the reason was that brig goes into 3rd person view when holding shield. It's crazy to think that in only this rank he dies for a small inaccuracy.

Honestly, after watching a bunch of your support videos, and wondering why I kept losing in masters on Ana, I started getting more value through damage and off angling, especially when I can get a dps to come with me. It's made such a huge improvement to my win rate. Thanks for sharing the tips man, it's actually great.

Thanks for the insightful video as always Awkward. Play any game on any difficulty you want. Real life or online, pvp or pve. We'll keep watching.

The queue time is a valid point. I still think it's not the main point. I think the main point is passion. He lost it for the game and thats completly fair. If you love a game you will play it no matter the queue times or if there is bad balancing. You will play it b/c you love and you wont if you don't. He just lost it for OW and you can't blame him for that.

"let's follow the 4-step plan that i teach!" [gets insta-deleted by entire team] 🤣j/k love the educational content (unironically)

Awkward, you are simply the best teacher in overwatch. I went from gold 5 to gold 4 on tank and gold 5 to gold 3 on support after discovering your Brig unranked to gm video a week ago. Small jump, but it's progress. One question, do you feel there's any change or addition to your Roadhog unranked to gm? Theres only 1 tank and he no longer 1 shots consistently. Im just curious if there are any more tips since those videos for my favorite character :) Thanks!

Hey awkward, great video like always. Ehy wont you play normally your games in t500, but after that you can analyze it so you can focus on the game and also be educational in t500

"I'm too good for this game" the video

Even if you only got rank 1 one time there's no universe where you become a "bad" player you'll always be able to be t500 even if you took a very long break from playing from just muscle memory alone. That's why dafran quit came back and still t500 on every hero lol

this solidified my respect for you as a player, as i continue playing only your tips have held strongest and gotten me more wins on average

Glad you are addressing this. Seen comments about it and while I think it’s dumb, I see a lot of it. Also, 4 step plan is super OP with Kiriko. Win rate went from 55% in plat to 62% and now I’m in masters.

Awkward just wants more people to get to gm so that the queue times will be shorter.

This man's ego is unreachable

i mean to be fair styx goes MY ANA IS AWFUL talking about him self might be a language barrier

13:20 its not the lamp but the winston LMAO.

Bro why there’s no “damage damage” in this video!! disappointed 😔

18:07 I’m weak😂. I could see in his face the exact moment he got locked in😂.

suzu is most definitely bugged bc i cant explain how many times the animation will literally come up on my screen and even suzu my other teammates but not me

Even as a doom otp, Awkward’s general advice on the game shot me up from high silver to high plat

We gotta accept even the number 1 of t500 lose games. But underestimate ur enemy in that lobby is kinda disrespectful hahahaa

Thanks for sharing that top 100 experience..that was insane to watch.

I’m gonna honestly tell you that you’re unranked to GM video with Baptiste helped me so much with my gameplay. I’m in bronze but now I can actually see myself climbing because of your tips. I get more damage, more kills and honestly I’m having more fun playing the game now. I’m taking off angles and doing all the things you said and it’s enhanced my experience playing. The only thing I need to work on I think to get out my rank is my aim. But I’m doing so much better after watching the video. THANK YOU ❤

TLDR. Reaching Rank 1 multiple times is akin to finishing an RPG game. You've essentially completed it. So there is zero point in grinding to maintain that rank, unless you've transitioned to pro-play. So you have shifted goals from playing to content creation (i.e., teaching). This doesn't really take away from the fact that you're smurfing, but its easier to relate.

if explaining things as you play is "too fast" in top 10, why don't you just play games on your main acc and then you vod review yourself to explain what's happening and why you do that etc, that way it won't be "fast" since you can literally pause -_-

Reason 1:Que time is invalid reason, most top500 do "educational" so there is no players. Reason 2 :So you rather stomp worser players? than play in competitive level. Reason 3: between ques you can go thru last game and slowdown the game and explain, that would be educational.

And this is why awkward is the goat

i’ve been in top500 since ow2 came out and quit overwatch altogether when lifeweaver came out. All the points you made is so true especially the queue times. You wait 20+ minutes just to get in the lobby with the same ppl over and over again. Barely anyone comms anymore, top500 is inflated af, and it’s just not fun

now he's got the receipts

bro i meant "im shit at ana" obviously i dont mean you LMAO

13:22 Him: *Perfectly times a nade to hit the winston mid air by accident* also Him: "Why am I hitting the lamps"

Dude: Top500 are the best players, and the game is so fast Also Top500 players: *Complains about a non-existent ana teammate* Yeeeeah...

I'm going to be honest I always thought unranked to GM was genuinely somewhat unhealthy but you do bring up good points to why you do them in the first place What I also definitely appreciate is that after looking at a lot of your posts and videos I notice that you genuinely advocate for the most important thing is genuinely believing in oneself and improving as a person I definitely respect you a lot for that Keep helping people out

I pretty much watch you exclusively, I’ve only been playing for like 2 months now and I’m already ranked higher than my gf who has been playing since early OW1 days and a mutual friend from high school who’s been her duo pretty much that whole time. Nowadays I’m ranked Plat 2 and our mutual friend exclusively wants to play with me because I actually make solid plays consistently and we work well together. Overall enjoying the content and seeing real progress in myself that I wouldn’t have seen without your content. To me it doesn’t matter if you play for T500 because I don’t see myself ever getting to that level of play. I enjoy this game but know I’m not on some crazy level like T500.

13:18 I heal those lamps so often as Ana XD. they've probably gotten more healing than my team.

You do a great job man some people just cant accept the truth

I wouldnt mind occasional top 500 videos in your style tho. Watching you get challenged is also a learning experience. A10 style vod reviews of your games would be nice too

Glad to see "feeding with Kiriko doing the 4-steps plan" can also happen to the teacher himself xD

Goofy ass reasoning. Smurfing isn't educational, you climb through the first 95% of the ranks just because your mechanics are better. I can go on genji in bronze and murder their whole team in spawn 20 times but in reality if I was in my rank I'd be feeding with those plays. Same shit with supports, if I'm on my silver smurf to play with friends I really don't have to worry about positioning at all because no silver dps is going to be able to kill me.

man has beaten overwatch

If people want top 500 advice, do a voiceover of your games and have them pay to get the expert advice.

All GM1-2 players saying "Q times are too long, Ima smurf to get faster". Reducing the amount of players actively playing in this rank. Increasing the queue times even further. Reducing the quality of the matchmaking, reducing the quality of matches. Disturbing matchmaking in lower ranks. Making the overall experience worse for everyone. It is a very short sighted and egoistic way to address the problem in my opinion. Being a streamer doesn't mean you're over the rest of the player base either in my opinion. You're meant to be an example. You're gonna say "I'm one player, so statistically it doesn't matter", the thing is all the players are saying "I'm one player". Then 99% of T500 players are following your example. I get your point and I don't think blizzard made it clear that it is forbidden to do so, so whatever, suit yourself. Everyone is free. Maybe the game would feel better to play and be more enjoyable if people didn't chose to make it worse.

So it's okay to smurf and thus ruin the games of a large number of lower ranked players because q times are long? That's no excuse.

Should have been a 10 sec video: "Because I like to smurf and beat up on gold players"

love your educational content! I started watching your videos as a bronze player, and today I reached diamond. your advice is the best-- thanks for everything.

this guy is so funny "lets pretend like i lagged" lmfao

Just a question, what if you recorded top 500 games and did voice overs on matches you find valuable to teach with and then break down the gameplay replay so that you can slow things down a little and be able to explain it?

Actually great advice about going to the gym. No reason to be insecure. What do YOU look at when you're training? Do you look at other people? No, you look at yourself to see if you're performing the exercise correctly. As long as you're not deliberately messing with other people, literally nobody cares about what you're doing, what you look like or how you lift. You basically don't exist to others. Don't know how to do an exercise? Just ask a gym bro or even a gym sis if you're a girl yourself. 9/10 they've been dreaming about the moment someone approaches them and they can share their knowledge. You can do your own research and optimize your training for a goal you're trying to achieve (get strong, lose weight, build muscle, recompose, anything), but if you've never been to the gym, literally just have a tour around the gym, try out different machines and feel what body part they work. In your first year you'll make progress regardless of how optimized your training is, as long as you're careful and don't injure yourself. A sub-optimal training routine is ALWAYS better than none.

I 100% agree with the fact that it's hard to teach new players how to play by showing them high level gameplay. As a tank player, a good example of this is that while you always want to prioritize going for the dps and supports over the enemy tank, it can be hard to demonstrate this in high level games as the dps and supports will take smart positions out of your range. This forces you to often go for the tank trade instead.

16:45 that brig just outplayed the entire team... picked you off and cancelled emp with rally-

As a top 500 player I want to see you smash on the enemy top 500

I think this is why he does his unranked to gms. Bro just wants more people to play with.

bro beat the game 💀

idk if people realized this but if people teach others to get better and climb to gm, the queue time for gm would be shorter because many people simply gets better.

The argument of “the game goes too fast for me to explain whats going on” cant you just do VOD reviews? Tbf as a masters player i dont think i require top 500 knowledge but im just pointing that out

Watching top 500 gameplay makes me happy I’m in diamond not getting 1 clipped by the tracer 😂 It seems so annoying to deal with insane players

i couldnt imagine literally being rank 1 and still being insecure

That rank 2 Arachne is also your account right?

I just did my placement yesterday as Zenyatta (because of your video unranked to gm) and instantly got put into gold. I have to say the gameplay I saw in this video is out of this world. I didnt know what the fuck was happening at any given time. But I loved watching it.

Lowest heals is crazy

I used to play smash bros competitively, I stopped going to tournaments before smash ultimate came out but I played online a lot and got my GSP to above 98% of online players (similar to like masters or bottom of GM?). To learn, instead of watching top 32, top 8, or grand finals matches, I watched pro's decimate their pools. Why? Because I wanted to see what the pros did that outclassed players like me, who were at best local/city threats. so I can see why you do what you do rather than grind top 500 for educational purposes, because that's how I got as good as I did, so I'm glad I found your channel because I want to be that good in overwatch as well.

Unranked to gm cassidy educational video

I was once gold. I found your videos and am now GM. My new problem is oce queu times. So i just play qp and or play on an alt now.

The trick to the 4 step plan is not to die before executing step 2. Hence why I can't play Kiriko.

I like to flank as Zenyatta on support role. I used to do this easily for a while. People stood still and never entirely understood who was shooting them since it did not make sense to them. 😅 After some time, it got more challenging to flank like this. I got focused in less than a second all the time and died in a heartbeat. I had to mind my distance and positioning way more to keep this up. I do not play competitively, so I never got any rank. However, when I play in QP, I often play people showing off their "Grandmaster Role Challenger". I believe this does not mean I am a GM, but it also most likely means I am more than a bronze 5 player. I hope 😂

All very valid points! Love watching your gameplay and humour keep up the great work!

„Im just to quick with those fingers“

I love it when Silvers try to tell a Top 500 what they did “wrong” or should’ve done 😂

Can you do a vod breakdown on your main acc it’s is cool to watch also, I think it will be fresh content compared to the more educational vids

At about 10:00 "Nevermind. I've been caught." See that's what I need: When to STOP going on the flank. I don't know, then I get owned. This would be a good lesson for me.

if you watch any high ranked streamer que times are like 20 mins plus... i dont blame you.