That's not what I'm talking about. I'm saying how easy is it for a regular non-participant to begin to watch a sport, understand it enough to begin to identify a team or player, and then follow that team or player throughout a season/career.
Sure, there may be one big fight per year, but if you watch a low level fight, except for the smaller audience, the sport is still the same. The boxers are in the same kind of ring, punching each other. You can see the skill and pain and emotions.
With esports, the big tournaments that happen a few times a year are distinct from the online streaming events with the teams playing at home and not in location. Those events are fun if you are already a fan of the game and have played it, but not accessible for regular people in the same way that even the most amateur boxing match is.
These are not rules for being good at Rocket League. These are not rules that pros should think about. These all seem like basic common sense for not just Rocket League, but all ball/puck/net sports. But at the low level of Rocket League play that I inhabit, almost every goal I see is a result of one or more players breaking one of the following rules. I try to obey them at all times. And while it hasn't made me good, it made me suck less. My team still loses a bunch, but I'm not the one scoring the own-goals.
1) Always keep your car somewhere between the ball and your team's goal. What can you possibly do to help your team if your car is between the ball and your opponent's net? Hit the ball towards your own goal? Watch while the other team takes a shot you can't possibly block? There is no good you can do from that position, so don't be there in the first place.
2) If your car is between the ball and your opponent's net, do not touch the ball Sometimes it is unavoidable. The opponent is going to hit the ball past you. You will break rule #1 and be between the ball and your opponent's goal. You might be on your way back, to obey rule #1. That is good. But while you are on your way back to position, do not touch the ball! You are only going to hit it towards your own goal. If you are not currently obeying rule #1, do not touch the ball, you will just help the enemy team.
3) Hitting the ball against the wall usually centers it. Often during Rocket League the ball is up against the wall, and someone is going to hit it directly into the wall. Most of the time, this causes the ball to be centered and creates a scoring opportunity. This means if the ball is in your opponent's zone, you WANT to slam the ball into the wall to give someone else on your team a scoring chance when the ball is centered. If the ball is in your own zone near the wall, do NOT hit it into the wall. You will be giving an assist to the other team. Instead, hit it down field, which should be easy because you are following rule #1.
4) Just because the ball is there, doesn't mean you have to hit it. I see a lot of people who will look for the ball, wherever they are, move towards the ball, and just try to hit it. If you are not obeying rule #1, and sometimes even when you are, that is not always a good idea. Just because you hit the ball doesn't mean it's going to be in a way that helps your team. Only hit the ball when you are going to hit it in a way that helps your team. Hitting it in a bad direction is often worse than letting the opponent hit it, especially since at such a low level of play, your opponent may be hitting it in a way that is good for you!
5) You don't have to go full throttle that much. This was hard for me. In racing games I'm used to having the pedal to the metal non-stop. Rocket League may involve cars, but it's not a race. There's nothing wrong with going slow, driving around in circles, or even driving backwards. In real soccer players spend a lot of time walking up and down the field, and they hardly run at full speed. Being in the right position is the most important. If you are going full speed, you'll be out of position more than you are in position.
6) Get some boost. You don't really need to go out of your way to get boost. As you drive to where you are going, you will pass boosts. Pick them up if you aren't full. You're going to need them. Even if you suck at aerials, the best use of boost is to make sure you can follow rule #1 when the enemy team clears the ball all the way down field.
7) Don't go where your teammates are. If your teammate is somewhere, what good is there for you to go to that same place? That have it covered, or they should. If you go there, what will happen? You are probably going to hit them, interfere with each other, etc. If you stay away from your teammate and wait for someone to hit the ball, you will already be in position to make a play on it. Maybe it will get hit against the wall, as per rule #3, and you can already be in position to hit it on goal.
8) If a ball is in scoring position, only touch it if you are making a shot. This is a combination of rules 4 and 7. A lot of times a ball will be centered and ready to be scored. I'll rush in with boost to hit it into the goal. Them my teammate will come and hit it from the side before I get there, effectively making a save for the enemy team. They were just so eager to touch the ball at all, rather than let the opponent clear or save it, that they ended up hitting it the wrong way. If your angle isn't good, better to let the ball stay in that scoring position. If your teammate doesn't hit it in, make the opponent clear it. Give them the chance to screw up since this is such low level play.
9) If you spawn close to the ball, rush it. The spawns are random. You don't know if your teammates are going to go to the ball or defend because you can't coordinate with random people from the Internet. If nobody attacks the ball on your team, it is common for the other team to hit it straight into the net. Without aerial skills, you probably can't block that shot. Someone has to go on the ball for your team to make sure this doesn't happen. Unless you spawned the furthest spot away from the ball of all your teammates, you should probably go for it. If you spawn in the super close angled position, you should go for it 100% of the time.
10) Practice to get better. It's OK if you lose because you failed to execute. If you suck like me, you're going to lose due to sucking. If you go for a shot and miss, that's fine. You just weren't good enough, and that's what happens. You practice to get better. But if you hit the ball towards your own end of the field, and that ends up resulting in a goal, that's not a lack of skill. That's poor decision making, and it has no excuse.
11) One Player on the opposite team dominating. Play 1 on 1 defence and continue to smash the player away from the ball, block their movement or destroy them, let the rest of your team win.
12) Get a fucking headset. How do you expect us to coordinate if you can only talk via keyboard?
I've never heard anyone talk on the PC. I actually had to go and check if it was even a feature in the PC version - turns out it is, but nobody ever uses it.
Also, it's not terribly useful - It's allchat, and the only option is on your end, to listen to your own team or everybody. You're always transmitting to everybody, the question is if they choose to listen. So maybe don't discuss team strategy that way.
That is better than nothing. I'd rather the other side also know that I'm going into the goal than my team to all dick around on our end and get in each other's way.
I don't use a headset, since I'm playing from the couch. I rarely hear anyone talk. They never try to coordinate or anything. They usually just bitch and moan. I hear people talking in foreign languages as much as I hear English.
Dodging in any direction moves your car 4-5 car lengths, so as far as distance gained it's definitely better than hitting boost. I think it provides better velocity, but I don't know how to check that.
Nah. Dodging is great for getting up and down the pitch quickly in one direction, but boost is a lot easier to control. If the ball is flying towards the opposing goal, dodging forward could put you out of place to tap it in.
If I had a nickel for every time I see people on my team violating #7 I'd be a rich man. I kept losing today earlier and decided I was mostly gonna play goalie and not a single goal was scored in 4 matches but it's painful to watch people flail around in the same corner with centering the ball once.
A lot of people have issues with centering too. I'd much rather win than get a bunch of goals but everyone wants to have that glory.
If I had a nickel for every time I see people on my team violating #7 I'd be a rich man. I kept losing today earlier and decided I was mostly gonna play goalie and not a single goal was scored in 4 matches but it's painful to watch people flail around in the same corner with centering the ball once.
Nothing like being on for a perfect shot on goal, then your over-enthusiastic teammate comes screaming in and rams you or the ball out of line and fucks up the shot. Seriously, the amount of people whose entire strategy is HARGABLARGAH BALL WAAAAAAAGH is mental.
A lot of people have issues with centering too. I'd much rather win than get a bunch of goals but everyone wants to have that glory.
There's a weird quirk with the AI - the AI simply loves to center the ball. The lower skill AI will even block straight-line shots on goal, so they can smack it into a corner, and then center the ball from there, so that you can take a shot.
I've been trying to use it that way unless I need to reach level 2 boost to make a curved save.
I feel as if there is a fuel conservation mini game with tapping boost in addition to denying it from the enemy team when possible so only your team gets air time.
I tend to use dodge for long movements, but boost for quick squirts of acceleration where dodging isn't ideal - Adding a touch of speed to a hop, throwing in some extra speed when slapping someone about, a bit of starting acceleration.
I also sometimes use it as an air-brake - if I get turned about in the air, and I'm moving away from the ball, I'll sometimes fire it in my direction of travel and slightly down, so that I'm dropping much shorter than my arc, and getting back in play faster.
Does anyone know the conditions for losing your aerial dodge? I haven't figured out if it's how much time you are in the air or what. Sometimes when I boost up to clear a ball or go for an aerial shot I'll still have the dodge but occasionally it seems to be lost.
Does anyone know the conditions for losing your aerial dodge? I haven't figured out if it's how much time you are in the air or what. Sometimes when I boost up to clear a ball or go for an aerial shot I'll still have the dodge but occasionally it seems to be lost.
I'm not sure. I thought it's simply that you have one dodge per jump, and that you can use it any time between the initial jump and when you hit the ground. Gotta try it out in training free mode.
I'm definitely at the phase of learning where I intend to do something specific (instead of just flailing), but succeed about half the time.
I know what's possible, and I know what I want to do (e.g., jump/boost to make a specific save and knock the ball to the left or right in particular). But half the time, I'll miss the ball and just fly off into fucking nowhere.
Comments
Sure, there may be one big fight per year, but if you watch a low level fight, except for the smaller audience, the sport is still the same. The boxers are in the same kind of ring, punching each other. You can see the skill and pain and emotions.
With esports, the big tournaments that happen a few times a year are distinct from the online streaming events with the teams playing at home and not in location. Those events are fun if you are already a fan of the game and have played it, but not accessible for regular people in the same way that even the most amateur boxing match is.
Scott's Rules of Not Fucking Up at Rocket League
These are not rules for being good at Rocket League. These are not rules that pros should think about. These all seem like basic common sense for not just Rocket League, but all ball/puck/net sports. But at the low level of Rocket League play that I inhabit, almost every goal I see is a result of one or more players breaking one of the following rules. I try to obey them at all times. And while it hasn't made me good, it made me suck less. My team still loses a bunch, but I'm not the one scoring the own-goals.1) Always keep your car somewhere between the ball and your team's goal. What can you possibly do to help your team if your car is between the ball and your opponent's net? Hit the ball towards your own goal? Watch while the other team takes a shot you can't possibly block? There is no good you can do from that position, so don't be there in the first place.
2) If your car is between the ball and your opponent's net, do not touch the ball Sometimes it is unavoidable. The opponent is going to hit the ball past you. You will break rule #1 and be between the ball and your opponent's goal. You might be on your way back, to obey rule #1. That is good. But while you are on your way back to position, do not touch the ball! You are only going to hit it towards your own goal. If you are not currently obeying rule #1, do not touch the ball, you will just help the enemy team.
3) Hitting the ball against the wall usually centers it. Often during Rocket League the ball is up against the wall, and someone is going to hit it directly into the wall. Most of the time, this causes the ball to be centered and creates a scoring opportunity. This means if the ball is in your opponent's zone, you WANT to slam the ball into the wall to give someone else on your team a scoring chance when the ball is centered. If the ball is in your own zone near the wall, do NOT hit it into the wall. You will be giving an assist to the other team. Instead, hit it down field, which should be easy because you are following rule #1.
4) Just because the ball is there, doesn't mean you have to hit it. I see a lot of people who will look for the ball, wherever they are, move towards the ball, and just try to hit it. If you are not obeying rule #1, and sometimes even when you are, that is not always a good idea. Just because you hit the ball doesn't mean it's going to be in a way that helps your team. Only hit the ball when you are going to hit it in a way that helps your team. Hitting it in a bad direction is often worse than letting the opponent hit it, especially since at such a low level of play, your opponent may be hitting it in a way that is good for you!
5) You don't have to go full throttle that much. This was hard for me. In racing games I'm used to having the pedal to the metal non-stop. Rocket League may involve cars, but it's not a race. There's nothing wrong with going slow, driving around in circles, or even driving backwards. In real soccer players spend a lot of time walking up and down the field, and they hardly run at full speed. Being in the right position is the most important. If you are going full speed, you'll be out of position more than you are in position.
6) Get some boost. You don't really need to go out of your way to get boost. As you drive to where you are going, you will pass boosts. Pick them up if you aren't full. You're going to need them. Even if you suck at aerials, the best use of boost is to make sure you can follow rule #1 when the enemy team clears the ball all the way down field.
7) Don't go where your teammates are. If your teammate is somewhere, what good is there for you to go to that same place? That have it covered, or they should. If you go there, what will happen? You are probably going to hit them, interfere with each other, etc. If you stay away from your teammate and wait for someone to hit the ball, you will already be in position to make a play on it. Maybe it will get hit against the wall, as per rule #3, and you can already be in position to hit it on goal.
8) If a ball is in scoring position, only touch it if you are making a shot. This is a combination of rules 4 and 7. A lot of times a ball will be centered and ready to be scored. I'll rush in with boost to hit it into the goal. Them my teammate will come and hit it from the side before I get there, effectively making a save for the enemy team. They were just so eager to touch the ball at all, rather than let the opponent clear or save it, that they ended up hitting it the wrong way. If your angle isn't good, better to let the ball stay in that scoring position. If your teammate doesn't hit it in, make the opponent clear it. Give them the chance to screw up since this is such low level play.
9) If you spawn close to the ball, rush it. The spawns are random. You don't know if your teammates are going to go to the ball or defend because you can't coordinate with random people from the Internet. If nobody attacks the ball on your team, it is common for the other team to hit it straight into the net. Without aerial skills, you probably can't block that shot. Someone has to go on the ball for your team to make sure this doesn't happen. Unless you spawned the furthest spot away from the ball of all your teammates, you should probably go for it. If you spawn in the super close angled position, you should go for it 100% of the time.
10) Practice to get better. It's OK if you lose because you failed to execute. If you suck like me, you're going to lose due to sucking. If you go for a shot and miss, that's fine. You just weren't good enough, and that's what happens. You practice to get better. But if you hit the ball towards your own end of the field, and that ends up resulting in a goal, that's not a lack of skill. That's poor decision making, and it has no excuse.
Also, it's not terribly useful - It's allchat, and the only option is on your end, to listen to your own team or everybody. You're always transmitting to everybody, the question is if they choose to listen. So maybe don't discuss team strategy that way.
Let's form a team, then we can do headsets.
https://gaming.youtube.com/c/Apreche/live
I think you just have to add the double jump and some basic aerials for blocking.
I'm still unsure if level 1 boosting on the ground provides the same velocity as dodging forward (for conserving boost for aerials).
A lot of people have issues with centering too. I'd much rather win than get a bunch of goals but everyone wants to have that glory.
https://gfycat.com/AgonizingSociableDouglasfirbarkbeetle
I feel as if there is a fuel conservation mini game with tapping boost in addition to denying it from the enemy team when possible so only your team gets air time.
I also sometimes use it as an air-brake - if I get turned about in the air, and I'm moving away from the ball, I'll sometimes fire it in my direction of travel and slightly down, so that I'm dropping much shorter than my arc, and getting back in play faster.
https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeague/comments/3k3bfl/mlg_pro_league_starts_today/
I know what's possible, and I know what I want to do (e.g., jump/boost to make a specific save and knock the ball to the left or right in particular). But half the time, I'll miss the ball and just fly off into fucking nowhere.