SKILL CAPPED CLASSICS

SKILL CAPPED CLASSICS INTRO

Welcome to our Classics course for WoW PvP! Over the years we've had the privilege to work with some of the greatest PvPers of all time.

Household names like Wreckful, Venruki, Talbidar, Soda, and the list goes on. This one is going to be a trip down memory lane as we're going to revisit some of the most iconic videos in our website's history.

Every single one of these videos is a fan favorite and represents the depth and timelessness of WoW PvP. And on that note, let's get to it!

We hope you enjoy!

GAME AWARENESS AND POSITIVE MINDSET [ZELYX]

ចពីជាយចានផ្លារៀនឹងក្នុំងជាចប្រៀប់ការប់នឹការបញ្រូវអង្រូវអ្នុសតែប្រូម្បាន់ទៅរាស្រូវអ្នុសតែប្រៀប្រាស់ស� លក្ទៃក្ក្ៗ ហ២ នេះជាក់េ្នេះយាក់ក្ទៃរើកន នៅ្ទ្ក្ការជាមបាប់រន្កនកាកន៦៣ លើកវិញជាម្រថែម្យតាកម្នេះដំរាប់� សម្មកម្យម្មំ្យ។ នៃម៛ទៅ, ធ្្យ។ ឯេះម្ម្ម្មោះ។ គ្ម្ទៅ ស្្ក្ថែ ល្ទៅ ច្ម្ក្ថ្ថែ នៅ្ក្នេះ ដែ្ថ្ថែប្តែលាប់ពីបានណាប់រ្្លាន់។ បាន្កនុងអាន។ ច្រ្ល់ក្នុងការវ្លាភ្រៀបានច្រូវប្រុងការបស់ស់ដែលពីន្រាប់រើអ្រើប្រើវរអាច្រុងខ្លារដែល្តាពីន្រើងនៅ្រុងខ្ វ្ងសុបសំ។្ម្រៀន់ការៀប្នាន្តែនួក៘នឆ្រូវនិសរាប់ម្រូវជាត្រាស់ឡាំចេហះឱាតាត្ម្រាប់ក្រផ្ម្រាន់ទូលត្រុចស� មនឹងអើមត្តែបានខ្តែរះមួយសុតខ្តែរះស្វជាងដែល្រះដែល្រាត់បានធស្វំងនឹងហើយ ចនិតជាចំងអ្រេសចន្តែរះដែល្រើអ្រគ� ឡម្រីក្រី់ប្រោថ្រោថ្រោថ្រាងនុំពាសារច្រអាចកាត្រាងដែលអាច្រោថ្រោថ្រោដូចច្ហេលជាណាងច្រោថ្រោថ្រាងនៃមានជ� ជ្លាក្តារវាក្មឱចំត្តាក់ទៅពីទ្យ។ខប្រើននៅនេះ របចំណោទកុសរាទ្តារបស្តា។ នៅយាភាត្តពាលធ្លាពននៅនេះ អ� 취មតខប្រៀសជាគ់វាភានែគន្តែមនូមត្ត្នាសប្រារប្រស្ហើងត្រពាច្រៀគ្រាកមន្តែរបស្នោះប្រៀបានគ្រួនានេង សម្រ្តា ដោម្រីខ្លារៀរបស់ប់ក្ទៅកមាម្យបិជាកត្យបន្យសំង់ប្រកូលច្ញ្ពីគ្លុងអាន់តែងអន់ទាំងថារៀរស់មាក្កើលពីនុងអានស� ស្នៅបែមានថ្លាភាគ្រោ់ង់ការៀមានក្ក្កគ្រោ់បញ្ហានចំណាបន្តិនគ្រោ់ដែលរុត្រោគ្នៅន្កគ្រុត្រុត្រាប់បញ្កវ� សលល់មានក្ម។ ដែលចាំងរស្តាពលហេតន្តាតិត្នកចូលការស្តារៀបីអ្នគារដូចបាន្ត។ ឬប្រាប់ជាន់ការបស់ជាត្តាន់ជាត្តាត� ស្វាង់មានប្រាប់បាន់ក្ធាប់បន់ចានចូលន្សប្រាន់គាញ្រានជានសាងនក្នុងសានហ្រាបានម្រាចិត្រាស់ក្រាប់ដូច្រា។ ខ្� ឡម។ល៍ម្ថកម។ ពីក្រៀរាសីង់ក្អានិត់ក្នៃប្កប្បានដែលជាវឳនលិងអ្នេះផែណើប្ច្តានប្រៀសនៅេលប្ោះក្មណ្នែកានដែល� ប្រងាំពាត់ស្តែនាវក្រាប់ព្នៃទៅរូវទៅប្រោះ បម្យកម្ម។ ច្ត្រេះអ៊ូនសម្យបែម្យសម្យសម្យោះម្យសមោក៏និត្រាប់ជនិតពីបរម្យប្យសម្យប្រសមានក្រានការនៅហើដូចត្� ជានជ្របសំប្រៀនៅកុធ្វើតខ្រ៍ សិងអាចភាយ អាកានអាក់ទានប្រននៅកុធ្វើតែមប្រ លងល់កានកួតាជាប់ជាប់ជានពេលកជ្ងក្នៃគឺរោយែបានជាត្លេញ្ីលិចេទនាក់ត្ណែថាយដី្លេលរៈព្រៀនេងនេងរានេះជែនេះនេះជា� ត្វ្បាកម្មគ្តាប់កមន់កម្រុណាប់កមួយនានហើយ ច្ចឹងទប្រគវងលប់កម្រើបន់កាបនច្ចឹងកដំទ្តបាកម្តុនអានជ្រង់ប្រៀបន� ចាន្តែពីបាន្នកម្នាក្តាន្តែរៀតាត់មានដោះប្រពីន្តាដែកម្រាប់ចំពី សិន្លោយថ្តត្ធញងហើត្ម្រាជ្ពីរកនេដែរប្រាងនោទៅ ដែរសាតានដោយអើជាប់រាក្រូវត្នាងជាប្រាជ្តឆា្រាស់គាត់ខ្ល់ត់� ឧមច្រូនបានប្វើប្រាសបានកមួមកម្នុងរាស់នឹង្រាសប្រាស់ដែល្រាស់នឹងះនាព្រក្រុខ្ល់ថា ជានច្រកទេតាព្រក្រាស់នឹកត� លម្រានជាញ្វាំណជាប់ដូចម្រាប់ល់ព្ក្វើនរៀះសដែរាប់រាផល លាប់នានជាច់ប្តានច្មាចក្នាសង។ សូលរប់សាត់សាសន្ម្វាំ វីន្តែក្ក្នារៀបាំង។ ហក្រា។់សាគ់ក្សាគ់ក្្ំពិតែក្ន្ម្រាក់ក្នារៀក្ក្នៅេះដែលក្រៀតែតែករាក្រាក់ក្រាល ជាងព្នាក្រូបាយកម្រ្នាក្រា ទេចក្រូវដោ ដែ្រាបានគ្រូវចានដែលកពេ្រថ្នាក្រពិតខិតិកចូលិរទ្រុខឹកើនវឹការ ស្តាយនេងរ ខំយ៊ែមក្កែក្កែ ជាន់ជែះដែកះនៅនៅបំផាថ់នៅនេះ ឱ្លាល់ក្រាប់វិត្រ។ វូយ�nt្ធំធីល់ក៏តែរៀយាទជាមខ្ល់កិត្តែមាតព�� Cook អៀមីលើនឹងង់កាតន្រៀត្នៅព្រ � ជាស្ចម្រ់បញ្ចុម្នៅម្នៅក់ក្នៅបុម្រៀបន្នក្នក្រាសាត់បីដែលលើកបីនៅប្តានមានឋ្ក្នកអ្នៅបីតាំញបាមីក្នៅការៀ ស្បានបាន់មាន់ក្ប្នឹង របស់ក្កណាន់តានជាត់បើខ្លាសដាំប្របស់ត្រំណាន់ក្នឹង ខ្លាលល់ន្រំណាន់តាន់ត្រាំណានជាន� ស្ល់ម្រះិយ។ លា។់ប្រាប់ទួនតាគាតាប់ក្នុងពី្តិនជាតានេះរៃពូមប្រាប់ប់ក្នុងពី្តាប់ក្នុងឧចុះជាសមានគាលដែលតែ� here is a very high rated match that lasted longer than expected going 25-30 minutes of intense sparring both teams almost dying every few minutes you will notice how fatigued I sound later in the match but notice how I would keep up a positive attitude to victory aight imma go lockhhard I'm silenced I'm silenced boy he's bursting you, he's bursting you holy shit so much damage this is fucked up it is yea she been a, she been a shaman សេះ សេះ ប្រាំដែលម្របៀប្រនៃម្មោៗ ប្រគ្រើកម្រើមម្រមិត្របែរហារអ់ដំមីថែលល់ថ្នាលជាប់ទាន នៅនៅនៅប្រប្រសាន� සිටළ෋ටියේ් මේදුරුවටිත් භාරිත් ගැරීම් අවශ්ය අවශ්ය කරන්න්න ටිටර්යක් මේදුරුවටියෙම් බිරැම් ඇතිත් කරන්න ដែលន្វើន្រាតាប្រិត់ការវាត់មាន២០ដួលដាពីចំព្ព្រាញុំពីរូវមិនល្លើមន្រួសក្វតីភាចំ្រាយាមប្រួនប្រំព្រាត្្រ� ចុះខាតែខ្លានជាំងរាប់ជាត់ក្សាចម្យើន្រូវបានវើរក្សតន្រាក្រូវជាំក្រាប់ជាំក្រូវប្រូវតែខ្លាន់ខ្រៃម្រាស់ច� ដ្លាប់ក្សាតិតិក្ជាការៀជាជាតិល់ច្ចមួយអានស់ស្សាត់មានស់កស្សាជាលាក់តា swamp

THE RANK 1 MENTALITY [TOSAN]

Hey guys and gals, Tosin here with a quite different video topic than normal. This video does not go out to one class, this is for every class, every person that plays this game, or pretty much any game with competition in it.

This video is about what I'm going to call the rank 1 mentality, or the gladiator mentality, whatever you want to call it. This is about having the right mentality to get to the top.

So, what makes the best players in the game the best players? How did they get there?

A lot of you think that there's secrets out there, and there's a lot of things that we can help you with, of course. Like here at Skillcap we have a lot of different tactics and guides for using certain abilities to help you along and stuff like that.

And those are all great and they help you really hone your skills in specific areas. However, if you don't have the right mentality, it's not going to do you all that much good.

Now, granted, most of you here at Skillcap probably do have the right mentality, because you wouldn't be here if you didn't. So, props to you guys for seeking out, bettering yourselves, and learning, and stuff like that.

But, even a lot of people here at the Skillcap community I've seen dwell too much on ratings. So, the main concept of this video is about what you should be focusing on to get where you want to go.

And it's not, this isn't some boring, cheesy, ineffective speech, I promise you. It actually is the truth, and this is the one thing that I notice about every top player that I possibly meet.

And I don't know if you guys actually know. The difference between every top player and a lot of like, you know, average rating players, like people between 1800 and 2k and stuff like that, there's a very common difference that I've seen throughout the years of playing this game.

The people that get to the top, they don't focus on rating and dwell on rating. They don't, like, freak out about that number.

Every time they lose a game, they don't zone out and say, Wow, I'm down 20 points, fuck! They don't do that.

What they focus on is outplaying the enemy. They focus on what they can do better to win the freaking game.

They don't sit there and say, Man, you know, I'm 1900 and I really want to get that 2k achievement. I see so many people focus on that.

And they don't focus on all the other things. Yeah, they'll do it as a side gig.

They'll be like, you know, okay, I'll go to skillcapped and I'll check out some stuff because I really want that 2k rating achievement, you know. They're focusing on the 2k rating or the 2200 rating or whatever.

You know, they're focusing on that rating, that achievement. Stop focusing on that.

That should be a goal that you want. Everybody wants rating.

Everybody wants to succeed and, you know, hit new heights and stuff like that. And that's perfectly fine.

I'm not saying don't want those things. I'm saying don't make that your primary focus.

There's a lot of people out there that make this their primary focus. I see it all the time.

I've been to amateur streams, you know, like streams that only get a few viewers. I like to randomly go on Twitch and check out people with low views, you know, see if there's a... a diamond in the rough, so to speak.

And I will watch them play Arena at, you know, 1800, 1900, 2k rating. And a thing that I see very consistently is when they lose the game and they zone out, they hardly discuss what happened or what went wrong or what they can do better and instead they focus on their rating.

And they're like, ugh, we were so close to 2k and now we tanked. They talk about, man, we were 1980 yesterday and now we're back down to 80.

Now we're back down to 1860. Geez, ugh, this is so annoying.

I'll never get that 2k achievement it looks like. Ugh, freaking game.

Stupid game, you know, stuff like that. That is the wrong mentality to have.

Completely wrong. And I know most of you at skill-capped probably don't have that mentality to that extent.

But I'm sure a lot of you still, without realizing it even, have that mentality at least to some degree. And it's okay.

Like, everybody wants, you know, the achievements and the rating. It's fun to do.

It's fun to succeed and unlock those and everything. And that should be a goal of yours, you know.

But the goal shouldn't be, I want 2500 rating. The goal should be, I want to be good enough that getting 2500 rating is easy and I don't have to try hard for it.

That's the mentality. That's the fine line, the difference that you need to look for.

Don't say, man, I want that rating. I want that mount.

I want that title. Say, man, I want to be such a freaking badass at this game that I get those things whenever I feel like getting them.

Because that's what top players do. That's the difference.

I don't ever push for GLAAD. I have people come into my stream every, you know, every season and they say, Wow, are you making a GLAAD push at the end of the season or something like that?

And I don't make pushes usually. The only time a top player usually makes pushes is if they're going for rank 1 before this new system at least.

Where you just have to transfer to a battle group and go for it. But, you know, no top player ever pushes for GLAAD.

They just get it because they've gone through the process. Of bettering themselves and focusing on outplaying their enemy and beating every obstacle that comes their way.

And so they get these things by default. That's where you want to be.

You don't want to be the person that just tunnel visions the rating and focuses on the rating. It's too distracting.

Yeah, you can care about rating. Lots of people care about rating, even top players.

But that's not their primary focus. They focus on outplaying people, beating people.

And then all the rating and achievements just come naturally. That just follows.

I don't know of a single top player that freaks out about rating. If you watch most top players stream, they don't usually freak out about rating at all.

They might mention it. They might be like, dang, we tanked 100 rating today.

But they keep going. Go watch Vanguard stream.

Go watch Jamili stream. There's so many high rated streamers and stuff.

And you can watch them play 3s all day. And do you ever see them discussing how much rating they went up or how much they lost?

They might mention it here or there. But their focus is always, dang, that team is freaking out.

That team is hard. What can we do to beat them?

Every time they lose, they don't zone out of arena and hit their conquest tab and go, wow, man, that team just took 20 points from us. Crap.

No, they might go, wow, that was 20 points. Okay, so what can we do better?

Maybe we should try going on this guy and CCing this guy instead. And that, my friends, is the rank 1 mentality.

You need to have that. Now that is the gist of this video and what it was about.

I also wanted to add things that are along the same lines. Like counter comps.

A lot of people have this horrible, toxic mentality. So many people hold themselves back without realizing it by making excuses.

Now, a lot of excuses are perfectly legitimate and they make sense. But they aren't going to do you any good until you're at the very top.

If you are not playing the best you can possibly play or at least close to it. If you're not playing at the highest level of play, fighting the best players in the world.

Then there is no reason for you to make excuses for losing. Don't say, wow, we just lose to this comp because it's a counter comp.

It may very well be a counter comp. And that may be true.

But guess what? You're not fighting the best players.

Counter comping only exists when people are playing a comp to its full potential usually. Or at least close to it.

And you have to remember that you are not playing to the best of your potential yet. If you're 1800, 1900, 2k, whatever.

Until you're competing at the very top at 2500 plus. Well, heck, even then.

You're still going to be making mistakes. But the point is, if you're not at least playing at that level.

You have to realize that there are a lot of things that you and your team could be doing better to win. Even against counter comps.

The thing is, I can be fighting a counter comp. But if that counter comp is being played by 1800 rated players.

And I'm playing with, you know, like me and my top level, you know, competitive teammates. It doesn't matter if they have a counter comp.

We're so much better than them. That we're going to win 90 or 100% of the time.

Because they're doing things wrong. A counter comp doesn't mean you win by default.

People can still make mistakes and screw up badly and lose to comps that they counter. So, if you're 1800, 1900, 2k, even 2200.

If you're losing and constantly blaming it on counter comp. You need to sit back and remember that you are not the best players in the world yet.

So, there's a lot of things that you can do differently. Enjoy the challenge of a counter comp.

For me, it's extra satisfying to come up to a counter comp and beat it. Because they have it easier.

You know, counter comp just means that they have an advantage. And these are, you know, there are legitimate counter comps out there.

And there is a lot of rock, paper, scissors involved in the game. But it's not so cut and dry as, you know, rock, paper, scissors though.

Because scissors can beat rock sometimes. And pretty often, in fact.

If the skill difference is too high. The skill difference is huge.

So, remember at 2k rating or less or even 2200. There is no such thing as a counter comp.

Counter comps only exist when both teams are at an equal or similar skill level. So, screw the counter comp.

Just play so much better than them that you win. Counter comping will only be a problem if you are at a similar or equal skill level.

So, screw the counter comp. Just get so much better than them that you farm them.

Counter comping is only going to be a real hassle. When you get near the highest levels of play.

When it's much harder to improve past your opponents. Because your opponents are also really good.

That's when counter comping becomes much more of a problem. But until you get there, don't worry about it.

And once you learn how to beat a counter comp. It's going to feel so good.

And you're going to beat it over and over again. Until you fight much better players.

Who are going to play it differently. And this is just going to be another hurdle.

And you're going to have to get over that hurdle. You know, by having a good attitude.

And using teamwork. And strategizing.

And trying out new things. Sometimes it can feel helpless.

And you're going to try all these different strategies. And you're going to lose 5, 6, 7 times in a row.

And it's going to feel like crap. It's okay to get frustrated and stuff.

But just remember, if you're still not at that top level of play. There's much more room for improvement.

And as long as there's room for improvement. There's hope to completely smash those counter comps.

Now as for the beginning of this video. And the rank 1 mentality.

The last thing that I wanted to add is. The reason focusing on rating and achievements and all that.

Is bad is because. Think about it like, I guess, jumping hurdles.

You're not going to focus on the finish line when you're jumping hurdles. Right?

I mean, I'm no professional hurdle jumper. So, heck if I know.

But I would assume that anybody who jumps over a row of hurdles. Is not going to focus on the finish line.

He's not going to be tunnel visioning the finish line. A hurdler is probably going to focus on each hurdle in front of him.

One at a time. And eliminate them one at a time.

Until he gets to the finish line. The finish line is going to come naturally.

If he focuses on each individual hurdle. And makes it over them one by one.

Much like an arena player or an arena team. Is going to run into a bunch of hurdles.

Counter comps. Difficult teams to fight.

And if you are focusing on that stupid rating number the entire time. You're going to be distracted from the task at hand.

Which is figuring out how to beat this tough team. Or this tough comp.

If you deal with them one at a time. And think about how you can improve your own play constantly.

You're going to get over each hurdle one by one. And before you realize it.

If you're just not looking at your rating. The rating is going to come naturally.

And before you know it. You're going to have broken your previous rating barriers.

Because you weren't focusing purely on the rating. The rating comes naturally.

When you focus on out playing people. And getting better.

And in all honesty. You shouldn't really care about rating.

Especially until the end of the season. I can understand when the two week notice hits.

And you know the season is about to end. And rewards are going to be given out.

And you don't want to miss out on those. That's when it's more understandable to care about rating.

But at the beginning or mid season. Or even near the end.

Until that two week notice comes. You shouldn't be dwelling on it.

You should be focusing on improving yourself. A new season just started.

Season 15. At the time that I'm making this video.

You have several months to increase your rating. But you need to increase your skill to do that first.

So focus on that. And by the time the end of the season comes.

I bet you you're going to have a much better chance. At snagging the rewards that you want.

At the very end of the season. So next time you lose a game.

And zone out of arena. Don't check your rating.

Don't say wow. I've gone down 20 points from that loss.

Crap. Screw the rating.

Think about. The first thing you think about when you zone out of an arena.

Is what you could be doing better. To increase your odds of winning.

What strategies can you share with your team. To try to beat that comp.

Or that team that you're playing against. Or that team that you just lost to.

Focus on this. Keep this mentality.

And I promise you. Your rating will naturally go up.

This mentality is shared by every top player in the world. I guarantee it.

I've seen it myself. And I'm sure most of you have seen it too.

If you watch streams or anything like that. Anyway guys.

I didn't want this to sound too lecturey. But this is a topic that I've been meaning to touch on for a while.

And I should have done it sooner. This is honestly probably the single most valuable video.

That I'm going to put out. Because this is the foundation.

Of becoming a top player. All the other information is super useful.

And helping you to hone your skills. But if you're not starting with the right mentality.

It's not going to do you much good in the first place. So.

Thanks for watching and listening guys. If you have the right mentality.

I promise you the rewards will follow naturally. Anyway guys.

Thanks for watching and listening. I hope you found this video helpful.

And I hope you trust me. Hope you trust the words in this video.

You're all my skill cap bros. And I want to see my bros succeed.

Now go and kick some ass for me. Subtitles by the Amara.org community

BECOMING A PRO PLAYER [SWAPXY AND ASGARATH]

Hey guys, Corki here and welcome to this new series. In this series of videos I'm going to explain on how to become a better player in 3v3 arena and give you an insight of the mentality of pro players, covering how they started and how they became where they are now.

For these guides I have worked with multiple Blizzcon winners like zwopsy, Joe Fernandes, Askarov, HRK but also other outstanding PvP players like Rattapai and many more.

In the first video we are starting off with zwopsy, who won Blizzcon 2 times with his team Method Triforce and recently played in the spring finals in Ohio with his new team Skill-Capped Black. Also for this one I worked with Askarov, who achieved not only 10 rank 1 titles but also more.

Also for this one I worked with Askarov, who achieved not only 10 rank 1 titles but also more. on multiple healers, but also won the last Blizzcon with his team ABC. The advice by these players is really valuable, so I highly recommend watching these videos without any hurry and deeply think about what is being said.

So without further introduction, let's get into it. Swopsy's view Let's start off with a quote from Swopsy.

I asked him what he thinks the main reason was for him to become where he is now, winning Blizzcon twice and having achieved countless rank 1 titles and tournament wins. Practice with purpose and try to be a good teammate.

Both will go a long way, doesn't matter what your goal is. Practice with purpose So this quote really shows what kind of mindset Swopsy follows.

Firstly, he is a good player. He is a good player.

Secondly, he thinks it is really important to set yourself a goal that you want to reach, whether it to becoming a duelist or a rank 1 gladiator. Having a goal will give you a reason to practice and try to become the best version of yourself.

Also after reaching that goal that you set for yourself, you should try to focus on new goals so you don't stop improving because there will always be things you can improve on. Swopsy never thinks he is the best and has a really humble attitude towards every player.

He is a good player, whether it be a challenger or a gladiator player. That way he can focus on learning from other people.

For example, there might be a really low rated player who is really good at doing damage and is just lacking the general understanding of arena, so Swopsy will try to figure out why he is doing so much damage and adapting his own gameplay that way.

Be a good teammate Furthermore, Swopsy advises to be a good teammate in general. There are a lot of factors that play into being a really good teammate, such as communication, attitude, your mindset and many more.

I already covered the communication part in another guide, which I highly recommend checking out. Being a good teammate will make a big impact on the success of your team.

If you lift your teammates up and motivate them instead of putting them down, you will get the best out of them. Swopsy was not only good at multiplayer games.

He helped his teammates out on a social level, where he motivated them even in the toughest situations when they were against the wall in many tournaments, giving them a second win and eventually make them win. Asgoref's view Next up we have Asgoref, who is widely considered the best healer in the pvp scene.

He continuously achieved rank 1 titles since season 15 and has been dominating the ladder on multiple healers. Next to a lot of tournament victories, he won the biggest WoW tournament, the Blizzcon itself in 2017.

So why did Asgoref become so competitive and what made him become so successful on multiple healers? I just enjoyed the game a lot.

It wasn't something I had planned for or even knew there was a career path for back then. But I enjoyed it so much I ended up playing a lot and being a competitive person I was very self-critical after games trying to figure out what I could have done better.

I think that's the main reason I chose Asgoref. I think it's the most important thing in the game.

I think it's the most important thing in the game. I think it's the main thing that left me here.

Enjoying the game. What Asgoref is saying here is in my opinion also the most important reason why anyone gets competitive at anything.

Having fun. When you are having fun with something, you most likely will do it as often as you can and invest time and thought into it.

This process will automatically make you better and eventually lead you to being competitive. Nobody can be competitive at something when he's not enjoying what he is doing.

Self-critical. In addition to that Asgoref is mentioning that while he was playing so much he also was always very self-critical and tried to figure out what he could have done better after every game.

You should always be your biggest critic. The fastest way to improve your gameplay is by thinking about your own gameplay after every game.

And even if you won, try to find things that you could have done better. A great way of doing this is actually to record your own gameplay and rewatch it.

That way you can analyze every time frame of the game and make rational decisions comparing them to the decision you made in that game. Furthermore you can also watch streams of people that are better than you at the game to see how they make their decisions and compare that to yours.

Over time you will adapt to the game. You will adapt your own decision making and eventually become better.

There is really no point in running into a wall so streams are a really great way to avoid mistakes that might not be so obvious for you. Different POVs.

Now that Asgoref has been in the competitive arena scene for about 5 years he has seen a lot of players rise up over the years. So I asked him what pattern he saw in the development compared to his own.

And his answer was. Playing with up and coming players can always give you a different point of view, so in some cases that helped me change habits and figure out new strats.

Playing with a lot of people. As you can see Asgoref is one of the players that understood the way of improving at the game.

I see a lot of players sitting there raiding and only playing with people that are equal or above them in rating or experience. While this might be the most comfortable way of playing with players, I see a lot of players that are playing with different people.

And I think that is the most comfortable way of improving, it is also the slowest if you are not constantly playing with a lot of different people. Because playing with the same people over and over will make you stale and you will never meet different opinions.

In fact playing with multiple and new people or even people that are below your rating or experience will give you, as Asgoref explaining, entirely different point of view and will help you change habits and figure out new strategies. So, let's start.

So that's going to be it for this one guys. I hope you enjoyed this new kind of video and if you did leave a plus skill or let me know what you think in the comments down below and I catch you next time.

HOW TO BECOME A GLADIATOR [POONXO]

Hey guys, so I'm going to go for a different sort of angle with this video and just share with you my experience of how I became a gladiator warlock and how I ended up being one of the many contributors at skillcap.

I'll share with you guys everything that I know and everything I've learnt that helped me become a better player, how I found teammates and things like that. Alright guys, so here's the story of Punexo.

Okay guys, so probably none of you know this but when I first got introduced to World of Warcraft I was playing a rogue which was in season 7. Ever since the start of playing this game and reaching max level I was always very interested in arena.

I remember when I first ever played arena on my rogue I was playing warlock rogue in twos and we were pretty much stuck at the 1500 bracket, maybe the 1600 bracket.

And for obvious reasons seeing I was new to PvP and I was new to the game and I didn't really know anyone or have any decent people to play with at the time. So here's what I recommend for any new player, say if you're new to the server or you have a new class.

I highly recommend that if you want to just spam arena, spam queue anything, play with anyone from trade shop, just keep queuing. That is the most important thing.

Practice makes perfect and it's one of the key things that I screwed up with when I first started playing the game. If you're one of those people who...

Liked a multi-class and that's fine, there's nothing wrong with that, it's a lot of fun playing different classes but... I guarantee you if you keep switching between those classes before you get to a certain level at one of those classes...

You won't ever really make sufficient progress to motivate you to keep on playing that particular class. Which is probably the reason why you play so many classes is the lack of motivation to be persistent with one of those classes.

So while you're spam queuing arena, spamming trade or... Answering people's questions...

Answering people's questions... Answering people's questions...

Answering people's questions... you can connect with. I mean there's no point being stuck in a 3v3 team with two other players where one of them only logs on once a week where you log on four or five times a week say or even every day of the week.

That's not going to work. Find people that play in your time zone that can play around your schedule and I mean it's not hard to find people like that you just have to keep looking until you do find someone.

But I remember when I first started off playing I was playing with a warlock at the time and he worked full-time and we could only play every Sunday afternoon so I pretty much spent the whole week just waiting for him to get to waiting for Sunday so we could play together.

That's exactly the opposite thing you want to be doing if you do want to improve because there's only so much you can improve on in random BGs. It's an arena where you learn everything that you need to know to become a gladiator.

Okay so back to the story of my arena journey. It was midway through season seven and I ended up finding a rogue and at that point in time double rogue in twos was a viable comp.

So for the rest of the season we just found a rogue and at that point in time double rogue in twos was a viable comp. So for the rest of the season we just found a rogue and at that point in time double rogue in twos was a viable comp.

So for the rest of the season we just mucked around we played twos we just practiced whatnot because we were both really new to arena and it was actually fun for us.

We both played at the same schedule we both finished school at the same time so it was a perfect arena partner for me and a really good way for me to improve as a player.

And especially when you're just starting out arena you can't really be so naive you have to take in what everyone says because I'm sure even if you're playing with partners on the same level as you they know stuff that you don't know and vice versa as well. That brings me on to my next point.

You have to get used to the specific composition you're playing. So assuming you're a warlock, say you play mage warlock shaman with a frost mage for a couple hours and then you move on to rogue warlock shaman.

The comps are completely different and the way you go about things are different generally throughout the game.

So if you go from playing with a mage who's sheeping off your dots and you're swapping to targets with deep freezes and trying to burst them down to playing with a rogue where you pretty much just spam damage on the whole team and your rogue swaps to targets willy-nilly.

I mean if you don't have much comp vs comp experience under your belt and you're just swapping through comps like that and you're not adapting with your playstyle you could really be just putting yourself to a disadvantage and really just not improving as well as you could be if you were just concentrating on one specific comp.

Although by no means am I saying that you shouldn't ever play different comps it's just when you're starting out and you're trying to improve it's not a good idea to be changing things up all the time. But anyway back to the PNXO story.

So it was season 8 the start of season 8 and I was playing with a mage who was a mage who was a mage who was a rogue and my friend who is also a rogue we were both really pumped for the season and we were looking to try and get our tier 1 weapons which is a really good goal if you're just starting out.

So back then you needed 1850 and 2s to get your weapons and we played a few games it was pretty hard but we eventually got to the 1850 mark and we were both pumped we both got our weapons.

So after we got our weapons we were like yeah let's go for 2k let's get our shoulders so we played for four three or four nights I think and we ended up getting our weapons and we got our weapons and we 2k and we were really excited, we got our shoulders and then after that my friend quit Rogue so I really had no partners to play with and I lost all my motivation.

And here's where I make my mistake. I've already played Rogue for at least 3 or 4 months and I've got the hang of the class but seeing I lost my motivation and I had lost my teammate, I just decided to roll a hunter.

So I was just spending a month leveling up because back then it actually took a bit of time to level and I started doing BGs, I started just doing some PvE, just getting used to the class so that took a couple months just in that. And this is my next point.

If you're looking to improve as fast as possible, you can't be multi-classing like this because if you're just getting the hang or if you are pretty experienced with one class, there's really no point re-rolling to another class unless you are generally just unhappy and not having fun with the class you're playing.

But I can tell you I really do regret changing class to hunter because... It took a lot of time to get to the level on hunter as I was on my rogue.

Especially because I was so new to the game back then. Now seeing all the experience I have under my belt, I can pretty much just play a new class and get the hang of it like nearly instantly.

Alright so back to the PwnXO story. So I still had my rogue, I didn't delete my rogue or anything but I was playing hunter at the time and after gearing up and learning to do the basics of the class and just getting used to my keybindings, it was time to start doing some arena.

And I had no partners and I pretty much just had to look in tradeshow just to be able to play and I really was never satisfied after an arena session because I never really went well and I lost a lot of motivation within the game.

But I'm sure everyone who played in season 8 can remember the sheer damage Beast Sleeve could do and that's where I started off. I figured out Beast Sleeve was an overpowered comp.

And here's the next thing I want to talk to you about. So, you're a warlock and you are playing a comp like hunter, warlock, discipline priest.

It's a really good comp. It's a really good comp.

It's an absolute horrible comp. You might say, well, they're my friends and they're the only classes they have.

Well, be that as it may, it's not ideal to be doing that. You need to realise if you want to improve, you need to play good comps.

I mean, when I first started playing Warlock, I was playing LSD2, which was so overpowered in Season 9. So bear that in mind.

Use the synergy between specific classes to maximise your chance of improving at a faster rate. Because honestly, if you're playing a comp like I said, Hunter, Discipline Priest, Warlock, you might be stuck at 1800 saying, how much did I do bad?

Why am I stuck at this rating? And let's just say, three hours later, after playing that horrible comp, you find a random Shaman in trade and a random Rogue in trade, you start playing RLS.

And even though you don't know each other and you don't really have much experience with each other's synergy and whatnot, you can just push to 2k within the space of an hour. Not so much because you improved, but just because of the comp synergy.

But what comes with that is versus... seeing higher rated opponents where you have a more even chance of beating them with the composition you're playing. So overall, you will improve a lot better.

So back to the Poon Exo saga. I was playing Hunter and I was stuck around 1800 slash 2k bracket for a long time.

I mean, probably three or four months I was stuck there. And I mean, once you're playing Arena and once you're in the PvP community, there's a lot of windows of opportunities where you meet new people.

And I remember back then, it was pretty scarce for Hunters to be around, on my server at least anyway. So I had the opportunity of being asked by two players who weren't necessarily good players, but they were higher rated than me and they had more experience than me and they asked me to play.

So this was a huge opportunity for me and I'm sure a lot of you have had an opportunity like this in the past. Within a week of playing together, I went from sitting at 2k to 2.2 and I got my tier 2 weapon, so I was ecstatic about that.

Unfortunately, we pretty much got stuck. We were at 2.2 and every day when we queued, we'd go from 2.2 down to 2150.

Back up to 2230 and it was just repetitive at that. So basically what happened was my teammates left me because they were both friends and they found a third person and they played a better comp so they could try and get higher ratings, which is fair enough.

And here's where I screwed up yet again. So seeing I had no teammates for 3v3, I went back to my Rogue and started all over again because I really just lost my touch at Rogue and I had to learn everything again.

I ended up playing Rogue for a little bit. I mean, I was playing with people from Trade Chat.

I really had no... just reliable teammates to play with at that point in time. And at this point in time, it was the end of my schooling year and I had a lot of exams on it as well, so I just decided to quit.

I mean, I wasn't really having much fun at the game and I made a mistake by switching between classes and really never sticking it out to achieve Gladiator. So I was pretty pissed.

I just felt like I wasn't improving, I wasn't having fun and I just called it cold turkey. However, there was hope.

At the start of Cataclysm, I was out of school and I was looking to play well and I came back as a Warlock. He rejected me.

He made sure to do something to me. He tried to get you.

Nice, nice, nice. He didn't try to set me up.

Maybe I have to link here. Beat everything?

Maybe not. Watch out for the Hound.

This is really good. Oh, we can kill this Rogue right here.

X-Received? Wow.

So since rolling a Warlock at the start of Cataclysm to being a multi-Gladiator now and being a contributed skill cap, this is my conclusion. So since rolling a Warlock at the start of Cataclysm to being a multi-Gladiator now and being a contributed skill cap, this is my conclusion.

So since rolling a Warlock at the start of Cataclysm to being a multi-Gladiator now and being a contributed skill cap, this is my conclusion. Pick a class you're comfortable with, a class you have fun at, a class you're happy with, and stick with it for as long as you can.

Start to get involved with the PvP community. You should start to find teammates, make friends, etc.

Have more options and more teams to play with, more friends who need people to play with. Don't confine yourself to one team or one person you play with who's on once a week or twice a week and you want to be playing every day.

Don't do that shit. At the end of the day, if you just spam Q Arena, you'll always be improving.

Another really important lesson that I've learnt is never Q Dodge. If you're losing to a team and you can't win, don't Q Dodge.

Keep Q'ing into them, find ways to beat them, find ways to improve. Don't give up and don't get depressed at the game.

Say you find a team and you do well one night. For example, you go 15 wins, 3 losses and you're really happy and the next day you go 10 losses, 5 wins.

Don't be decided by that. You have to take into account counter teams, counter comps, having a bad day, maybe one of your teammates is playing bad or maybe you're playing bad.

You should never give up, just keep pushing at it because you will keep improving. You should never give up, just keep pushing at it because you will keep improving.

You should never give up, just keep pushing at it because you will keep improving. And you'll keep going up in rating.

So this is basically how I became a Gladiator from the point where I was level 85 and I was fully geared and I was used to my keybindings, etc. I was floating around 2.2 rating at the start of Cataclysm and then I met two people.

They were really cool guys, I'm still friends with them today and we played LSD2. I got high ratings, people on my server saw my ratings and this opened up other opportunities.

I began to get whispers from other good players asking me to play Arena. At the time there was a shortage of Warlocks on my realm and I happened to get asked to play by Mesmerize who is the death knight on Vanguard's team and also Leonardo who is a multi-Gladiator paladin but he quit now.

Playing with those two guys just basically made me skyrocket with my Warlock play. And I'm in everything, they had a really good outlook on the game and a really positive attitude so I had fun playing the game, I had fun learning.

I learnt about positioning, I learnt new tips and tricks while I was doing it. And we ended up getting Gladiator that season in 3v3 followed by the next season as well.

It wasn't just like I got asked to play by two Gladiators and I got carried. I worked my way to get high ratings on my own.

I looked in trade chat for teams, I made new friends, I found new Arena partners and I slowly worked my way up the ladder. It's doable guys, everyone can do it, you just need to stick to it.

Listen to what I say in this video, don't multi-class, don't give up, don't get angry, don't get disheartened by losses. That's pretty much it guys, I wish you all the best of luck in your Arena endeavours.

If there's one thing I could say to you before I end this video it would be, learn from your mistakes. That is honestly the most valuable thing you can do, just learn from your mistakes.

Don't blame your teammates and don't blame anything else, just learn from your mistakes. That's pretty much it for this video guys, I wish the best of luck to all of you.

And remember, never give up. Until next time guys, have fun in the Arena.

Subtitles by the Amara.org community

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH VIDEOS FOR OTHER CLASSES [VENRUKI]

Hey guys, Vinriki here bringing you another video. In this video we're going to be going over why you should watch video of other classes.

In-depth game knowledge is an essential part of improving your play. Today I'm going to explain why watching videos for other classes can drastically change the way you approach PvP situations.

After watching this guide you will have a great understanding of how you can maximize your edge in PvP by using skill capped. Alright, so now you're probably wondering, I only play mage, why should I watch videos for anything else?

To be able to predict and prevent your opponents moves you need to know what they can do in every single situation. For instance, monks are new class and most people are still not well aware of how their mechanics work.

If you struggle with monks you should immediately go and watch as many monk videos from our library as possible. So, let's get started.

Because I play both monk and mage, I feel like I have an advantage against any monk I play against as my mage or any mage I play against as my monk. To sort of give you guys an example of what I mean I'm going to be showing you two clips.

I'm going to be showing you a clip on my monk where I'm fighting against a mage and I'm able to easily understand his thought process and what I need to do next in order to ensure burst and a kill on him.

And then I'm going to be showing you a clip on my mage where I know exactly what cooldowns a monk has available to him. Here's the clip. and it just lets me have a greater understanding of how I can actually finish him off and kill him.

Whereas sometimes people aren't well aware of their cooldowns and sort of give up or get frustrated attacking a monk because they don't fully understand what they can do. So without further ado, let's get into that.

First clip I want to show you guys is three small clips from a 2v2 game, me and Soda playing monk druid against a priest mage. And I just want to give you guys some examples of where I clearly know what's going on in the mage's head.

So it gives me a better understanding of when I need to be afraid in the matchup and when I need to actually attack and not attack. Just stuff like that.

Just little helpful things throughout the game that I understand just because I play a mage. The first clip I want to show you guys is me knowing I don't need to be scared even though the mage deep freezes me.

I notice in this clip that he actually misses his... frozen orb on me. So it's far behind me and he doesn't have frost bomb up, which is the spec he's playing.

So it's easy for me to see that in this deep freeze I'm not going to be taking a lot of damage. The most he can do is ice lands me a couple times.

I don't need to worry about being bursted. And for that reason, I don't need to shrink it or pop nimble brew.

Just me having game knowledge of mage a lot. So I don't have to be scared in this situation.

The next clip is me popping cooldowns on this mage. So for killing him and him realizing this and using alter time.

Because I know how alter time works, I am not going to burst into it. See, I get to him and I attack him and I realize, hey, I'm going to save my burst for when this alter time ends.

Build up some chi and run back to actually where he's going to port. You see me walking back to exactly where he's going to port and I'm able to get some serious damage on him out of his alter time.

Now, if people weren't aware of alter time, they may have not ran back to the location and I'm able to stick this mage right away and I may not have been able to. They may have wasted their damage into this alter time.

The last clip is a little bit more fancy just because I understand most people understand this, but because I know what mages do when they get stunned is the first thing they do is blink. A lot of them don't really think too much about it.

Quite often you can force a mage into a bad situation just by stunning him. And in this clip, as you'll see, I'm able to get on this mage.

He's. He's in a high pressure situation.

He could potentially die and I purposely stun him so he blinks away from his priest. I notice his positioning and stun him and he blinks across the map from his priest, which allows us to keep up our high pressure and sort of stop some of the healing and coming from the priest after the life swap.

This next clip I want to show you is from a 3v3 game. I just want to show you guys when I'm playing 3v3 because I know how monks work.

I know all their defensive cooldowns. I fully realize when we can kill them and when we can't.

And I'm able to, for the most part, easily work through their cooldowns and be well aware of when we can kill. So we open on this monk really hard.

And as you can see, he's used his defuse magic, which is one of his major defensive cooldowns. So we've worked through that one.

And all we really need to work through now is fortifying brew and his touch of karma, because I know that's all they have. Now that he's used his fortifying brew, we can keep attacking him.

We're just putting CC on the healer and attacking this monk, working through his cooldowns. The next thing we're looking for here is touch of karma.

Once we get touch of karma out of the way, it will be an easy kill on him. And as you can see, he puts it up on the warrior on my team, Unicorn Light.

And out of this touch of karma, we're now aware he doesn't have fortifying brew, he does not have defuse magic, and he does not have touch of karma. And these are the only buttons that are going to allow him to live against us while we're bursting.

So I'm just pulling back a little bit here, waiting to get into another situation where we can burst him down. And we know he has no more defensive cooldowns to survive.

Quite often it can be confusing when fighting against a monk, just because you have so many self heals and so many defensive buttons. It's really important to understand other classes' mechanics.

Because I play a monk, I know that these cooldowns aren't going to be up for a little while. I know exactly which cooldowns they have to live, and we're able to easily finish them off.

With a little bit of CC on the healer. So that's just another example of why it's important to sort of understand what other classes do.

You know, their defensive cooldowns, their offensive cooldowns. And really guys, you can really open up your game knowledge and improve your play a ton by watching other classes and how they interact with your class, as well as other classes on your team.

Now to sort of give you guys another perspective, no matter what class you play, game knowledge is king. You need to be able to constantly adapt.

You need to be able to constantly adapt to the situation. And that's only possible if you can anticipate what your opponents can do in every single situation.

So you need to know what abilities your opponent has, and when is the ideal situation for him to use. So I'm going to show you guys some clips of a Yuumi on a rogue and a warrior, and some of the knowledge you can gain.

I'm going to show you exactly clips from some of the videos he made, and what information you can gather from this. Okay?

So I'm going to go over that really fast and yeah, without further ado, let's do that. Okay, so the first thing I'm going to show you is a great use of defensive smokebombing.

Here I'm caught with my pants down in a pretty bad spot, no cloak or shadows, and two wizards railing into me, one of which has cooldowns going.

So I'm going to use smokebomb to avoid both their projectiles and prevent my priest from being counterspelled or shocked while he tops me off. turn allows us to regain our momentum.

Had I not used my smoke bomb here I probably would have died and while using your smoke bomb offensively is generally better sometimes you're just not in that situation and you really just need to save someone's life. As a mage this clip taught us a few different things.

First not only does this example show us how rogues can survive against mages better but it also shows you how dangerous you can be as a mage if you are free casting.

Something else to note he talked about it's better to use smoke bomb offensively than defensively so we now know that even though he uses that cloak or sorry that smoke bomb defensively we've sort of taken something away from him.

He's used one of his major offensive cooldowns and had to turn a defensive which gives you a huge swing in momentum and you no longer have to worry about having shrink it up for that smoke bomb or having a major defensive cooldown because you're here to save your life. So that's something else to note.

Another thing to note is that you can either use your stun or your healer will be able to heal you so that's just an example of one thing you can get even from a short clip like this. Okay so now i'm going to show you a clip where i waste all of my cooldowns.

This is a sort of how to not use your cooldowns so i've already trinketed charged and heroic left and i'm going to pop all my cooldowns as i'm about to be stunned this is pretty much worst case scenario and exactly what you don't want to do with your cooldowns in the future i should have stunned the target before i use cooldowns or Or I should have waited a couple seconds for their CC chain on me to end.

So it's important not to just use your cooldowns when you think you can do damage, and instead to make sure with stun or by having your trinket or more mobility up. So don't just blow them when you're next to the person, just make sure you can actually use them when you pop your cooldowns.

Another great example of what you can learn from watching a clip from another class, so not only did we see what warrior offensive cooldowns look like, we see exactly what he wants to do.

He talked about making sure that person's in a stun, so just out of that alone we know hey we might need to save blink for his offensive cooldowns, we might need to save ice block or trinket. You can also tell how annoyed he was when he was getting CC'd on his defensive cooldowns, and elo-wessed by the hunter.

So we now know that elo-wessing the warrior so he can't charge you or heroic leap to you is a really huge deal. So...

Just watching that clip alone we got a lot of insight into how warriors think with their offensive cooldowns, which is a great advantage to us as a mage or any other player checking out this video.

Alright, so just to quickly recap what we went over in this video, we talked about the value in being able to watch another class's video, and we went over multiple examples of why this is a benefit to us as a player. You can learn a ton about the offense and defense.

And sort of the overall game. And also the overall goal of other classes for when you fight against them, which gives you an advantage, especially if they don't fully understand what you want to do against them.

So in specifics, we talked about how I countered a mage as a monk, how I understood how to kill a monk as a mage, and then we went over Ayume's videos on his rogue and his warrior to see what he was thinking in those clips, and sort of the overall takeaways we could get out of those.

I really hope you guys enjoyed this video and got a lot out of it. Now that you've watched the video, you should have a much better understanding of what to be looking for when you fight a- sorry, what to be looking for when you watch videos of other classes, and sort of the value you can get out of that.

You guys want to see more videos like this, please let me know. Leave a comment if you liked this video or you didn't like this video, and if you guys have questions, feel free to ask.

If you want to check out my livestream at twitch.tv slash benrookie, feel free. And always guys, have a good day, peace out, all that good stuff.

SPORTSMANSHIP [DON]

This is an entry into a series for all players, not just Shadow Priests. This series will be about non-gameplay factors that affect your PvP experience.

This video will be about sportsmanship and attitude. Since the concept of sportsmanship and attitude don't really coincide with fraps, clips very well or really require clips to illustrate the points, I will just have a backdrop of PvP while I talk about the main points.

Most of the videos on skill-capped are about comp matchups, class guides, matchups, etc. Things that help you with combat.

Honestly though, a sizable part of your success in PvP has to do with your sportsmanship and your attitude. Basically, the better you handle these things, the more success you will have.

This is because your name will get out there. Either as a player with a good name, or as a player with a good attitude.

A good reputation or a bad one. Which will affect who wants to play with you.

You might be a great player, but if you have a bad reputation then some players that are better than you will not want to play with you and it will be harder for you to improve. I'll start by talking about what sportsmanship is.

Sportsmanship is loosely described as following the rules of the game. Good sportsmanship requires fairness, respect, and grace.

In winning and in losing. Attitude goes hand in hand with good sportsmanship and shares much in common with it.

However, attitude has less to do with rules and more to do with a way of thinking reflected in behavior. Good sportsmanship is a hard thing to do in WoW.

There's a large gray area. It's hard to know what to say to players who you have just played against, win or lose.

This has a lot to do with players' egos. Many players get their egos wrapped up in games.

Winning and losing means a lot to them because they get caught in the heat of the moment. I'm sure almost all of you watching this video have either trash talked, been trash talked, made excuses for losses, gloated about winning, etc.

First, I'll go over how to win with good sportsmanship and a good attitude. Winning is nice, but remember that thing I just said about players' egos?

The player that you just beat may feel pretty crappy about themselves right now and may take it out on you if you try to communicate with them. Even if you were just trying to say good game or good duel, they may explode on you.

A tip here for winning is try to feel out the person you just beat. If you know that they have a rep for trash talking or being a sore loser, then maybe you don't talk to them.

A second tip is timing. Tempers are hot for a lot of players right after they lose, but give them a couple days or weeks.

I'll give an example of something in my experience. If I PM'd every gladiator that I beat when I was just a duelist, trying to be all buddy buddy with them, they would hate me.

And they did because I did try to do that a few times because I didn't know proper manners. However, if you can consistently beat a player that you think is good, you're going to be able to beat them.

If you think you made some good plays, talk to them in a few days about playing together. Don't say like, remember me, I'm the guy that beat you a lot, or remember me from the game the other day.

Instead, say, hey, I respect your level of skill from what I've seen, and so want to try playing together? I can't stress enough how important it is to give people time.

If I keep losing to someone and they come to me in a few days saying that they respect me and they want to try playing with me, I'm much more likely to play with them. I can develop a good connection with them and spread the word that this is a good guy and a good player.

If they PM me immediately after beating me, I'm much more likely to start a beef with them, make excuses for why I lose, and spread the word that this player is a dickhead.

Even if they're not trying to be a dickhead, if I have a lower level of maturity or have a weak ego, then I may try to lash out at this person if they give me any room to do so. When you give people time, they have nothing they can lash out at you about.

This tip doesn't just apply to knowing when to start a conversation with people, but also to do when they PM you after a win. People set traps.

They send you excuses about lag, or comp, or what is OP at the moment. This is their attempt to get you in an argument, probably.

There is no winning. This is probably just a troll, and the best thing to do is to probably ignore it.

If you do want to respond, a good sportsman would say, hey, you're probably right, but I don't want to get into it because usually nothing good gets said right after a game between players. So if you win, give it time to talk to people that you beat.

If they try to talk to you, either act like you didn't see it, which is really what I would advise most, which is do not respond, or give them a quick, respectful response, and then do not keep talking to them. Let them know that you have said your piece.

Then after a while, if you respect their skill and their attitude, I would advise branching out to them. With respect.

That has almost always worked for me. I'll say stuff like, hey, I've wanted to play with you for a while, want to try some 3v3 sometime.

Here's my Skype. A good sportsman knows when he's being ignored as well.

If you do try branching out to someone, and they never respond, or they keep saying, not now, maybe later, then take the hint and move on with grace. A good way to handle this is to say, hey, I haven't been PMing you at good times for you to play.

These are good times for me to play. Let me know if we can try getting some good times.

I'll try to get some games in soon. And then leave it at that.

Don't keep trying to talk to them. Word will spread that you're too eager, and that you don't take a hint if you don't handle this correctly.

One of my favorite sportsmen is Krill, a Shadow Priest on Tichondrius. I haven't seen him say much to players he has just played, and when he does, it's never anything bad about anyone.

He has gained the rep of a consummate professional, which gains him a huge pool of teammates and opportunities. Whereas someone like MercX, a warrior on BG9, has a lot of potential.

He's a great player. He has the reputation of a giant trash talker.

He has severely limited his pool of teammates, and thus his opportunities. Good sportsmanship in losing is very similar to winning.

Avoid talking to people you have played in the short term. Even if you are sincerely trying to tell them that they played well and outplayed you, they will probably take that as sarcasm if you do it right away.

If you lose and they try talking to you, you have to gauge if they have good sportsmanship or not. It's generally advised by me to you to not respond for a couple days.

But if you're going to respond and it seems like they have good sportsmanship, then you should say stuff like, Yeah, you guys did play well. Or, yeah, we even have the comp advantage.

You guys played good to overcome that. Be humble and modest.

Even if you're upset and not feeling humble or modest, just pretend you are. You'll be better off in the long run.

It's hard for someone to have a problem with you if you don't seem like you have a big head, if you agree with them, if you're friendly, etc. If you win, say it's because you out-gear and out-comp them.

If you lose, it's because they played well. Even if that's not true, play it cool.

I don't know if you've ever watched post-game interviews in sports with coaches and players, but the stuff they say in response to the media's questions at those interviews is a good model. It's designed to nix controversy and drama.

The strong silent type is usually respected and admired. I wish I had kept my mouth shut 90% of the time that I opened it in this game.

I would have had better opportunities and a better reputation. You actually don't need to be perfect.

You're just trying to achieve a certain appearance in-game. This goes without saying, but a good sportsman plays fair, meaning he doesn't cheat with things like DDoS or hacks like the global cooldown that came up years ago.

This tip might get you huge kudos, this next tip, but it kind of depends on how well this rule is. It's not always known in the circles that you play with and against.

There's an unwritten rule that I play with and against. When someone disconnects, a good sportsman stops and waits if they notice this in time.

When that player is back online, there's a soft reset and then the PvP continues. This is what is considered making the most fairness out of an unfair situation.

Don't participate in trash talk. Don't make excuses for losses like comp or gear or lag.

Don't gloat about wins. Don't compliment your opponents after a good amount of time has passed.

Acknowledge that you do not play perfectly and that there's always more for you to learn and always a way to play better. Follow these steps and your reputation will improve and so will your PvP experience.

CONTROL BY RECKFUL

🎵 Midnight rush with a pen in my hand Dinking, linking, Sanskrit with a fan Remembering me before we began Sometimes I feel so deaf in the chair But the ones who love me told me to stop Like homegirl can't catch a dog Hey, it's Rekful from Complexity Red, and I'm going to show a video on the most important skill for rogues to have in an arena, which is control.

Damage really doesn't matter as much as people think, and if you're controlling your opponents well, stopping them from killing your teammates, eventually you're going to line up a kill most of the time.

For control, rogues have cheap shot, kidney shot, gouge, blind, dismantle, smoke bomb, and even just plain crippling poison. All that can go a really long way in an arena to stop people from killing your teammates.

This first clip I'm going to show is against a cleave team. It's a red paladin, death knight, a healer, a priest.

These teams tend to try to just run in and kill someone in their team with every cooldown they have as fast as they can. I'm going to start on the death knight with a garrote.

I don't want to change the game. I haven't cheap shot him yet because I don't want to waste my stun DR when he's already feared.

Now that he's out of the fear, I'm going to put him in a gouge, which no longer breaks on rogue bleeds, so I can let it sit full. Out of the gouge I'm going to kidney him, but I'm planning for him to get out of it with either icebound or trinket.

Icebound removes stuns now. If he icebounds out of the kidney, he starts running in my warlock, who's already really low to just the red paladin.

I dismantle the death knight so he doesn't get any attacks off, and now I'm pretty much out of kills for him. So I'm going to recuperate my points off, and here I'm going to put in slower motion.

Vanish cheap shot the red paladin, who's trying to get over the tomb to my warlock, and he really wants him bad. He's going to trinket that, so I'm going to blind him, and blind removes dots with the blind glyph.

I'm going to slice and dice my points off the red paladin, so now I have slice and dice and recuperate going, and now I'm back on the death knight. It's good to just conveniently get up, slice and recoup, your damage increasing abilities while you're peeling.

Now I'm going to drop a smoke bomb, because they're both connecting, and if they stay in the smoke bomb, we'll get some counter pressure going on them. I'm going to cheap shot the red again, and I'm going to put him in a gouge out of that, because he has no dots right now.

And then I'm going to take all those combo points, and redirect them to the death knight for a full kidney. Now my lock port's away, and the death knight and the red have used almost every cooldown they have, so it's safe to say he's going to live.

And we start doing damage. I shadow dance him in this kidney, pop my agility trinket, get some ambushes, get some eviscerates, just start dealing damage.

I feel a lot of people make the mistake of just getting an arena and thinking they have to take the other guy down as fast as they can, just doing damage right away, and that's not important usually. If I did that right away here, my lock would have just died instantly.

Instead, I chose to peel them off and do damage later. Here's the clip at normal speed.

The red and DK run into my warlock, they both get howled, teared, and I garrote the death knight and let the howl sit as long as I can. It gets dispelled, I'm going to gouge him, I'm going to let that sit, kidney him out of that.

He gets out of the kidney with icebound, runs into my warlock, so I'm going to dismantle him, I'm going to recuperate the points off him for the energy regen, I'm going to vanish cheap shot this red paladin.

He's going to trinket, I'm going to blind him, I'm going to slice and dice my points off him, get back on the DK with full damage buffs, and I'm going to drop a smoke bomb, so he can't get out of the way. He'll get healed.

Now I need pills again, so I'm going to vanish cheap shot the red paladin, I'm going to gouge him out of that, and I'm going to redirect all five of those points to the death knight for a full kidney. My warlock gets away safely, and now I just start dealing damage.

Shadow dance, agility trinket, drop some ambushes and eviscerates, and now we start getting the lead. DK is getting low, they have no cooldowns, they can't get to my warlock, they're gonna have to change something soon.

This next clip is a 2v2 game, where I'm using level 60 weapons. Further proof that damage doesn't matter that much, and you really just need to set up situations to win.

Here I'm going to sap the shaman, after that fire nova goes off, I shadow step him and sap him. My mage gets sapped at the same time though.

I'm going to stay near my mage, get ready to open on this robe. Here he is, get a cheap shot on him before my mage takes much damage.

Now I'm going to gouge him out of that and let that sit. I recuperate full off the gouge, and I'm just going to shiv him for crippling poison.

He cloaks the crippling poison and just runs MMH, which is something people will commonly do. And now I'm going to blind the very end of his cloak here.

Get on the shaman for a second, just gouging him, shiving cripple on him too. Don't want him to be all over the place, I'm just going to shiv him off.

He's all over my mage. Now I'm going to redirect my points to the rogue.

He vanishes at the same time to grow up my mage, but I'm going to get him off really fast with this five point kidney. He would have gotten dispelled by the shaman out of this frost nova, so it's not reliable.

Now I just have to keep him off for a while, while my mage tries to go eat. So I'm going to evasion, and I'm just making his life hell pretty much, because hitting me isn't an option right now, since I'm evasioned and full health.

So he just has to waddle toward my mage with crippling poison. Now, if we hadn't peeled at the beginning, just focused entirely on stopping damage, Pooks would probably just be on the floor dead right now, or he would have had to at least use a lot of cooldowns.

So it's important to play like this for a while, until you get a situation rolling where you can get a kill, because a lot of times you can't get a kill right away, when you're in a situation like this, and you're just going to get killed. People have all their cooldowns up.

They have cloak, they have combat readiness, they have nature swiftness on the shaman. We can't just burst, and especially not with these weapons from ZG.

Here's the clip in normal speed. I get snared across the map, I get a restuff, fire nova goes off, I shadow step sap the shaman, my mage gets sapped, I stand next to him waiting for the rogue, cheap shot the rogue as soon as he opens.

Now I gouge the rogue at a cheap shot, let it sit. Out of that, I shiv crippling on the rogue, walk away from him a little bit so he doesn't gouge or dismantle me.

He cloaks the crippling, runs at my mage, I blind him. I gouge the shaman because he's purging.

I'm going to cripple him, redirect all five of those points to the rogue, he's going to vanish and garrote. I'm going to kidney him off.

His nova gets dispelled right here, so he would have gotten back to my mage. Now I just keep him away for the next 20 seconds, until he sets something up.

At this point we're in full control even though we haven't done any damage, and that's the beauty of rogues really. But you'll also sometimes get in these situations this other rogue's in where he can't really get anywhere.

I'll fast forward now to where we did get that setup later on. Here, poox is back at full health, I vanish shadow step ambush this rogue, kidney him, drop a smoke bomb, shadow dance pop my trinket, and I ambush him pretty hard considering the weapons I'm using.

I turn into a tiger from, that's the proc from these weapons. Gives 3 nerd attack power.

We get a deep freeze into a ring of frost on the shaman. He blinds me but I trinket, and he pops combat readiness.

As soon as combat readiness fades, here we are, and he goes down. This next clip is again against a cleave team.

This time, I can tell they're trying to get on my healer, because they have him targeted. While they're on their way there, I'm just trying to do as much damage as I can.

I go to stop a heal here to get more counter pressure going. Get that kick at the very end.

He pops AMS and runs right at him, so I come in with the dismantle. But I'm still scared because they have a lot more cooldowns than them.

Here comes the rep pally, and the big pet is out, from the death knight. Rep pally pops wings.

Healer's getting really low, so this metal alone isn't enough. I don't have a kidney right now, so I'm gonna go ahead and use the last resort right here.

We don't have blind either. Gonna gouge this rep pally.

Kidney comes up now, but it's better to save that for the death knight here. We were doing a lot of damage, so the death knight was scared to just chase my shaman around LOS.

It's a smart choice not to. He's looking to switch to my warlock now, but I kidney him full, and he's getting dangerously low here.

That's one type of peeling I didn't mention, just peeling with damage. Sometimes people have to get off because you're doing too much damage.

But it's not reliable because sometimes they pop so many cooldowns that you can't do enough damage. And here I get a pretty cool focus shadow stab, get in front of the guy, focus gouge the very end of that greater heal, but it doesn't get us the kill yet.

Here's a clip at normal speed. I'm gonna go ahead and get a little bit of a kill here.

Normal speed. I get a kidney on this death knight.

He's looking to get on my shaman. I get a kick on one of these flash heals here.

Now, I dismantle the death knight. He's AMS'd in freedom, running at my healer.

The red paladin gets freedom, but he's coming back. Death knight makes his pet big.

Red paladin pops wings. They're doing everything they can to drop this shaman instantly.

Pops AMZ because he's getting really low. I gouge the red paladin just to make sure my shaman's safe.

I get back on the death knight. He's looking to switch to my warlock.

I get a full kidney on him. We almost kill him here, but he gets a penance.

Then the priest goes for an inner focus greater heal. It can't be kicked, so I focus shadow step, get in front of him, and gouge it.

We didn't kill right there, but later on we've stabilized. Our warlock's at full health.

Shaman's at full health, so we do a swap to the priest with shadow dance while he's already at half, and he goes down. And that's it.

I hope you enjoyed watching Control, and I'll have some more videos soon.

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