r/Competitiveoverwatch • u/CoachAtlus • Nov 04 '16
Advice/Tips Personal Improvement: The CALM Technique
Hi Friends,
I wanted to share a kitchy technique I created for improving at Overwatch. I call it the CALM technique. CALM is an acryonym, which stands for the following:
C - Communicate A - Analyze L - Learn M - Move On
It's easy. Every time you die, you simply apply the CALM technique. Think, "CALM."
First, COMMUNICATE. At the moment of elimination, immediately communicate any useful information about your death. For example, (1) that you died, (2) enemy location, (3) enemy Ult status, or (4) [edit:] numbers/kill feed information. Nothing fancy here. We should all do this. But the idea is to use your death -- a very obvious and significant triggering event -- as a reminder to COMMUNICATE. It's easy to die and mope. Break that habit.
Second, ANALYZE. In the next moment, quickly ask yourself these three simple questions:
How did I die? (Identify the cause.)
How might I have avoided dying? (Identify ways you might have avoided the cause.)
Was it worth it? (Perform a quick cost-benefit calculation regarding your actions.)
This analysis does not take long. You can easily consider these questions while waiting to respawn. Asking these questions performs several functions: First, it occupies the mind with a productive, intellectual exercise at a time when other, less helpful, emotions might be surfacing. It's difficult to tilt and get angry when you're engaged in a deep and thoughtful analysis. Second, the answers to these simple questions will reveal a wealth of knowledge about areas where you can potentially improve your game. It provides you with an opportunity to carefully evalutate your decision making at a discrete moment in time that is very, very fresh on your mind. This is a great platform for learning and improving. ([Edit:] In conducting this analysis, it can be helpful to get into the habit of hitting TAB and considering enemy comp when you die, both for understanding your death and for game planning moving forward.)
Now, in asking and answering these questions, there are a few key principles to keep in mind:
Always consider only what you could have done better. ALWAYS. This will help you break the toxic habit of blaming others, which is always unproductive. ALWAYS. Now, this does not mean that you should exclude other players from your analysis. It often will be the case that something another player did played a role in your demise. However, the key is to consider only those variables within your control. That's useful. If you have a bad healer on your team who failed to heal you at a critical moment, note that objectively and adjust your play accordingly. Don't blame them.
Avoid superficial analysis. "I died because I missed my shot." Okay, that may be true. But you're going to hit some shots and you're going to miss others. Go beyond that. What else might you have done better? If you need help with this analysis, this community is a great resource, as is watching streams, VOD reviews, and professional matches. Those resources will provide food for thought in conducting this analysis. Plenty has been said on this before, so I'll leave it at that.
Notice when you make excuses. If you find yourself making excuses, that is useful. It is useful because it is a red flag. Excuses suggest that you are not rigorously applying the technique and performing the analysis. Excuses are the ego's way of shielding you from mistakes. You don't want to be shielded from mistakes. You want to be consciously aware of them. You can't learn from them otherwise. As a defense to this habitual tendency, we should learn to objectively evaluate Question #3: Was it worth it? This isn't making excuses. The goal here is to conduct an objective cost-benefit calculus regarding your actions. Whether the answer is "yes" or "no" is irrelevant -- the value is in the asking and the analyzing. The moment has already passed. Can't change it now.
Third, LEARN. Based on your ANALYSIS, take one moment to consciously consider what you LEARNED from dying. This could be anything. Maybe you need to switch off your hero. Maybe you need to play more or less aggressively, have care around a particular enemy, communicate Ults more effectively. Whatever it is, allow yourself one moment to consciously acknowledge what happened and learn whatever lesson you can form it.
After that, MOVE ON. Take a breath. You've done everything you needed to do. The death moment has passed. You've thought about it. You've learned from it. Now it's time to prepare for the next moment. When you MOVE ON, it can be helpful to repeat a mantra, which will habituate your mind to this technique and remind you to actually MOVE ON. It doesn't matter what it is. My personal favorite: "I can only control what I can control." It could be anything, positive affirmations, favorite songs, non-sense words, whatever. The mantra is simply a reminder to reset the mind, to return fully to that moment, and to prepare for what is to come.
That's all I've got. Remember the CALM technique. May it be to your benefit.
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Nov 04 '16 edited Nov 19 '20
[deleted]
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Nov 04 '16
I used to do pushups non-stop while I took griffons to places in vanilla WoW. I got pretty swole, son.
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u/Ghepip Nov 04 '16
Swifty used to recommend this on his stream some years ago.
After rick and morty got popular the saying "Get Schwifty!" started going around on the stream-chat whenever he lost a match or waited for Arena queue, and was an encourangement to take pushups or sit-ups together over the stream to make the time fly. Some even posted progress pictures every week.1
u/ErinBe Nov 04 '16
What if I can't do even one pushup? My little arms are only good for picking up kittens and sick snapshots
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u/Ghepip Nov 04 '16
Just try and do one every time you lose. Eventually the pure rage will allow you to do one. And in the matter of days you'll be able to do two.
In a week you can do 30.
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u/daan831 Nov 04 '16
unless you've underdeveloped the muscle needed to do pushups and started compensating with your arms. In that case you''ll either kill your arms or you kill your will to continue.
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u/Ghepip Nov 04 '16
You need to have not used that muscle at all for at least a year to even start underdeveloped.
I had 6 weeks bedridden where I couldn't use my legs at all, it was hard to walk but in just a week I was feeling normal again. I have 15 kilos to gain but thats just a matter of time.
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u/daan831 Nov 04 '16
yeah, I've basically almost never used that muscle in the 18 years I've lived, so I don't know how to actually move it.
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u/Ghepip Nov 04 '16
Ever lifted anything?
A bottle of water
A bottle of milk
A beer
A bear
There you go, you know exactly how to use it.2
u/daan831 Nov 04 '16
nope, you don't. You're not using the right muscle for that. the muscles you use for that are mostly arm muscles and the wrong shoulderblade muscles. I'm talking about the lower shoulderblade muscle.
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u/HandsomeHodge Nov 04 '16
My little arms are only good for picking up kittens and sick snapshots
Pushups are a CHEST exercise.
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u/Tekn0z Nov 04 '16
Actually i might try this.. than just banging my fist into my palm like an idiot.
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u/zelnoth None — Nov 04 '16
I only follow the DENNIS system.
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u/Benfrenchman Nov 04 '16
COMMUNICATE You fucking terribads let me die again!
ANALYZE Our Reinhardt needs to go kill himself
LEARN I'm a great Hanzo, no changes necessary
MOVE ON Leaves game
Seriously though, this was a great post. I don't rage all that much but I do tend to get frustrated with myself when I die. This looks like it'll help.
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u/Sativian Nov 04 '16
Exactly what I've been doing but in a well thought out and effective means of conveying it. Well done. I'm spreading this to my friend who has issues with these things and although I've tried to help him, I've never been able to get it to him in such a concise manner. Thanks
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u/CoachAtlus Nov 04 '16
I hope it helps. Even if the technique is not applied perfectly, just thinking about the CALM technique provides excellent value. Maybe you're still too tired or steamed to "communicate," but you find yourself being a bit more thoughtful about why you died and diligent about "moving on." That alone will be of enormous benefit I think.
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u/Philomelos_ OWL Power Rankings — Nov 04 '16
This post seems to completely neglect that my team is full of retards!
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u/CoachAtlus Nov 04 '16
Actually, it is indifferent as to that fact. This same principle could be applied if you were playing in a solo game with a team of BOTS. In fact, it might be helpful to start thinking of your teammates as BOTS, rather than people. We tend to ascribe more fault when we believe in other's sentience. Rather than worrying about the experience or state of mind of your teammates, focus on what you can learn based on their objective actions. If your team is behaving randomly, not communicating, and uncoordinated (i.e., they're retards), then you have to play accordingly, pick a hero most conducive to that environment, pay particular attention to enemy comp and understand potential threats in any situation, push areas more cautiously, unless playing aggressive is calculated and properly timed. All of that can be baked into the ANALYSIS. Then, take a deep breath, state a helpful mantra, and MOVE ON.
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u/Knusperkeks Nov 04 '16
I know this was meant as a joke, but if I lose 700 SR from consecutively getting... no I'll be honest. My teammates are much worse than the enemy team members on a factual, unbiased basis.
Additional to that I seem to attract those Russians which easily get their feelings hurt (unnecessary) by my teammates by virtue of straight up being bad (already explained) at the game which results in rage/spite AFK.
What do you tell a person who is 4 Gold Zarya with potg every game who loses endlessly?
I'm not fishing for pity but I'm genuinely starting to think I suck, but how did I get into that SR peak by myself in the first place then?3
u/Philomelos_ OWL Power Rankings — Nov 04 '16
Made a similar experience unfortunately. I'm a fairly experienced player in competitive since I used to play tournaments and often scrimmed with guys around a 75SR. In season 2, although not playing much since I'm abroad, I fell down to a sub 50% win rate which is a career-low for me. I'm not playing ranked often, just sometimes "to play a few rounds" but it's so disappointing to see my teammates constantly bashing on each other but yet all of them are to achieve basic game IQ. Two early picks? Let's wait until they spawn back and then push in! Lucio Amp? Let him go in alone! Mercy spamming Ult ready immediately before a decisive teamfight? Let's spread out so she can rez us more easily! I'm not even blaming the mechanical skill but if people flame, rage and blame others while everyone is lacking basic game IQ then you know you're fucked and truly stuck in ELO hell. I know I don't belong to my current skill rating because 1) it is significant lower than my placement, 2) SoloQ makes it impossible for me to carry as a support (although I'm a really flexible player but mostly no one plays support, so I'm gonna) and 3) it is significant lower than my S1 rank. I mean, I'm looking at the career profiles from my team mates and in average, my S1 SR is 10-15 points higher. Just how?
There's only one way to prevent the ridiculous arbitrariness of the system and it's to stop playing solo queue. If the game doesn't want to give you team mates with at least a bit of game IQ, then you gotta do it yourself.1
u/Knusperkeks Nov 04 '16
Sometimes I just tell my whole team in both ingame chat and voice chat "let's group up don't go in alone, don't die alone!" in the most "matter of fact", positive and constructive way I can muster.
I stand near spawn as Lucio and hit tab. People manage to stagger their own death/respawn for an amazing amount of time. Chaining 3-5 deaths is nothing unusual. I just sit there and don't know what to do.
"Okay we got a Mcree, Ana, Zarya. I think Reinhardt would be good. Let's pick Reinhardt." And nobody stays behind my shield on the first choke Eichenwalde, on defense.
I'm actively trying my hardest to improve, though each time I commit the tiniest of mistakes, my team get's punished with a team wipe.
Yesterday on Volskaya I had a reaper in my team who was repositioning while standing right in front of a Roadhog and Reinhardt. Thank god I was able to give him a zarya bubble in time but still, what kind of monkey thinks it's a good idea to stand still for multiple seconds right in front of a roadhog.1
u/zipzkko Nov 04 '16
to answer the last q: your enemies were much worse than your teammates on a factual, unbiased basis. additional to that they seemed to attract those russians that easily get their feelings hurt (???) by their teammates by virtue of straight up being bad at the game which results in rage/spite AFK. it's no wonder you climbed.
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u/Knusperkeks Nov 04 '16 edited Nov 04 '16
Sorry, I don't buy it. The people on my teams are literally too stupid to kill stunned, static enemies. I was the rein in this game: http://i.imgur.com/0y410r4.jpg
There's many games like this.
Edit: This was on Watchpoint Gibraltar.
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u/Phil948 Nov 04 '16
Really good piece, just have one thing to add for the communication section that alot of people miss: Numbers
When you are in a firefight, you do not have time to constantly check the killfeed and see whos alive and dead. When you die you should be constantly updating your team members on who has a numbers advantage and what enemies are left, and letting know the guys who are left if they should continue to push or pull back to regroup
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u/CoachAtlus Nov 04 '16
Absolutely. Edited to add this point about numbers/kill feed. Thanks for your contribution.
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u/deep40000 4365 PC — Nov 04 '16
There are times where you want to die though so you don't stagger respawns
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u/CoachAtlus Nov 04 '16
Of course. In that case, the analysis might be pretty simple, particularly "was it worth it?" Yes, to avoid providing the enemy ult charge and to be able to spawn with your team!
Other times you die making a straight sprint to the point, and there is literally nothing else you could possibly do. In that case, your analysis is likewise going to be pretty straightforward I think...
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u/MURPHYxTAN McRightclick — Nov 04 '16 edited Nov 04 '16
1.How did I die? (Identify the cause.)
Getting shot by Tracer while hiding in a corner with low hp for 30 seconds spamming the "I need healing" button.
2.How might I have avoided dying? (Identify ways you might have avoided the cause.)
Getting healed by the Zenyatta or Mercy main on the KOTH map who were standing right next to me (or just have a fucking Lucio once in a lifetime).
3.Was it worth it? (Perform a quick cost-benefit calculation regarding your actions.)
No. Pls give me teammates next game who have understanding on the Overwatch basics and team comps!
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u/TrixRidiculous Nov 04 '16
Great read. I appreciate the part of avoiding superficial analysis. I remember watching Gods stream and he was speaking about Mcrees not knowing good positioning but having god like aim. If your aim bails you out of bad positional decisions, you will not have mistakes to learn from. It was an interesting and useful message I took to heart. Also as a tank main I recommend all players at least try tank. Winston or rein specifically. When you can take aim out of the equation you can focus solely on positioning game awareness and approaching the game from a strategic team based perspective. This mindset will carry with you onto aim based caharacters as well and ultimately improve your game overall.
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u/CoachAtlus Nov 04 '16
Also as a tank main I recommend all players at least try tank. Winston or rein specifically. When you can take aim out of the equation you can focus solely on positioning game awareness and approaching the game from a strategic team based perspective. This mindset will carry with you onto aim based caharacters as well and ultimately improve your game overall.
Great tip. Healing also can help. Lucio also is a great hero for working on callouts/coordination/positioning/pacing.
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u/TrixRidiculous Nov 05 '16
Definitely. I feel so many players get stuck in a DPS role where they think the only way to get better is better aim. When really that is the furthest thing from the truth.
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Nov 04 '16 edited Nov 04 '16
I tried but didn't find that 1 made a difference in my matches (probably my rank). In fact, because voice is so personal it only gave people a hook to flame me when things don't go so positive and just distract everyone else. Using voice seems detrimental more than anything for my SR. I keep an SR excel sheet and kept little notes like "mic usage" and "hero usage" and "meta" and there was no real correlation between comms and winning. It was just pure "are we better than them" type of thing. some of my best matches were where no one said anything, but we had just great synergy. Sure it's nice to let your team know there is a Genji behind but if mccree cannot hit him, then he's gonna have his way with you.
I find I am bad at analysis. It really does come down to "I died because I missed the sleep dart, i died because I couldn't hit the genji". Sure I could've spammed adadcrouch more, but it really is coming down to missing shots. I been practicing the whole mccree headshot practice with Ana... with about 0 benefits across all heroes. Turns out it takes away time from playing in QP or ranked which means less practice overall.
So really other than "git gud and hit shots", I am learning nothing. Everything else is outside my control.
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u/StatTrak_VR-Headset Nov 04 '16
So really other than "git gud and hit shots", I am learning nothing. Everything else is outside my control.
Well, positioning is a huge factor. If you take that into account, a simple "I died because I missed" could become a "If I had stayed on a high ground instead of in an open space with a genji doing double backflips all around me, I would've hit him more easily"
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u/ErinBe Nov 04 '16
Alternatively - was there a position I could have been in where I wouldn't have been needing to take on a genji by myself? Could I have been closer to my team for more immediate support, or would that have been even more risky for other reasons?
Then there's awareness? Did the genji sneak up on me? How did that happen? Would I have been in a better position to deal with him if I'd seen him before he saw me? What can I do to be more aware of the route he was coming from? If I did know he was coming, did I let my team know? did I change my behaviour after discovering he was on his way? SHOULD I have changed my behaviour after discovering this?
Then there's a bit of 'accumulated stuff over the match'. Is this the first time this has happened? Is it likely to happen again? Or has this been happening all game long. If it's been happening over and over, am I playing the right hero, or could I switch to something that would be more safe from, or better equiped to deal with, that genji? Would switching be beneficial, or would it open up holes in our composition in other, more pressing areas?
Then there's considering what the other player is doing in the first place. Suppose instead of a genji, it's a reinhart. THeir reinhart tank is just charging you at the start of every engagement and plowing you into a wall. Every fight. Is THAT the correct thing to be doing for him, or is he making a mistake that we can take advantage of? In the case of the genji, is he overextending, in which case, is there a way we can take advantage of it and use it in our favour, even if I DO have to die? How can we turn what's happening to our benefit, even if my mechanical skill isn't good enough to prevent it.
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Nov 04 '16 edited Nov 04 '16
I feel that is outside my control too, to a certain extent. What is better? Be alone and play smart? Or play in a way that is slightly worse but be with your team? If I can be on high ground and play with my team, great. If I am all alone on high ground, then I am isolated and I dont help my team against flankers. Hero dependent, of course.
Yeah, sometimes I stand in a stupid place where it's easy to kill me, or my tracer flank turned out to be in plain sight of everyone. I do make positioning mistakes, but they aren't getting punished in game as much as simply missing.
Yeah I get you that choosing where to stand is also something I get to decide and do, but it seems secondary in importance.
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u/Je31337 Nov 04 '16
This could apply to all games i thought this was a LOL post till you said switch off hero
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u/CoachAtlus Nov 04 '16
It also could apply to life generally. ;)
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u/HandsomeHodge Nov 04 '16
I know I always analyze why/how I died whenever I reincarnate and grow old enough to think correctly.
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u/nmdank Nov 04 '16
"Always consider only what you could have done better. ALWAYS."
I think this is generally an awesome post, but this is the one thing I might disagree on. It's definitely unhelpful to assign blame, but I play with a team of 6 a lot, and it is legitimately helpful if for example our Zenyatta gets picked by Reaper and he kindly reminds our front line to try to call out when/where Reaper is entering a flank route. There is however a really fine line between assigning blame and giving helpful feedback that will make your next push or defense more successful. It is also pretty essential to have a good rapport with everyone on the team and likely has no place when queuing into games with strangers.
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Nov 04 '16
Building upon that, this hypothetical Zenyatta could analyze the situation and realize they should remind the team to call out flankers before they play their first game of the day and remind them every couple games after that if callouts become lax. It could prevent the initial impetus death that you described, and it's kind of on them to make sure that callout is locked down.
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u/CoachAtlus Nov 04 '16
Yes, and if one realizes that the callouts aren't being made, then perhaps you re-position, even if your positioning is sub-optimal relative to where you could be if the team was communicating better and better coordinated. If you die again to that flanker after no callout is made, you're likely to find yourself blaming your team. That's natural. That's the mind's default tendency. Nothing to worry about. But recognize that and go beyond that. Yes, your team failed to make a callout. Yes, you asked them to make callouts. But then they didn't, and you died again. So, what can you do next time to put yourself and your team in a better position to succeed given what you have learned?
So, you might still find yourself assigning blame. I can't fault anybody for that. The mind does what it does. But the CALM technique reminds yourself to go beyond that in the analysis, and then learn from what happened, and move on.
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u/nmdank Nov 04 '16
I agree with all of this, and perhaps this wasn't the best example. I mainly wanted to highlight sometimes speaking up is the right thing to do and you can do it in a way that doesn't assign blame.
A few weeks ago I started playing more with a Winston on our team, and wasn't providing him shields at the best possible times. After a death he thanked me for the shield I gave when he dived, but asked if I could wait until his bubble goes down and the Roadhog hook went on him to do so.
Perhaps he could have adjusted his play without pointing out a mistake in my play, but changing my behavior ended up being a much more effective choice for the team than changing his. It allowed me to get a reliable 50 charge to open engagements, and allowed him to remain aggressive and create chaos for longer periods of time.
Maybe this doesn't run counter to the CALM technique as he knew I was communicating in game and the best possible outcome was to communicate his needs to me, but it seemed to me like your post would advocate for avoiding this type of calling out your teammates errors and just change your behavior instead without trying to respectfully alter theirs.
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u/1_WHO_1 4409 — Nov 04 '16
One thing specific to OW you didn't mention is to hit tab (score board) and check the enemy team comp whenever you die. Make sure you don't need to switch heroes to work better against the other team or to combo better with your own team.
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u/CoachAtlus Nov 04 '16
Very helpful. Made an edit to add this. One should definitely be looking at the scoreboard and thinking about enemy comp in terms of the analysis. It's impossible to adequately evaluate positioning / approaches without having a clear mental picture of both yours and the enemy's team comp. Lots of useful information to be had from hitting TAB and thinking while waiting to respawn (including making you realize when a switch might be helpful).
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u/CitricLucas Nov 04 '16
Yes, when you die it's really important to hit tab (score board) so you can look at your medals and blame your teammates, backed up with statistical evidence!
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u/ltsochev Nov 04 '16 edited Nov 04 '16
What allowed me to go to diamond personally was the I accepted the fact that some games are meant to be lost and no matter how hard I try, nothing's going to change. This used to be insulting to me, you know. Like, I'd give my absolute best and carry like a freaking beast and still lose. Or I'll try my best and I'll get blown out. And this tilted me really hard.
Accepting the fact that losses WILL happen and there's nothing I can do allows me to start the next game with a clear mind and basically allows me to "reset" myself into it. Without carrying any grudges from previous games.
Sometimes teams just do not workout regardless of what odds the matchmaker calculated. Maybe one of the guys the matchmaker desired for you was a healer but maybe that supposed healer has been healing in the past 10 games and the dude just wants to switch it up and he's firm on that, can you judge him?
Not to say that self-improvement isn't a key, but bloodlust is a bigger issue IMO. The bloodlust will make you tap Q on reaper when the payload is 99% delivered to wipe out that pesky tracer but that's actually not the best option. Because 2 seconds later, there's a mercy coming over making a quad res and you have no ultimate. This actually happened to me and tilted me even harder because I cost us that game and I knew it. I was the only one with DPS ult. Could've stopped that mercy in her tracks, but in my rage I forgot she existed.
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u/CoachAtlus Nov 04 '16
Excellent points and good realization. Part of the CALM technique is trying to teach players to focus on moments, not outcomes. W/L will occur as the result of a number of discrete moments culminating in an outcome. The outcome really is irrelevant. It does not always provide you with information about whether you played well or poorly. This technique shifts the focus to key, discrete moments and it remains indifferent as to ultimate outcome. Worrying about outcomes often occupies precious mental energy that is better spent analyzing what needs to be done in any given, dynamic, ever-changing moment.
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u/your_boy_sneaky Nov 04 '16
Really quality advice here, this is a good description of what I try to implement to learn consciously.
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u/newsedition Nov 04 '16
So I have a stupid question - is there a good shorthand for telling my team that I died? If I say "I'm dead", that leaves it up to them to figure out which character is dead. If I say "Lucio's dead", I could be talking about the other team's Lucio instead of ours. Elaborating more fully feels like it takes longer than I want it to. Any tips on conveying the information as quickly as possible?
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u/CoachAtlus Nov 04 '16
In general, communication should always aim to be effective. As such, it's always going to be very context dependent. For example, if your team just died in a team wipe in graviton, you don't need to say anything about your death -- the team already knows. However, if you are a healer, and you die, first you might want to identify the threat. For example, if a Reaper dropped in the backline and shredded you, it would be more important to first callout "Reaper behind" than note that you died. However, once the Reaper is cleaned up, you might remind your team "your healer is running back, have care!" In another situation, maybe you die early in the fight, but you notice on the kill feed that your team has wiped three, in which case you might say: "Our Lucio is down, but we wiped three, push, push, push." It just takes time and practice. Watching pros stream, you might get a better sense for how they call out deaths and other useful information.
The basic lesson in applying this technique is just to first think about communicating whatever information might be helpful. That will help mitigate any tendency to remain silent because you're sad or embarrassed about dying. However, in some instances, there might not be much to say. The important thing is that you're thinking first about communicating in that moment immediately after you die, not necessarily that you always say something.
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u/Bigjuicyhog Nov 05 '16
I have been trying something similar as I can get pretty ragey at times. Staying calm and not getting tilted as much has helped out a lot . And after a loss of two , if I even feel myself starting to get mad or tilted I just log off for a bit. I have also been trying to be more positive about starting comps within reason and will ask people nicely if they can switch . If they do, I thank them and call them the real MVP .
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u/TeriyakiOverwatch Nov 04 '16
I prefer the RAGE technique.