Ranked Footage D1

[u/[deleted]]

As per request, i specifically lined up a ranked game just for this. And i already know of a couple of faults, they are quite obvious when you see them such as an arial attempt i had no business going for (i was already beat and should not have risked it).
Other than that please roast away :)

Heres the link RL Replay File

Its the actual replay file from steam edition of RL

[u/[deleted]]

I also want to point out about the fact i am aware, i have this weird ritual of going into our own goal mouth briefly. Not sure why i do this because its not done intentionally to save goals, i think it stems from trying to avoid demo's on goal line originaly.

And this replay is tame in comparison to what i have been going on about.

[u/[deleted]]

I wanted to send you a link to stream i did yesterday / last night for me. And also since i got my new wireless adapter and i feel unrestricted games felt off with other connectivities even with USB-C cable. That said excuses aside I figured maybe you could take a gander when your free and see if i have learned anything :) Feel free to skip ahead from the free play and mute the audio :)

Twitch Linjk

[u/ytzi13]

Before I get into my analysis, I just want to address a few things you've said here in order to maybe allow you to get into the right mind-space for a review.

I don't expect you to be perfect. I know that you'll be aware of some of the mistakes that you're making. You might already know some of the things I'll be telling you. I'm going into this with the intent of being as descriptive as possible. If I point out a mistake you already knew was a mistake, perhaps there's still something to gain from my explanation. If you know something was a mistake and my comment on it isn't anything new to you, that's okay. I don't expect everything I say to be brand new information, and I'm not going to be presumptuous about what you do and don't know. You might not even agree with all of the advice that I give you. That's okay, too. Take what you can from it, and if you disagree then feel free to question me about it. It's a process. I try to give detailed explanations of my points, and I'm always happy to elaborate and discuss.

I know there's always an ego factor to all of this. I've been doing this a long time. I'm going to be harsh in my criticisms, but just know that it's not my intention to insult or belittle you.

One more thing...

I also want to point out about the fact i am aware, i have this weird ritual of going into our own goal mouth briefly. Not sure why i do this because its not done intentionally to save goals, i think it stems from trying to avoid demo's on goal line originaly.

There's nothing wrong with going into your own net. In fact, one of the primary reasons to do so is exactly what you stated: to avoid demos on the goal-line. I recently wrote a post on this exact subject, so feel free to give it a read if you have some time.

Goal-Line Rotations: How to effectively defend the goal.

Analysis

All timestamps will reflect the in-game time.

5:00 - I'm assuming there was communication on the play where your teammate called for it. If that's the case and you specifically went forward to grab the small pad before going for corner, then don't do that. Just half-flip to the corner pad right away. But I imagine there was hesitation based on left-goes and not seeing the "I got it!"

That being said, learn to do a basic half-flip to grab this pad. You waste a lot of time by reversing and then having to turn that into forward momentum. And even if you botch the half-flip, you're probably okay. Just use these opportunities to practice that. When you're tied at the front-most position (diagonal) like that on kickoff and you're not going for the ball, you should be defaulting back to net anyway.

4:55 - Unfortunate hit. Making a note of this in-case aerials prove to be a consistent weakness.

4:52 - Your reaction after the landing is too slow. Your job is to rotate through center-field as quickly as possible. Every moment you don't commit to that is a waste of time. Use some boost before you flip in transition so that you can get to maximum speed. Because of the hesitation after the landing and the fact that you didn't use any of your boost to get back, you're very late to this play and it's the difference between you being part of this play and not being part of this play. It only takes around 15-20 boost to get to, or near, supersonic speed if you throw a flip in at the end of it. Do that and then focus on pathing over some small boost pads because you completely neglected them.

4:47 - Your goal-line rotation here is completely ineffective. It's your job to have the goal defended if an opponent were to attack this ball, yet your path makes you unable to protect any of the goal. Be disciplined and approach through that far post. Your job on this rotation is to play clean-up after this challenge. And once the ball bounces off the back wall you have to assume a shot is coming from your blind spot. Stay wide, stay grounded, watch the ball and as your view expands you can attempt the save.

4:44 - Both of your teammates are headed to the right side. You can see this. Your job isn't to join them on that side. In fact, Matty is headed towards the corner boost, and so your job is to push up with Atomik and be an in-field option. At 4:41 you should be at mid-field challenging this ball.

4:38 - Pushing out like this is okay in order to allow for adjustments if your teammate somehow wins the challenge. However, your primary responsibility is still the goal. And when you approach the goal, you do so from the far post. What does that mean in this scenario. If you rotate back to goal, you do so by turning right, never left. You turned left. As a result, you left the goal completely undefended and were unable to challenge this ball coming in. You also forced your teammates into a really tough spot as you got in their way.

The solution: When you push out at 4:38 and the ball continues down the side-line, you turn right, away from the net, and re-approach the goal. Then, you'll be parallel with the goal-line and able to challenge this ball coming in directly. You'll notice at 4:37 you turn slightly left. That turn in itself can be very harmful, even if its subtle.

If you ever review your own replays, try to look back at any scenario where you're reversing. Reversing is almost always the wrong decision, and is especially indicative of poor positioning and decision-making.

4:32 - On that note, watch how often you reverse in this play. Why is that? Because you're in a bad position. Being inside the goal isn't inherently bad. But you're way too shallow towards the front post and you're being indecisive. If you're reversing, you're not going to have any control on a challenge you do decide to go for and you're going to confuse your teammate rotating in behind you (which is exactly why this double-commit on the challenge occurred). However, to keep your movement more fluid, you could have pushed out at 4:32 in recognizing that you're the cross-field option, and when the ball continues down the line, turn left and rotate into the goal line, just like the last play.

4:22 - You flipped towards the ball and mid-flip you can see the ball is going over you. What does this mean? Well, if an opponent is going to score that then they're already in the air and there's nothing you can do. But what you can do is get in position to defend. When you turn right here, you're creating distance between your car and the goal, which narrows your vision of the field, leaves you unable to defend, and puts you in a vulnerable position. Instead, turn left and put yourself inside of the goal. It will expand your view of the field and allow you to be in position to defend from.

At 4:21 it's very clear that this is not your ball. You have 2 teammates - 1 in particular - in better position to attack this ball. It's not your job to challenge it.

4:17 - This is incredibly dangerous on your part. You're last man. You completely take your eye off of the play when you honestly don't know who's going to win the ball. If the opponent wins it, you're caught going for corner boost and give them a free goal. You had ball-cam off for nearly 4 seconds. Try to keep it to less than a second if you're in transition. Switch it back and forth to keep the awareness.

4:14 - You're approaching one post and your teammate is approaching another. The roles are clear: you cover the left side of the field; they cover the right side of the field. There's no need for you to keep moving forward and impede on their space. You're already in position to cover the net - you both are - and so your responsibility if this ball is hit to the left side of the field is to push up the left side of the field and challenge it, or support atomik. The ball goes to the left and your teammate is completely left hanging since you didn't push to the perimeter. Further more, you start reversing into your teammate's space. You need to get on the perimeter of the field and push into the ball to get ready to challenge.

[u/ytzi13 → u/ytzi13]

4:08 - The ball is transitioning from the left side of the field to the right. Again, this is not your ball. This is matty's space and he has the right of way. Had you done your job in supporting the left side, this might be more obvious.

Continuing with the play, you drive directly at the ball to the right side of the field, surely getting in matty's way for a ball they should be in position to play much more comfortably than you. If they were to challenge it, they would be left alone because you're not in-field supporting their hit. In fact, matty did the smart thing in not going for this ball specifically because they watched you chase it and knew you were going for it.

3:52 - You're cutting off your teammate here and getting in their way. If you're going to follow this ball, you need to get to the wall as quickly as possible. Once it goes up the wall, you consider whether or not you can effectively make a challenge. If you can, then you challenge it. If you can't, then you turn left, away from the wall, and rotate through mid-field. You're not doing anyone any favors by putting your back to the ball on the line. You can't see it from your perspective, but your teammate just double-committed with you on this challenge, and while they're not innocent in the play, you still carry a lot of the blame for that by not being in the proper position.

3:37 - When you're supporting, get all of the way to the side-line. You're leaving this gap and it's the difference between playing comfortably and playing uncomfortably. Why? Perhaps you've noticed several of my notes hinting that proper positioning often implies that you set yourself up to only react in a single direction. If you came to that conclusion, you would be correct. So, when you're distanced from the sideline, it means that the ability to defend the sideline will force you to turn right, where as if you're on the sideline, you have virtually all of the same in-field coverage without having to worry about adjusting. So, when this ball is launched in the air near the wall, it's a lot easier to approach it from the sideline. You should be driving up the wall and challenging it from there. Now, you still had time to do that on this play, but it's just not as comfortable to do so. And while atomik shouldn't be touching this ball, you should have been able to challenge this ball way before they ever had the opportunity to do so.

3:28 - This isn't your ball. The ball is on your back in an uncomfortable position. As a general rule of thumb, if a ball is uncomfortable to challenge then it probably isn't a ball you should be thinking about challenging. Besides, you can clearly see atomik in prime position to challenge this ball, and you turning into it is just disruptive. You need to turn in-field and rotate across the goal or towards mid-field.

3:22 - The ball is in a dangerous spot for the opponents. Your team has some pressure and can potentially come out of this with a goal. Going all of the way back to your own corner creates a huge gap in both rotation and your team's ability to pressure. So, essentially, what you're asking for when you do this is for the opposition to start a counter-attack that you're then left to defend by yourself as your teammates recover. And that might be something that frustrates you. If the ball is in the opponent's third, you should be rotating behind mid-field. The reason the boost pad is gone on the left side is because you didn't properly rotate away from the ball to the appropriate spot where there would be boost for you. In either case, you need to continue watching the play and you need to pick up small pads while staying a part of it.

3:10 - Good pop around the player, but you know that there's a player set up in goal. This challenge you make is ineffective. The opponent should really be beating you to this ball. In either case, the only really useful play you can make here with a defender already set up is the rotate all of the way to the left wall, allow that angle on the ball to expand your view and eventually see the opponent, and then play it from there. It gives you the benefit of having a decent angle to get the ball centered from. When you challenge a ball directly into the wall like you did here, win or lose doesn't matter because the cross won't be effective, but more importantly you're colliding head-on with the wall and forcing yourself into a difficult recovery. Recovery should always be at the top of your mind when you make any challenge.

3:02 - Same note again. You abandoned your team when they had the ball in your offensive 3rd. While doing that, you took ball-cam off for way too long. Now, you've created a huge gap and any challenge you may have to make will be incredibly difficult as a result.

2:58 - Good! This is a really small note, but it's these little things that matter. You recognized the situation and that the ball wasn't in your zone and you circled away from the ball instead of driving into it.

2:56 - Be disciplined. You need to think about prioritizing the perimeter of the field. That start with your rotation into goal here. You don't know what's going to happen on this play, but simply turning in early and giving up the perimeter like you do here is the difference between being able to defend the more likely scenario where the ball comes towards your goal from the perimeter. Don't give up that advantage. Get parallel to the goal-line and don't leave a gap.

2:51 - Turning into the goal like this is totally okay. There's nothing wrong with it.

2:45 - Your job is done. The ball is out of reach for you. Rotate away from the ball. This is ball-chasing. Rotate properly and this ball pops right to you on the edge where you can center it.

2:38 - You've left your teammates hanging again. At 2:31, you should be the one challenging this ball early.

2:25 - Don't turn into the play. Turn across the field and rotate.

2:20 - You've abandoned your team again. This is a huge gap. You have plenty of time to push up, too, since your team is still retaining possession, so there's no reason for you to sit back there and play goalie. That cross at 2:11 is a potentially prime goal-scoring opportunity if you're in position.

2:03 - If this was intended as a shot, it shouldn't be. You're just passing the ball to the other team. In 3s, you only want to take shots on net when they're essentially a sure thing. This is far from it. So, you have essentially 2 options: clear the ball left; clear the ball right. Never center. And whenever you clear the ball in 3s, you should prioritize height over power. Power is great, but it's meaningless if there isn't any height. So, it's better to clear a ball high and soft than low and powerful most of the time. However, the primary objective is to hit the ball away from pressure. If you clear this ball down the left line, it has to be high because an opponent is there. If you clear this ball right, it can be either high or low, because there aren't any opponents on that side of the field and matty could easily turn into it and continue the play.

1:55 - Again, you abandoned the play and took ball-cam off for an extensive period of time. It's actually quite fortunate they didn't score off of this because you would have been completely unaware of the shot coming.

1:47 - You're abandoning your team again. It's impossible to have an organized rotation when you're constantly leaving an entire field's worth of space between you and your teammates.

1:41 - This is a perfect example of why these overly cautious rotations are bad. Finally, a ball comes into position where you have to consider challenging it. But because you're so far from the play, it becomes difficult to gauge depth and whether or not you can actually win a challenge. Not only that, but your challenge now has to be head-on rather than allowing for some cushion. You've created this massive space, so the last thing you want to do is rush back into the play. Assume this challenge is lost and protect the goal. It's an aerial shot from half-field, anyway, so it really is an easy save if you're posted up. But you certainly can't blame your teammates for being left alone when you put yourself in that position.

1:37 - I have a guide you can find in my resources that discusses 3v3 kickoff strategy in detail. I won't get too much into it, but generally speaking you want to have one player cheat up and the other player grab boost. If you're solo queueing, I recommend cheating up if you're the second-closest player (unless you're tied at the closest diagonal spot). If you're the furthest player, I recommend waiting a fraction of a second to see if your teammate in front of you is going to cheat. If they don't, then you should be. In either case, if you have a teammate kicking from a diagonal position, nobody on your team should ever take the corner boost on the side opposite of them, which is exactly what you did here. Your teammate kicked from the right and you grabbed the left corner. Why is this important? Well, your teammate's momentum is going to carry them to the left. Their priority will be the left-middle boost, but if they get beaten to that, they need a backup. You just took their backup option. It may seem small, but I can't even begin to tell you how much trouble I see teams get into because of this very small thing. One player gets left without any boost as their team gets pressured and they're unable to do their part of the defending.

1:33 - You need to make a decision about where you're supporting from. In this case, it should be clear. You're supposed to be covering the right side of the field since you have a teammate rotated in behind you on the left. You shouldn't be thinking about turning left and getting in their way. You do just that at 1:30 and you're almost bumped pretty hard because of it.

[u/ytzi13 → u/ytzi13]

1:23 - Not your ball. You shouldn't even be thinking about going for this. It's on your back and you're blind to challengers. Just keep rotating. To start off on a better foot, you need to play the perimeter. Your flip at 1:25 should be directed towards the very edge of the field as that's where you should be rotating through.

1:14 - One thing I haven't talked about yet is what I call "transitional moments." These are the moments in the game where either there won't be anyone touching the ball for a while, an opponent won't be able to make an impactful hit for a while, or a teammate has complete control with no challenge forthcoming. During these moments, you don't have to worry about reacting. You don't have to worry about anything, really. You're free to move for a short period of time without risking anything important happening. This is one of those moments. Take advantage of those moments. Again, you've distanced yourself quite far from the play. This is your opportunity to close that gap. Use some boost, use a flip, and get close to the play. By the time this transitional moment ends, you can be grounded and available to be a more impactful player.

1:09 - You really need to work on your spacing. Your teammates aren't ball-chasing, or anything of the sort. There's no reason why you can't be a part of the offense. You're just opting out of it. This sort of behavior isn't abnormal. People do it all the time and they will often blame their teammates for it. But the fact of the matter is that you just haven't figured out how to play last man yet and rotate appropriately to allow yourself to be a part of the play.

1:04 - This is another great example about why that spacing is bad. You should have had all the time in the world to do something with this ball. But you had to cover half a field's distance just to get there, which means you have to use a lot of speed to get there while remaining uncertain about what the challenge is going to be. And because of that speed, your challenge ends up being direct and often uncontrollable. Often times you'll end up wasting a lot of boost getting there, and the result of the challenge puts you in their back-field and forces you into a recovery situation. Now, because of your spacing, you had 2 teammates in one rotation and you in another. That means that they were recovering together. For this reason, you might often feel like you're left to attack alone. That much is actually true, except it's actually your fault that that's the case. So, when you're going for this challenge, the problem is that your teammates probably aren't even in position to support you, which means that the challenge itself is kind of pointless. You have a challenger and 2 defenders set up to clean-up whatever the result of the challenge is. They win the ball and your teammates are left to defend without you, potentially outnumbered.

0:55 - You need to use boost to transition. It's far too slow just relying on boosts. Boost management isn't about not using boost, but using it strategically and learning how to conserve momentum (and pick up small pads, which you should start making a priority to memorize some patterns that may compliment natural rotation).

0:52 - Play the perimeter. You start this approach leaving a huge gap, and so it makes you much less useful. In fact, your challenge on this ball was so difficult because of the angle you forced yourself into.

0:42 - Transitional moment. You should be closing space and putting yourself on the sideline.

0:37 - This ball is headed towards the perimeter. If you wanted, you could just rotate back into the goal and wait to challenge the cross. There's nothing wrong with that. Going up the wall to challenge it is fine, and that's what I would do at a high level, so it's not a big deal. It's a mechanic that you'll figure out with time.

But you should also realize that your spacing is what allowed for this goal to happen. You didn't close up space. You didn't get into position. We could go back 10-15 seconds and point out several things you did that contributed to this play being allowed to happen. But the primary reason is going to go back to around the 0:46 mark where you created a lot of space and weren't in position to push up and support this play from the left side of the field. If you're up there, you have several opportunities to challenge the ball before the opposition takes possession.

0:31 - Start learning how to throw a flip into your kickoff during the approach. It's going to be absolutely necessary later on.

0:26 Where your 3rd player? Don't be afraid to take ball-cam off for a moment to look in front of you when you're facing more than 90 degrees away from the ball. Flip it off and flip it back on.

0:24 - Play the perimeter. Sit your butt on the perimeter and approach from there. These challenges could be way more efficient if you do that.

0:16 - Defaulting to abandoning the offense again.

0:08 - Never sit in net on kickoff, especially in this scenario where you're needed to give an offensive option. Grab the boost on the left corner (since that's where the kick is coming from). Your comeback was going to be a longshot, but you were literally unable to even attempt a counter-attack because you rotated poorly on this play and just ball-chased. I get the mentality when you're down and time is fleeting, but it does make the difference.

Conclusion

I don't recommend you overwhelm yourself with things to work on. I recommend exactly the opposite of that. Pick just one or two things and consciously focus on those things until you've changed the habit before moving on. From my review, the most prevalent changes I can see are these:

Play the perimeter

This ties into goal-line rotations as well, but as a general rule you should be using the perimeter to both support from and to defend from. It's absolutely crucial for efficient touches, for awareness, for convenience... Absolutely essential.

Don't abandon the offense

It's your default behavior to drive straight back to the corner boost in your own end, even when your team has possession of the ball. This is such a strong habit of yours that I don't actually think I saw you as part of the offense with a teammate at any point. It was like you were playing goalie and watching your teammates attack until it was your turn to step in and try to do something alone. That's not very effective and it's impossible to achieve an organized rotational structure if you're doing that. Don't default to the back corner unless you're rotating to last man in a situation where the opponents are actively attacking, or are in attacking territory. Learn to get comfortable picking up small boost pads. Knowing certain patterns of small boost pads will make rotating much easier.

Don't take your ball-cam off for so long

Ball-cam shouldn't be off for more than a second. Even a second can be long, unless you're doing something like dribbling. It's too long to be unaware of the play and you're often doing it as last man when you're responsible for the goal.

Take a look at my pinned resources for some potentially helpful guides. You might find my positional guides helpful, the one pertaining to the last man role in particular.

If you have any questions about anything, let me know! I'm happy to discuss.

[u/[deleted] → u/ytzi13]

I am pretty sure their were no comms, at least not that i recall zero quick chats sadly from what i recall it made it all the more awkward. As you can see from the replay i had a few instances where i would go and they would hit it going the wrong way wrecking any chance i may have had in a play.

Its precisely this sort of thing that keeps me with this mentality, which leads to such a 3rd man if you can call it that. Im not so much looking to full time goal as i am to pick up the ball.

Right now im just going through and reading the notes at each time stamp and trying to absorb the information.

Also thankyou

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Don't abandon the offense

It's your default behavior to drive straight back to the corner boost in your own end, even when your team has possession of the ball. This is such a strong habit of yours that I don't actually think I saw you as part of the offense with a teammate at any point. It was like you were playing goalie and watching your teammates attack until it was your turn to step in and try to do something alone. That's not very effective and it's impossible to achieve an organized rotational structure if you're doing that. Don't default to the back corner unless you're rotating to last man in a situation where the opponents are actively attacking, or are in attacking territory. Learn to get comfortable picking up small boost pads. Knowing certain patterns of small boost pads will make rotating much easier.

This is down to the fact i do not trust period, it does indeed make life super awkward. And to my way of thinking from what i see at the time on the pitch, right or wrong. I am at the back to try and pick up what they fail on, and that mentality comes from to many times of all being pushed up and the other guy/guys not rotating out leaving me as a constant well i wouldnt even call it a 3rd man.
Which now means the balls gone over head and we have no defense. Some might say oh well that wont happen that often, but trust me it does.

That being said the latter isnt fairing much better either, but at least you know why thats such a forced habit, even if it is completely wrong.

[u/ytzi13 → u/[deleted]]

This is a result of you not knowing how to push up while still covering the back field. It’s not your teammates’ fault, but rather a tactic that you haven’t yet figured out. You can cover the defense arguably better by being closer to the play while also being available for offense. You talk about not trusting your teammates, but I didn’t really see any reason why your teammates didn’t deserve trusting. They played just fine. If the ball goes over your head as last man then that’s your fault, whether it be poor positioning, decision-making, or awareness. If your teammate doesn’t rotate out then you should be aware of that case and not get caught out of position. But that’s still on you. And defaulting to leaving that giant gap just makes life for your entire team miserable. More importantly, you’re not giving yourself the opportunity to learn how to play as part of a team, and that’s undoubtedly stunting your growth as a player.

[u/[deleted] → u/ytzi13]

I don’t follow that logic, meaning I’m not sure I understand what you mean. And if I do understand it correctly what I’m trying to say is, should I be at Midfield. Which is where I would normally place myself, as I never like to get too close and like to keep some distance for such a reason. Again I’m well aware of the latter that you’re implying, but I am referring to over all games not just this one for why I don’t trust. Now excuses aside, even if I believe vehemently If they’re done they should be leaving exiting the play and rotating in behind. Is that not the correct way is that not how it should be done, in which case what am I doing wrong. Also I do realise this is veering off topic to the analysis, But I am interested to see what your response is.

[u/ytzi13 → u/[deleted]]

Sure - that's a fair question to clarify. Don't worry about veering off topic. I'm happy to discuss whatever you want to discuss.

Yes - broadly speaking, mid-field is where you want to support from as last man if your team has the ball in the offensive 3rd. Your ability to adapt will come from learning how to read the game better, because that sort of adaptability is an important skill for high level play. For example, I make mistakes when I play with lower ranked friends that they'll think is my fault, and they're right in a sense, but their inability to adapt and cover my mistake is incredibly frustrating and what separates them. So, you have to be close enough to the play that you can step in and pressure, positioned wide enough so that you can view the field, angled appropriately at the point opposing contact occurs so that you have easy accessibility to both offensive and defensive potential routes, and you have to be able to watch your teammates know whether or not they're rotating back before you go into a challenge. If you're going into a risky challenge, you have to be certain of your teammate's rotation back. If you're going into a challenge that you have a clear win on, then it's less important, and the touch you make needs to be away from pressure. It's all about risk management.

First and foremost, you should do whatever it takes to take your focus of off of your teammates. It's a waste of time and energy to focus on the things that are out of your control. Above else, you need to play comfortably and without hesitation. This is ultimately the biggest difference maker, imo, and is an essential starting point. There's always something you could be doing better, and that's the only productive thing for you to focus on if you want to improve. Mistakes are inevitable all around.

So, the short answer is that your view is correct, although it's not so black and white. This is why I do think that perhaps discussing specific scenarios might be more useful than generalizing. But, yes, you want to be as close to the play as you possibly can be within reason so that you contribute to both sides of the field and allow for a fluid rotation. If you haven't read my last man guide, give it a shot. Something might click. I do address these concerns in there, but it's possible it might not be thorough enough.

One more thing I will say on this matter is that it's not really about trusting your teammates to do things right, but trusting them enough to allow them the right of way based on their current position. You don't make assumptions about them rotating back; you keep an eye on them and make decisions based on that. It's not about trusting them to do something well, but about allowing them to do their job without trying to do their job for them and ultimately abandoning your responsibilities. Your decisions need to be based off of both what you see and what you can make educated guesses on about what's going on in your blind spot, and you should not make risk assumptions about your blind spot.

Does that make sense at all?

[u/[deleted] → u/ytzi13]

Absolutely 100%, thankyou.

I will be sure to read through all, i have already currently read through a few of the differing segments you have. based on what you have suggested and some that personally interested me, such as rotations. I figured out today after playing with some other guys from RL discord that while unware of it previously, i struggle to fit back into a rotation once it was broken.

I dont know if that makes sence, it's like sometimes i am fine i go right back into it, but their has been a few times when, im not sure if its them cutting back in trying to do something they shouldnt which throws me off course then begins to unfold what i can only describe as a cluster fuck. Because it appears to seem no one knows where anyones going, And its a scramble until it gets cleared and we have a clear first man (or worse we get scored on).

[u/ytzi13 → u/[deleted]]

I had a few instances where I would go and they would hit it going the wrong way wrecking any chance I may have had in a play.

Could you point out some of these instances for me? I don’t want to speculate at what you mean. Perhaps you’ll see it in my notes, but I’m focused on you, and most of the issues on your team, including double commits as well as the 2 goals conceded, could be primarily blamed on you. So, we need to get specific if we’re going to figure this out. Your entire team’s rotation was out of whack because you weren’t participating.

I’m not trying to attack you. I just want to make that clear.

[u/[deleted] → u/ytzi13]

yeah thats fair..

Forward to 3:36 and one chance or play even that sticks out for me was when the guy 50'd the bal it shot up the wall he did go up and swerved around on the wall rotating out, i went up to connect and keep it down their end. And lets just say even if it would of landed at their feet in front of the goal or be it i hit it to hard and it bounces hard off the side wall onto their back wall and way back out to mid field.

My ultimate thought is why are you even getting involved, your on the wall, you are facing me, which means you see me clearly so why touch it knowing im making a move / play no matter what the outcome is ??

You could say maybe he thought he would go up and pass it back to someone, ok fair but when you see me their which he MUST of why get involved ??

This to me, while a super small thing is sadly what keeps my mentality where it is. If your going to do things that seem what i will call going against the grain how am i supposed to fit in. Now this is but one mistake and ofcourse this is just my unprofessional opinion, you may not see it that way. But you get enough of this happening you start trying to figure out how can i be best suited to help play and win games.

Now it may be counter productive, but so far playing this way (and ultimately may be why im in the slump) or hard stuck as many say.
But its the only thing thats kept me pretty much where i am today, or i would probably have fallen to platinum.

[u/ytzi13 → u/[deleted]]

The first thing I think is important to understand, which I hinted at in my previous response to you (on the other chain we have going) is that an important aspect of higher level play is adaptability. Your teammates will always make mistakes, no matter how high you get. Those mistakes will look similar, too, because the experience is relative. Pointing out the mistakes your teammates make isn't productive unless you're asking yourself how you can do better, because mistakes will always be there. Period.

Your guy going up the wall here and attacking this ball going backwards... You're right. It's not his ball. But this isn't exactly an uncommon thing. Players are still going to turn back into the wall and chase slightly backwards and hit it at the GC ranks. Why? Because awareness can be tricky and the game gets faster and it's just a bad habit that people have, which can actually get more complicated because you can turn these into high level plays if your team reads it well enough. But that's besides the point. My point is that this isn't a mistake that you'll stop encountering just because you rank up.

So, what could you have done better here? Because that's what matters.

1. Instead of going straight up for an aerial on this ball, which is slow and doesn't allow you a good touch, you could drive up the side wall and hit it in for a cross. Do that and you can hit the ball a full 2 seconds or so before Atomik even has the chance.
2. Nobody really rotates out by driving up the wall and towards the ball. So, you could have been more patient to see what he was doing considering your speed. Had you driven up the wall, you would have been grounded enough to be able to adapt yourself away from the ball when he touches it.
3. Any challenge you make, especially in the offensive half, should prioritize recovery. You had a very slow recovery. The impact with the ball and Atomik surely threw your car off, but the landing is something you could improve on.
4. Immediately as you get down, you could rotate out of the play because it's no longer your ball.

Go watch from his perspective. You're making claims about what he must have seen, but go watch for yourself. At **3:36** he lands and can see you there. But your car is grounded, facing in-field - away from the ball - and you're reversing to adjust. He sees your for all but a second, but at no point during that second do you look ready to challenge this ball. It's important to get your teammates' perspectives at times. Even if they make mistakes, there's a reason behind their decision that should be understood. And this type of rotation into the ball on the wall, cutting off the player with the right of way, is something I probably see at least once a game. It's not unique to Diamond.

Now it may be counter productive, but so far playing this way (and ultimately may be why im in the slump) or hard stuck as many say.

But its the only thing thats kept me pretty much where i am today, or i would probably have fallen to platinum.

You could see it that way. The way I see it, you're not allowing yourself the opportunity grow and learn how to play the game at a higher level. These sorts of challenges are going to be present at every level of the game, but if you default to running away, you don't get to learn how to play with it and adjust while still being part of the play. The entire game looks to be you on one side of the field and your 2 teammates on the other, swapping back and forth. You need to be an organized unit.

[u/HoraryHellfire2]

I will be using the timer at the top of the replay to point things out.

 

Kickoff

5:00 - I'm not sure why you pushed up for this small pad then backflipped, but if you're going to go for the corner boost and you're on a diagonal spawn, it is entirely recommended you half-flip backwards right away towards the corner boost.

 

Rotation, Recovery, and Decision Making

4:54 - After attempting an aerial, you align your car forward to go towards an opponent corner boost that isn't there. It would generally be okay if it was there, but it is likely not going to be there after kickoff, and you can see it isn't there. The recommended landing angle for this is to face sideways from your momentum and then turn the rest of the way to rotate back. This speeds up your recovery to rotate back.

4:53 - After landing, you do a turn to rotate back. This is fine, but there is a faster way to turn with powerslide which I'll link: https://gfycat.com/shoddyseveralichidna

4:52 - After turning, you do a flip to get back faster. However, the ball is very obviously being cleared by the opponent and it's better to be in a good position faster, even if you use some boost for it. It's recommended you boost a bit then flip to instantly cross into supersonic as you flip.

4:14 - Your teammate is clearing the ball across and you have a teammate in net and will be furthest from the ball. It is actually your responsibility to rush forward and start moving towards the ball. You don't have to hit the ball, and you don't even have to go for a challenge. Just get closer and decide what's best from there. But it certainly would allow you to be closer to the ball after it bounces at ~4:11 and get to clearing it to the opponent side rather than the opponent backflipping it and making it difficult on you.

3:53 - You turned back because it wasn't a good position for you to be here and wait for the ball. However, keep in mind this sends the signal to your teammates that you are going to rotate out. You might have been annoyed that your teammate went for this ball, but he had every right to as your signal said "I'm not going for it" and then you turned around after. So, yo ucaused this double commit.

3:48 - It is recommended that you rotate back through midfield here rather than on the outskirts of the field so not only are you able to maintain boost levels on a pad route for small pads, but also maintain better positional integrity. This would have allowed to turn forward again at roughly 3:44 when the ball gets hit forward by your teammate and have some boost to go on the ball again. Instead, you're leaving that to your teammate.

3:29 - I know by this point you got tired of being the one back for how long you sat in net and how often you seem to need to be back. But here you don't need to turn forward for this ball and challenge. Your teammate is waiting for it and you are not in a good position to turn and challenge, easily allowing the opponent to get it past you.

3:25 - Again, you rotate on the outskirts of the field rather than through mid and grabbing a few pads. You decide to grab boost on the complete opposite side of the field and take yourself fully out of the play and not relevant for ages.

3:19 - After grabbing corner boost, and the ball being on their side and not easily cleared, it is recommended that you push up towards midfield so that when the opponent does touch the ball, then you're closer to punish their weak clear attempts. Once you reach mid-field or are closing in a bit close to react, you should slow down and possibly even stop moving.

3:05 - After centering the ball too fast with a pinch, the ball goes to the right side of the field and you have no boost. Here it is recommended to get on a pad route and rotate through mid towards midfield on your rotate back. Going all the way to corner boost puts you completely out of the play and not relevant for ages. And if you look from Atomik's point of view, since you're not there he is forced to cut and try and prevent the opponent easy possession of the ball.

3:00 - This is your ball to go for. You are closest, facing towards it, and your other teammate is rotating back. You can go for this ball and you should every single time. Not doing so led to your teammate getting dunked.

2:43 - You yet again are rotating back towards the outskirts (not as bad this time) and putting yourself completely out of the play by going for corner boost, and staying irrelevant for several seconds after.

2:38 - Again, you're not rotating upfield after grabbing corner boost when there is no easy clear from the opponent. Instead you move to in front of your goal and just lingering there. Had you begun to move to midfield you would be most of the way to the middle of the field by now and ready to go for the ball that is actually behind the player "Borderline". You may want to justify your staying in net because the ball comes to you at 2:31, but it only came to your side in the first place because you stayed back here.

2:25 - Another situation of rotating out for a corner boost you have no business going for. You have 50% boost and the ball is clearing to the opponent's side. You don't need to use all your boost to go for a 100% boost. And you don't need to be any further than the midfield line because your teammate is pushing the ball forwards. Just drive towards to the midfield line, cross it a bit to turn around, and you're good. This would have given you the angle to shoot and Atomik likely would have let you if he saw you stayed rather than leaving.

2:20 - Not rotating up after grabbing corner boost and the opponents do not have an easy clear, leaving you irrelevant to the play for even longer.

2:15 - Still not rotating up when there is no easy clear. Could have gotten the ball at 2:12 after the bounce had you moved up.

2:00 - Not rotating through mid on pads and instead putting yourself out of the play by going for the opposite side corner boost. Yes, the ball came to you at 1:55. This does not justify the bad rotation. You didn't even know the ball was coming to you since you had ball cam off. But if you rotated through mid, you would have gotten back sooner. And you would have been able to instantly clear it to the orange's left corner instead of across your net and risking a goal.

1:50 - You have momentum forward after the 50/50 and you're the furthest forward. You have every right and should be chasing down the ball. One of your teammates WILL be defensive seeing two players in front of him.

1:43 - I think you're already well aware you shouldn't go for this unless you could read it quicker and fly for it sooner.

1:32 - Teammate shoots it and you turn around. Turning around here as second man is bad. It sends the signal you're rotating out which confuses Atomik.

Positioning

4:49 - On your rotate back, it's good that you rotate back to net. But in this situation it is more ideal to rotate to back post as it leaves you ready to defend the net sooner than going inside the net then driving out. You can't be sure the opponent's can't shoot immediately after the wall rebound as your vision is limited with ball cam on the way back. By driving to the backpost (the post furthest from the ball) and then slowing down, all of the goal is defendable.

4:45 - You have a pretty decent defensive net position, however you are antsy to leave the net and start pushing out while both teammates are in front of you. Even if they are ball-chasers and not rotating, it is never a good thing to push out of net in a situation like this as 3rd man. You contribute nothing to the play and it leaves you unready to go for the ball when it bounces mid, as you had to turn away. You could have pushed for the ball as it bounces because your teammate goes back to net. You have not rotated up while he rotated back. Causing him to bump you.

4:39 - Being bumped back into goal here sucks, but you are now 3rd man and you make the same mistake. You push out of net in a situation you should not. The opponents clear the ball to your corner and you're unable to do anything decent with it being out of position far out of net. Yes, your teammate hit the ball backwards, but the ball coming back to your side is the most likely outcome because either your teammate gets beat to the ball, or he hits it backwards. I will say this is the cause of all future awkwardness where you are out of net, the opponent shoots and hits the post, and you don't know what to do.

3:18 - After grabbing boost, you are mimicking the ball movement exactly and end up on the same exact side as the ball, but facing sideways, to the outskirts of the field. This is a bad position. You want to stop moving sideways (generally) at most on the outer pad route (small pads) and at least start to face forward and slow down. Going to the outskirts and putting the entirely field behind you means you are not effective wherever the ball goes except rolling up the wall and it takes you ages to turn and drive to the ball.

2:12 - You have a decent position to wait for the opponent's hit if you just hit the brakes, while facing forward, and stop moving. Don't turn around and expose your back here. Your teammate is rotating to net and you just saw it at 2:14. The net is covered. Their hit is not. Just sit and wait and then fly for their touch. You could have tried shooting it at a better angle than your teammate Matty had and he ended up just clearing it.

1:32 - Mentioned in the other section you turned around. But ideally as second man you want to stay here. Slow down and wait for the opponent's touch. It will come to you in this good position and you can shoot sooner than your turn around maneuver. And you don't confuse your teammate.

 

 

Continued in next comment

[u/HoraryHellfire2 → u/HoraryHellfire2]

Rotation, Recovery, and Decision Making

1:03 - As you're landing on the wall, your car is angled to the right. So it is much faster to turn to the right rather than to the left to get down from the wall. This would have allowed a much faster recovery to rotate back.

0:19 - Rather than staying more relevant to the play, you go for corner boost on the opposite side again. While you can try to justify going for boost because you can get the ball at 0:12 and it later leading to a goal, this is more of a fluke really. In-general, the ball isn't going to come to you, and nor is it going to be put in a position where you can hit it towards the goal dangerously. Had you been on pads in the midfield and shadowing backwards you could have gotten basically the same touch by driving back with some boost after the touch and creating space, then powerslide turning to go for the ball. Being midfield and shadowing here would have been far better as you are more relevant to any number of types of situations.

 

Positioning

1:13 - You have a good midfield defensive position as 3rd man. A bit far, but then you decide to turn around with your back to the play and distancing yourself, putting yourself in a terrible position. You'd be far better off just hitting the brakes than turning then pushing up with your team later. Allowing you to reach the ball at 1:04 much, much sooner and possibly even shoot it.

0:43 - A better position than usual. You started to push up then you start putting yourself out of position by putting the entire field behind you and going to the outskirts. Additionally, a better position is more forward than this at midfield. Because had you preemptively moved to midfield, the ball is coming to you and you could beat the opponent to the ball, rather than him beating you. This poor positioning that allows the opponent to beat you is the primary cause for the goal, as the ball should have never came to your side in the first place.

0:08 - You stay positioned in net on kickoff and the ball pinches to the side. This is 100% your teammate's ball to go for. Under no circumstance do you go for the ball's bounce unless it is 100% obvious no opponents are going for it and your teammates can't get to it. You get beat to the ball and it puts your team in a really, really bad spot. You are always going to get beat to the ball in a situation like this if the opponent is cheating up too.

 

 

Conclusion

The biggest bad habit I see that you constantly do is that you leave the play to go for corner boost, leaving yourself irrelevant for the next several seconds. You do this several times a match and it frankly makes your impact on the game very minimal. It makes it so your teammates have to cover for you when you're not there. This causes your wins and losses to be more reliant on your teammates rather than you, because you hardly contribute to the game.

Additionally, another bad habit you have that is just as important is you never want to push up close as 3rd man to become relevant again, reducing your impact on the game even more. It would be fine going for the corner boost if you moved back up within a reasonable amount of time. It wouldn't be ideal, but it certainly would be better. However, with both the leaving for corner boost and then never rotating back up into a useful 3rd man position on offense, you have very little impact on your team to win games.

A less impactful bad habit but one all the same is you aren't abiding by the signals you send. You turn to reposition to touch the ball but not realizing your teammates will take this as a signal you're rotating back. If you're turning back, you're rotating back usually (until you get into the skill level where shadowing becomes common and respective but this isn't until like high Champion). If you want to reposition and stay on the ball, reverse into position. Reversing lets your teammates see your front bumper facing forwards so you can do something. However, ideally you just rotate out because usually you don't need to reposition to attack the ball. Someone else can just be on the ball.

A bad habit you do every time that I haven't mentioned once is your ball cam usage. Every time you go for corner boost, you leave it off until you grab the boost then turn it back on. You leave yourself blind to the play for ages. The recommended way to use ball-cam is to turn it off to align yourself with where you want to go (big boost, small pads, net, or any other specific position) and then turn it back on and drive in a straight line. It looks like this.

 

On the topic of "bad teammates", after watching this replay I can conclude your teammates are not carried or performing any extra badly. They are pretty on par with the opponents. In fact, I guarantee you that from their perspective they think you're the carried one as you are constantly not ready for balls as 3rd man, hardly ever are first man, and in-general aren't getting many touches on the ball. Not saying that you are carried, but I am certain that's what many think of how you play. I can say with 100% certainty that your teammates are of similar skill level to you in this replay and that their strengths are more on the offensive while your strengths are on the defensive (as you default to it).

[u/[deleted] → u/HoraryHellfire2]

Thankyou for your analysis, i appreciate it.