The number 1 thing to recognize is why are you mad and what are you mad at? If something is going on out of game and you tilt, it doesn't matter what happens in game. You're going to get emotionally hijacked. If you are mad at the outcome of a game: you lost, you got scored on, you missed, you got demo'ed, your teammate missed. You need to separate what you can control vs. what you can't control. If you can't control it: your teammates, what the other team does, and even if you win or lose. Learn how to let it go. For the things you CAN control: what can you change or do differently? If you miss a shot: why did you miss? Was it that you need to know some super mechanic or you need to learn how to get better/faster contact with the ball, hit harder/faster shots, with more consistency? If you got scored on: is it because they got lucky? OR was your positioning off? Did you not fast aerial to save it? Were you too far in goal, too slow on a rotation, and didn't read the play correctly? We can get mad for any reason, but at the end of the day, you can always laugh it off, write a few things down to get better at, and play on. When in doubt: take a 5-10 min walk. I'll say from personal experience, there's been many times when I thought I'm never going to play again because I was so wrecked from a bad night of losses. It's not that serious. It's a game, ranks can be important, but everything is in perspective. There's more to life than RL. Even for pros.

@Deacon Jackson Coming from someone who chose running college track and a career in healthcare over playing professional Halo and Call of Duty: you don't want to go pro. I've been in the scene since 2005 with Halo 2. I've won money playing in tournaments. Please take your education seriously. • You can be really good at the game. • You can play competitively. • You can play in tournaments, win some cash, play for a college team and have your schooling paid for now. But if you want to play RL for a living it's a miserable life. --First just the raw number of hours of playtime.-- You will minimum be practicing 8 hours a day everyday. That's ~60 hours/week sunk into practice. Not counting tournaments, travel, or matches. It's just you getting better with a team. Add in your own personal warm up and playing solo, it's probably closer to 10 hours/day, 70+ hours a week. If that sounds like fun to you, go ahead. Go for it. but recognize you will be giving up the rest of your life to hit a ball with a car. --Your relationships with family, friends, and signficant others will be strained.-- They won't understand it. They'll think you're wasting your time, and to be fair for 99% of people they are totally correct. Unless you are in the top 323 of Rocket League earners you will be making less than $15,000 in winnings. Less than minimum wage. You can't live off of that. https://www.esportsearnings.com/games/409-rocket-league/top-players-x300 Because you won't be making money through tournament winnings: you will have to create content, stream, coach, or work a second job to support yourself. So you won't see your family or friends because you are practicing. When you aren't practicing, you'll be trying to make money to chase your dream. The average esports career is less than 4 years and Rocket League leans even younger at 16 compared to other esports where the minimum age is 18.

3v3s with at least one friend. Or if I'm by myself I play Rumble. One of my good friends likes 2v2s, the other won't play them so it's 3rd. And I hate 1v1s.

@Auto Hrrrr When I was in college I had the 3 game rule for ranked Call of Duty. I could play up to 3 games, and then I had to do homework on weeknights. After my obligations were done, then I could play more. It also helped to get dialed in and know, I have X amount of time and a limit on matches. I can't tilt, I can't complain, I can't afford to lose focus. For these 3 games, it's on. Sometimes for you it might be the 2 game rule. Then you know you can get your 10-15 min of RL in, and then be available for whatever else. Internet stability is harder to control, especially if you aren't in charge of the network. But if you are dealing with Wifi connectivity issues because of range I can't recommend Powerline adapters enough. It gives you wired ethernet through the electrical wiring of your house/apartment. TP-Link, Netgear, and Tenda all should have a pair in the sub $50 range. Good Luck!

@Finn Mondaysmith Walks are criminally underrated. From a ranking system standpoint, tilt-que is going to lead to more losses. You play different, you play angry or upset, and you're going to feel worse after you lose again and again vs. stopping and taking a break. Great advice!

It's helpful to have options in kickoffs. • Boost and front flip is the easiest. • Speed flip kickoffs to get first touch/get ball control. • Wave dash/zap dash. • Slow play/ play for a 50-50 neutral for a teammate to cheat up. There's situations where you want to use a different kickoff. In 1's it's helpful to have options as a mixup. When you change your tempo and style you can get an edge. It's not just who gets to the ball first. It's what you do after the kickoff and how you establish control or score that matters most. Above all else, have one consistent good option. Then add new kickoffs into the toolbox.