Knowing where your enemies are located, what utilities they have, and what their plan of action is, sounds a lot like you might be cheating. In reality, these details can be acquired by anyone with a high game sense.
You might have practised all your shots, perfected and polished your aim and even mastered the in-game movement system but you might, with all these skills, still find it arduous to climb competitive ranks.
To enter the pro scenes, you first have to learn to play smartly and efficiently. This may sound easy and simple in theory but practically, it isn't.
Growing your game sense also includes not just adapting your gameplay according to the situation but also learning new playstyles by using the technique of “Enhanced Viewing”. Enhanced Viewing is the process of viewing any visual material with scrutiny for inspection and research, and to educate yourself.
This method is often used by pros to learn new gameplay styles and techniques and correct their mistakes. Enhanced Viewing can be done to your own gameplay VODs or to the gameplay of professional players.
Speaking of, you can watch Mortal and 8bit Thug demolish players in BGMI by joining their educational gaming course exclusively on FrontRow.
Enhanced Viewing can be broken down into 3 detailed parts, which are:
1. Review
The first step of Enhanced Viewing is reviewing gameplay. Now, this gameplay can be of anyone of your choice, you or any other player. When you are reviewing your match or game you are able to slow down the game, highlight key plays, and actively gather key lessons at a pace that your brain is comfortable with.
This means that you can also find out your mistakes that cost you the game or plays that won you the round, or you can simply observe the enemy's nature and read their strategies and plans.
Similarly, if you’re trying to gain new information while watching a gameplay guide or tutorial on YouTube or FrontRow, actively pause the video when you discover something important. Slow it down, and give yourself time to ponder one or two pieces of information at a time.
This method of reviewing is also very useful while watching the gameplay of professional players. Suppose you're watching Mortal and 8bit Thug tear down squads left and right in BGMI: your goal should be to review their gameplay and try to remember the game-winning plays they made to secure the Chicken Dinner.
Reviewing gameplay is just the first step to growing your game sense.
2. Recall
Once you’ve memorized the key lessons and their significance, it’s time to commit them all to memory using a powerful technique called recall.
Now, recall is really just the process of looking away from the material and seeing what you can remember, simply based on memory, by heart. Simple FPS games like CS: GO and PUBG only require you to recall the aiming and shooting techniques, the map callouts and details, and the team strategies. Complex FPS games like Valorant and Overwatch require you to learn and recall all the basic information, plus you need to remember all agent and character specific skills and talents. Valorant, for example, has 17 agents to play and learn, all with different abilities.
Recalling every play and strategy, all the map callouts, all agent abilities and every working META will help you improve your game sense.
So attempt to recall the information that you learnt, without looking at the material, and only look back at it when you can’t recall it. Then repeat this process until you can mentally recite each core lesson and technique, just based on memory.
3. React
Finally, it’s time to apply all the learned lessons.
If it’s a new strategy you just learned about, then hop into a game and practice it. If it is a key tip for improving your aim accuracy, then hop into a game and practice it. If it’s a development on a new perspective that you want to have during competitive ranked games, then hop into a game and practice it.
You get the idea. By immediately putting these lessons into action, you’re not only remembering it easier, but you’ll start to turn the knowledge into a subconscious habit, or instinct.
Not all lessons can be learnt or practiced in-game: some need to be perfected through visualization. Some new tricks or plans should be first played through your mind before executing it in-game. This helps you pull off the plan in a much bigger and better way.
It’s high time that you learned a new skill or lesson to grow your game sense exponentially: let’s do the talking in-game!
Happy gaming!
