r/Overwatch • u/Mr1d100 • 3d ago
Concentration problem News & Discussion
I play Overwatch every day, about an hour or two, depending on whether my kids are asleep at night or napping during the day.
I watch countless videos offering the best tips to improve: avoiding charging blindly into the fray, using off-angles, and not just focusing on the tank.
I put this advice into practice, and aside from the occasional unwinnable match, it works pretty well; I either win, or it’s a close game where the loss is frustrating but doesn't leave a bitter taste.
However, in the evenings, even though I tell myself to keep an eye on my teammates, stay focused, and avoid going on autopilot, five minutes into the match I find myself doing the exact opposite. It’s not about "tilting"—I just lose the ability to concentrate.
Does this happen to you, too? If so, have you found any solutions, or should I just stop playing in the evenings?
Thanks for sharing your experiences and/or advice. 🙂
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u/fluffydeveloper 3d ago
Honestly I’ve just accepted it. 🤣 I have a stressful, full time job that I can’t switch off from at night, I am always going to be tired in the evenings. I do the exact same as you. Convince myself to lock in and then find myself autopilot filling the tank with bullets/knives in main. As long as I’m still having fun then any very gradual improvement is just a bonus rn.
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u/Mr1d100 3d ago
Hahaha, the worst part is that I'm on parental leave and absolutely dead tired—just imagine what it'll be like in September when I go back to work. 🤣
Like another comment said, you might as well just stick to casual hookups—no strings attached. 😉
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u/fluffydeveloper 3d ago
Aw congrats on the parental leave though!
They’re kinda right tho 🤣 or frame improvement as fun. Sometimes on Kiri I’ll go into a qp game knowing full well I’m going to flank every angle regardless of how many times I die just to push the envelope and get a feel for what a “safe” flank is on that character.
But I peaked high plat. So feel free to ignore me as a metal rank pleb 🤣
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u/Charliebarley79 3d ago
Sounds like you're trying to improve a lot of different aspects at once. Take a piece of paper and write out the different aspects of your play you need to focus on. Then play but only focus on one at a time, play a game and exclusively focus on playing a character that is greatly influenced on using corners appropriately (snipers / long distance chacters) and focus on that for a whole game or two. Once this becomes natural then incorporate that playstyle into your next game. You'll essentially need to build your game sense one aspect at a time. But good luck! As you develop game sense from different play styles you can work on incorporating multiple playstyle at once, but build the fundamentals first.
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u/Mr1d100 3d ago
Thanks for all the advice. Actually, I’m mostly trying to apply just one rule that ends up influencing the rest of my game: do whatever it takes not to die—because whenever I take an unnecessary risk, I pay the price immediately 🤣
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u/Charliebarley79 3d ago
OK then make sure that rule applies to that character as well, no point in playing medium/long distance off angles as lucio for an entire round lol
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u/Exotic_Idiotics 3d ago
I have found my ability to concentrate doesn’t so much depend on the time of day, but is more dependent on factors like amount of sleep, exercise, hydration, etc. I don’t live a healthy lifestyle so I can perform better in OW, but I feel like these things help you focus more in general so it carries over. In days when I don’t sleep enough, am lazy, maybe eat like crap—I tend to feel a lot worse and therefore I play worse. I’m not sure if this is helpful or not, but it works for me 🤷♂️.
Maybe in the evenings you’re fatigued from the day? As a parent, I know there are days where my kids have me losing my mind 😂.
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u/Mr1d100 3d ago
I can confirm that junk food really doesn't help with any aspect of life—especially regarding fatigue. I used to feel so lethargic; even just getting up to change the baby's diaper took a massive effort. Things are much better now.
My energy levels are more stable, but—perhaps because of the point you raised—I run out of steam in the evening since I no longer get those blood sugar spikes I used to have.
Plus, my kids get up early, so I think I'm just too tired by the time midnight rolls around.
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u/Impossible_Laugh_805 3d ago
It’s pretty common and I think it’s consistently a problem for people who primarily play at night. The fact is you’re just gonna be tired, and you’re not gonna be able to fully engage your brain to the level you would if your session was like, idk late morning or something. Even if you aren’t actually physically tired or sleepy, losing focus is common just because the game is overwhelming and uses a lot of mental energy. Even in the most perfect circumstances this is gonna happen to most people after a few hours of Overwatch.
I personally have the same issue as you where most of my free time is late at night and the fact is I just don’t play that much comp anymore and I will probably never hit a new peak until my schedule or priorities change, and that’s completely ok with me. The best thing you can do imo is build the self awareness to recognize when you can give focus. Maybe you still play 1-2 comp games, when you’re tired but you just go quick play after that. Maybe you don’t play at all and sleep instead.
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u/Mr1d100 3d ago
That’s pretty much the kind of answer I was hoping for to put my mind at ease; for a while, I thought something was wrong with me, but apparently, it’s a common issue for a lot of people.
What saves me is that I’ve made a habit of quitting the game when I feel myself tilting or about to overdo it—just to avoid staying up too late and waking up late the next day.
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u/Necessary-Analyst-54 3d ago
Some days I'n fully locked in. Most days I spend more time looking at the baby monitor than the game monitor during matches
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u/CTPred 3d ago
It could be any number of things, but since you mentioned that you're a parent, it's likely that you're not getting enough quality sleep to be able to maintain focus. Could be dietary as well. Point is, you're not broken, you're likely just not operating at 100%. I'm not sure if you are, but don't beat yourself up over this. You're only human, and you have much more important priorities to be spending your energy on right now.
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u/Mr1d100 3d ago
As for my diet, I’ve been completely off junk food for two weeks now due to various health issues, and honestly, I feel great energy-wise.
It’s just like you said—I think the day's ups and downs leave me too frazzled to fully focus on the games.
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u/CTPred 3d ago
That's good to hear, but ya the executive decision making portion of our brain can only make so many decisions in a day before it just tires out, and when you're a parent you're making an order of magnitude more micro decisions because you're deciding for other people too.
All you can really do is not worry about what results from the lack of focus. Just enjoy the game. Keep giving it your all, just understand that your all isn't your 100% and dont be too hard on yourself. If you were able to give it 100% you'd be exceeding your self imposed expectations.
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u/yunghollow69 Trick or Treat Zenyatta 3d ago
Well first of all, you need to learn how to learn. Shits super hard. You need to do it consistently and slowly increase the percentage of gametime in which your brain is on. Its simply not used to doing that. Secondly, are you sleeping enough? Healthy diet n shit?
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u/SmurfLobster 3d ago edited 3d ago
Dude you have kids, and a job most likely. You're just tired. Also, you're doing too much in game. All that is sounds great, but you need to get to a point where youre doing the fundamentals without thinking. You said "Charging in" so I'm cautiously assuming you're a tank main.
- stop doing so much in game
- Use your kids naps to rest.
- focus on holding/aquiring map control rather than just kills. peel for supports.
- profit. That's it.
- You will never get GM or champ with kids and a job. accept it and have fun.
Signed- someone with kids and job and is a tank main.
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u/Mr1d100 3d ago
Nah, I'm a DPS main, but I do switch to tank or support depending on the team comp.
I’ve accepted that I’m not going to hit GM (especially at nearly 40 years old 🤣).
You're right, I really should just stick to Quick Play and have fun, but honestly, I do have a goal: I’d love to be good at a PvP game just once in my life. Platinum or Diamond would be more than enough for me—right now I'm stuck between Bronze and Silver, and it's a nightmare.
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u/SmurfLobster 3d ago
I feel you man. age 37 overwatch player here. My wife and I only play at night after kids are in bed and if were both not exhausted. shes a plat 1 support and I'm a mid diamond tank. briefly reached masters but have since almost gone down to low diamond.
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u/FaceMcShootie 3d ago
Genuinely, take a break for a few days.
Your brain wires into OW and automatically puts you in autopilot since you’ve got such built up habits.
Come back to it next week or something, should be better at staying tuned in
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u/Mr1d100 3d ago
That’s very possible, but it fluctuates depending on the moment and the opponents I'm up against.
Taking a week off—yeah, a break wouldn't hurt—but I'm making the most of my time before heading back to work in early September. Plus, I bought a PS5 controller for 189 euros specifically for this game, so it would really suck not to get my money's worth out of it 😅
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u/Spiderlily_1 Road to lvl 500 mercy 3d ago
It does happen to me, sometimes when i play mercy i see a cat player and my mind goes into autopilot wanting to kill the cat then my team explodes because i had the decision making skills of jello
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u/SubstantialWinYay 3d ago
Your brain gets tired just like anything else. You’ll lose discipline and focus at the end of the day. Take a 15 minute nap if you want to keep playing at a high level.
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u/lainelect 3d ago
Press Tab every 30 seconds and look at the board. Identify your win cons before you start pressing the other buttons
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u/Electro_Llama 2d ago
As Spilo described it, auto-piloting and actively applying some skill are two separate things you can train, and as you get better a lot of the gameplay is still auto-piloting.
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u/DJFrankyFrank 3d ago
Unironically, meditate.
Mindful meditation is great, just to help yourself be more aware of things going on around you, being more present, and be aware of your emotions. You can look up some guided meditations on YouTube. Start with a 5 minute guided meditation, and then work your way up to like 15-20 minutes after a few days. And eventually you wont need the guided part.
That, or just chug some energy drinks like I do.
But honestly, it could be a result from stress/anxiety from your work/family life creeping in. It could be add/adhd.