Positioning > Aiming:

A lot of people look to aim trainers as the 'solution' to their "how do I get better?" problems. However, I think you can have mediocre aim and still consistently win fights if you manage your position FIRST.

Positioning can be thought of this in this prioritized manner. Cover = High ground > Zone

High ground provides you a considerable advantage, even when Zone is right next to you. Jumping down INTO an enemy team is almost always better than being dunked on from above when you have Zone. The Zone is only more important in the rare circumstances where high ground puts the enemy at a disadvantage due to having to run INTO Zone without cover.

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Watching where the server drops/deploys:

Regardless of your game strategy (covered later), you always want to have a good pulse as to the general location of clumps of enemies.

An example of this would be if the Dropship starts from the north and flys south.

If a large chunk of enemies drop in the north but the zone is towards the south, you will then know the general rotation pattern of most enemies and can prioritize your positioning to limit the third party potential that could occur.

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Get into an early, isolated fight:

In the high RP ranks (Diamond+), getting RP points can be fairly difficult if you play to passively. You actually WON'T get any RP until top ~3/4 unless you get kills/assists.

I would recommend finding a team that DOES NOT have a diamond/pred trail and FOLLOWING them on the initial drop. You WANT to get an early fight and secure 2 kills/assists per person EARLY. If you drop and are at a loot disadvantage, simply leave the fight and look for a third party in the mid-game.

Once you have secured 2 kills/assists, your options for going RP positive greatly expand and there is less pressure on your or your team to overextend.

Note: Once you complete your early fight, there's a high probability a neighboring team will be ~almost done looting their respective area and will attempt a third party. Just grab the needed items only and leave FAST.

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Learn how to Rat:

When should you Rat?

Being a Rat sucks (aka your team died, you are solo and you're likely to lose the match - so you should hide), but it's important to Rat and to climb the placements as to limit your negative RP hit.

Knowing WHEN to Rat is difficult and requires restraint and the willingness to leave dead teammates when the likelihood of winning a fight is very low.

Scenario: If your two teammates go down and the enemy team has 2+ up with almost full health. -> Unless you're an aiming 2v1ing God (against likely better/equal players), then you should Rat.

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Where should you Rat?

There are creative Rat locations on every map, feel free to google them and you'll find some weird places. However, the fundamental idea should be either:

Predict where the closest end circle will be, make your way to it from the perimeter of the map and sit in that one Rat spot for as long as humanly possible. (this is the preferred solution when you DO know enemy positions)

Play the perimeter of the Zone and only rotate in when necessary (this is the preferred solution when you DON'T know enemy positions)

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How to third party:

This should be self-explanatory but third partying is only effective when ideally 2 players in the upcoming fight have been downed.

Always PUSH from the angle that has the largest / healthies enemy team.

You want to continue to push the two teams together, but you want the largest advantage and as a result, you do NOT want a full healed / fully alive enemy squad shield swapping to engage you after the first team dies.

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What weapons should you run?

Two teammates should have a SMG+Shot gun at all times. One player should be the designated 'long-range' player with a G7/R301 type of loadout to assist with poke.

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How do you find a team?

I would recommend you head over to r/competitiveapex and join the T1 Discord. In that discord are hundreds of players (PC and Console) that are serious about ranked.

You want to find 2 people who are willing to play for a few HOURS together. Otherwise, you'll find a hot head person who will leave after 2-3 games and no cohesion will be created.

Bunker:

This is the A-typical strategy you see where teams run Wraith/X/Wattson. Generally, after you have your early points its almost ALWAYS better to hunker down in a location and play for placement.

Ensure that you are reading the Zone correctly and choose a location that can be easily rotated from.

Ensure that to your BACKs is a wall or escape route. Otherwise, you are likely to be third partied or squished.

You want to achieve a Top 5 placement to net 30+ points, after this it's up to you to continue to rotate. You simply need to win ONE engagement to max out your points, so there's no need to overextend. Play for high ground and Zone in order to win the map. Push the other teams together with poke damage from range.

Legends: Wraith/X/Wattson (Wattson is pretty much required, you could also get away with Caustic).

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Third Party/Poke:

This is the strategy usually employed by players without a Wattson/Gibby/Caustic on their team. You essentially engage in a third party (or range poke for a down/kill for points). Then you.. leave! Try not to look at all/for very long, once your engagement is completed you will probably be fourth partied, so leave the area and just continue to rotate around the map (no need to bunker).

Once you have secured 3+ points, your whole team should act like a Rat in order to secure higher placement. In order to WIN the map, you need to be the final team third partying. You also should look for Rats in your surrounding areas to get a quick couple of points that a Bunker team won't extend for.

Legends: Wraith/X/Gib (for rotations and safe healing).

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Rush/Push:

This is not advised unless your team is highly skilled and is trying to grind quickly. Essentially, you play the Ranked match like a Pub. This is rare (even for Predator players). You continue to third party and win fights.

In order for this strategy to be successful you also need really strong game sense and the right Legend selection.

Legends: Wraith/Path/X (X = Crypto/Gib for either safe heals OR EMP pushes).

This is probably among the most important things to learn at high RP levels or if you're struggling to push through the ranked tier your in.

If you play a lot of Apex, you'll start to see the same players in your match lobbies (because they are close to your SBMM/MRR). You'll also probably die/lose to some specific teams fairly consistently.

When you can't consistently win a fight against a specific team (it's a 50/50 or worse) AND you know that team is near you, then you have to get yourself an advantage.

Note: You can tell when that specific team is near you due to their legend selection or kill feed + audio syncing up as they kill other teams.

Watch for when they engage in a fight and third-party them.

Focus fire a particular target that does not have an instant escape mechanism (IE Gibby or Path early).

If the enemy team is CHASING you, lead them to another team, and force the two of them to fight. Then you re-engage and third party.

When this process becomes second nature, you can start to eliminate the high-value teams and greatly increase your chances of winning the match.

Many of you know you can change which servers you're playing on via the login page of Apex (google it, it's simple and there's a lot of guides).



What I found best was to AVOID the servers/lobbies where there are a lot of sweats (IE: Pros and or high ranking teams).

This process gets considerably easier at night. For example, at Midnight EST, the east coast servers are fairly dead and there are very few 'good' teams online. This is the prime time to get easy RP.



EU Servers CAN be full of hackers, test the waters with a game or two, but if there are no hackers, the EU lobbies/teams (in Diamond) are much easier than in North America/U.S.

In the U.S., the New York servers are typically the easiest due to population density - you're less likely to have many good teams in a lobby.

This is a process, it takes time to learn good habits and eliminate bad habits.

I personally learned that I can't win every fight and its more advantageous to hedge a bet (rat/placement) than it is to attempt a clutch.

I also learned that many legends are viable at the top end of Ranked (I played Crypto to most of my Diamond games). Ensuring you understand the fundamentals was always more important than anything else/legend or otherwise I selected or did.

I hope this is a good take away for anyone else grinding!