This is a continuation of the series of a 64 year old pops (that’s me) blogging my journey to see what level I can achieve in this season’s Fortnite Ranked Battle Royale Build (Chapter 5 Season 2). Each week, I share my progress, observations, and learnings.
This Week’s Progress
Strong! I started the week at about half-way through Platinum level III and I made it completely through that level and the next level Diamond level I. I’m now 64% through Diamond level II.
Week 2 – Journey & Learnings
- We’re not in Kansas anymore Dorothy; the competition has gotten really tough! So tough in fact that I was wondering just what the heck was going on. I’ve learned that when I was Platinum level, I only played against other Platinum level players. Upon reaching Diamond, not only am I competing against the three different levels of Diamond, but Elite level players as well. The competition has really stepped up!
- My ability to eliminate other players has taken a nose dive. At the Platinum level, I scored an elimination every one or two games. Now it’s more like one every 6-7 games.
- With my skill level, strategic positioning, camping and hiding have become paramount to progressing through the ranking system. To progress at all, it seems I must finish a game in the top 10 out of the 100 players. As expected, I find this really boring so more than likely I won’t repeat this experience of seeing how high I can rank once this little experiment is over.
- Strategic positioning is useless without patience. Nearby footsteps most likely indicate that a more skilled player is nearby so unless I’m already within the final 10 players, I’ve learned I’m best off letting those footsteps just walk on by!
- I’ve been watching a 51 year old streamer on Twitch that goes by the name of BushCampDad. He has literally become famous camping by reaching Unreal ranking last season! He is already 60% through Champion level and is trying to figure out how to get back to Unreal again. Every new Fortnite season, players must re-achieve their ranking levels.
- BushCampDad recently revealed what he named a 1 Shot Strategy. He suspects that one of the big bonus factors is to minimize the damage other players cause you and if possible try to maximize the damage you inflict on them. Since he (and I) rarely inflict a lot of damage on other players, it becomes critical to minimize the damage taken from other players. It’s an interesting theory. I can’t yet confirm how accurate the theory is though my early research indicates it has some validity. I’ve recently started gathering data on my games so will share what I learn next week.
What Comes Next
Continue collecting data and analyzing what works and what doesn’t. This week I need to work on my patience so I can last longer in the games. In my past several games my patience has improved and yielded mostly Top 10 finishes. Hoping to keep that going!
