Random aim slumps

[heavy drift]

Anyone else experience aim slumps where seemingly for a couple of days u forgett how to even hold a mouse? Is there like any logical reason for it and is it fixable? Its really annoying

Also a feeling of like not alert but everything being slow and not crisp (might be just slow in general and thats a feeling) but it was diffrent here and there aswell where i was super alert and everything was moving fast (the very next game) but i cant grasp why

[proven abyss]

You can have "off days". The reason for that can be numerous and not really something we can control.

If you had impromper sleep the last few days it could be that, but again, there are numerous things to list that we do not have control over.
Made even worse if you sprinkle some overthinking in there too.

Don't worry about it and just train, or take a break for a few days.

[warm loom]

Your sense of mouse control may have not fully developed to a point where it is always consistent. I remember feeling like that even years into using a mouse and keyboard on some off-days where my hand felt weird that day or maybe it was so cold that my tendons hurt and I couldn't hardly feel my mouse and how to aim it. You will eventually get to a point where you will never feel like you can't remember how to hold a mouse because your familiarity will have improved that much, but you cannot be familiar with all mice at all times, so swapping mice will change that familiarity and cause you to have that feeling that you don't know how to hold a mouse again, it's all just muscle memory and mouse control for specific mice.

To summarize that, basically you will always have that feeling as long as you are changing mice at least every few years, so it's something you'll just have to iron out by doing a little bit of mouse control training that day or something and then you will feel a little bit more comfortable with the mouse.

[warm loom]

Both your grip/positioning using the mouse and your mental state can affect how "alert" and "crisp" and "fast" you feel when using your mouse, even when on the same sensitivity and setup, so something may have changed from the last time you played and you should consider it firstly a mental issue that you should try to work out by getting yourself feeling fresh and more awake when playing for rather than stagnant. I.E: not sleeping too much, not sleeping too little, eating when you wake up, sleeping on time, not neglecting to drink water, playing in a lit room rather than a dark one, etc.

[heavy drift]

shit - atleast i drink water thats good

[warm loom]

xD

The last one I actually only learned myself recently. Although playing in a dark room feels better on the eyes, you tend to also focus less on individual targets with your eyes when in a dark room vs a lit room where your eyes are more focused on the screen and strained.

I usually just walk over and turn on the light when I'm ready to play FPS games.

[heavy drift]

well i sure hope the playlist gone develop it fast bevor i lose my shit

also its not a weird feelnig that vent away i just cant move it properly it doesnt go where it should

[heavy drift]

Also since its about mouse feeling and stuff - wouldnt this mean that after not using a mice for a longer period of time (2 years) you should come back to what it was certainly fast since its a level u used to have? Bcs this would mean i was never good xD

[warm loom]

Over time there is certainly deterioration to the muscle memory’s ability to grip exactly how you used to, however when you do grip it exactly as you used to you will find instant familiarity with the grip as though you never left it. That’s not to say that muscle memory from other grips would need to be ironed-out, they will need to be, but you will find that even after a period of about 2 years any deeply rooted muscle memory will still be retained although slightly deteriorated. This was my experience when I had come back to my original mouse and original sensitivity after about 2 years or trying different mice and sensitivity when trying to go wireless but failing due to my extreme hand sweat issue.

[warm loom]

That’s odd, what do you mean by that? As in, the mouse will move farther or less than it should when moved the same distance?

[warm loom]

When starting out on something you are not comfortable with, it will always be frustrating and annoying until you get it down squarely, it’s about perseverance and repetition.

[heavy drift]

Its just weird as how from one game or rather day to the next suddenly the mouse moves as i inted it to regardless of mental state or other occurances - i say this because not only does it go for mouse but also for my other hand controlling movement - its like not just a little bit the diffrence are HUGE its either my arms ar attached or not kind of bad

[warm loom]

That does sound very odd and I haven’t experienced that myself personally but as long as no variables are changing, then it sounds to be a hand-eye coordination issue. I’m not a medical professional so my only recommendation is to continue to practice and iron it out. My first question, though, is how long have you been on this setup so far in the first place and how long as of recently as well? 2nd question is how long has this specific problem occurred? And have you experienced any other problems besides this one in aiming lately?

[heavy drift]

the setup is forever i just recently (mybe a month now) am playing with low sens (allays played with high like super high) theres a week where im god and week where its absolut dogshit so im prob just bad

its just not at that level where even bad days are okayish but just that bad unlucky i guess

[real ore]

Don't forget that depending on the game you're playing, your raw aim is filtered through a lot of game-specific gunplay mechanics and skills first, most strongly in CS/Valorant. Like you can be aiming well but fucking up your game specific gunplay

[warm loom]

Ok, so then yeah, it sounds like you just need to give it some more time to adjust to the difference in sensitivity. Having your movement be off from your sensitivity is likely just your brain thinking of the adjustment for your aim as being something different due to familiarity than what you're actually seeing on screen which can make you feel like even your movement is off and your aim even more off than your movement. I can actually simulate that affect on myself by simply slightly changing 1 value within my accel program which causes me to be completely thrown off due to the extreme initial smoothing that I'm not used to normally which would cause me to under-aim when trying to look around and make me go into a mode of almost complete confusion both movement and aim-wise. It's important to remember that at all times, your aim is related to and must be coordinated with your movement, it's just a fact of hand-eye coordination within videogames, but it's important to remember when learning new sensitivities so that when you feel off, you can slow down and re-evaluate and try to sync your movement with your aim again. As far as aiming while not moving, you can expect as vorkot3 said "off-days" where you will not feel the same as you did in controlling the same sens one day to the next, but this feeling/effect will lessen and eventually become negligent or almost non-existent as you continue to gain mouse control and familiarity with your new sens.

[warm loom]

That is 100% correct and somehow I don't even think of that when someone mentions that they play Valorant, but that is a major factor.

[proven abyss]

There is also a ton of overthinking applied here.

[heavy drift]

hmm mybe but the super weird thing is its across valorant and cs while cs has far more mechanics and its still equaly bad even tho game mechanics are fairly easier in valo than in cs

[heavy drift]

couldnt be me 😄 it does still seem weird to me or rather not logical why id suddenly lose the ability to move the mouse like i would bevor and that drasticaly - sure mental etc does affect performance but mechanical movement is mechanical movement

[warm loom]

The mechanical movement of your mouse is affect by a lot more variables than people will accept it to be and with the experience I have in using a mouse I am able to pinpoint my own issues down precisely and fix them, however, when attempting to help others with their own issues, especially when unique, it requires a lot of questions to be asked in order to determine what may be the root cause of the issue(s).

[heavy drift]

also its not even overthinking its a need to know exactly because only if u know what is happening u can make a diffrence

i told u man mybe im just bad @proven abyss

[real ore]

I just think if these slumps are occurring in game but your scores aren't dropping in kovaaks it's more of a game slump than an aim slump

As for the cs vs Val thing its very possible you're just better at CS. You might be used to how you can survive while moving around between shots especially pistol fights. In valorant you have to commit almost every time you take a shot and live or die. Definitely changes the way you can express your personal aim

[heavy drift]

fuck that is a really good point - now i also remember the word - averages are close to peeks now which i consider improvement - but then what is happening

[proven abyss]

This is overthinking and our private conversation showed a lot more signs of you overthinking.

I understand that you want to know "why" it happened but it is hard to pinpoint that given that we as humans just are simply inconsistent in general.

everyone experiences these slumps but the longer you keep hanging in that cloud of "why me, why now, why this long" the longer you will prolong it.

As your skill improves, those slumps will be less severe. But you need to allow yourself to reach that point first and not stay stuck in the hypotheticals.

I definitely can understand your POV though. Especially if you are very performance and improvement-driven. It can be hard to wrap your head around on why you suddenly perform so bad (compared to your own standards), but you just have to push through it.

This is not a permanent setback. It is temporary. You will overcome it.

If you notice that you are getting more and more agitated by it - I 100% recommend you to take a break and focus on something else.

[warm loom]

Right, if your aim is coming out to be about the same, then your issue is likely with game mechanics, no question there, just follow what vorkot3 is saying and you should be good-to-go.

[proven abyss]

Right ☝️

Remember, your in-game performance is more than just raw aim, and you need to understand that your positioning and movement can also affect your aim.

Your aim can be mechanically fine, but other things are just not so up-to-snuff. And sometimes just have bad days as mentioned before.

[heavy drift]

im extremly performance driven i trhive in it but if it were somewhere logical i wouldnt mind

[proven abyss]

I would take a small step back from it and take a breather. Don't set harsh goals for yourself or super high expectations.

Remember - the highest level aimers here had to work on their aim for 1 or even more years to get this way. Same with professional players who never touched an aim trainer in their life. It will take time and patience.

[warm loom]

That's what he is getting at, it is logical that you as a human being will have periods of time in which you will for seemingly no reason at all begin to perform worse than you just were. You are not a machine and no matter how hard you push yourself you will not force yourself to become one. Humans are amazingly created and we can perform plenty of amazing feats and do them pretty consistently, but you will not find yourself absolutely never having periods of time where you perform worse for a reason you will not find. In this situation you can take a step back and admit humanity, maybe take a small break or keep grinding it doesn't really matter too much and eventually you'll be back to normal. The only time you want to start worrying about it is if it lasts longer than 1 month. That's when you should start to re-evaluate that there may be a different cause to the issue than you first thought.

[proven abyss]

Couldn't have said it better myself.

[heavy drift]

Murmur made a good point tho do u agree on what i said regarding the aimlabs scores?

[proven abyss]

The game-slump thing? I mean yes of course. Definitely can be.

But still, regardless if it is an aim slump or game slump, the same principles apply as what we have been telling. The "long story short" variant basically is - "it happens"

[heavy drift]

no i ment the aimlabs score averages being close to the peek and i see that as improvment also improving in aimlabs but being shit ingame

[heavy drift]

yes but its even to the periods where i played alot being off and on weeks not just days

[warm loom]

Right.

[proven abyss]

I think I mentioned that in our chat too last night, but to re-iterate/if I forgot:

Remember that aim trainers and games are 2 completely different enviroments.

• Aim trainers are completely stripped away from anything that can distract you: no recoil, no eye-candy visuals etc. Not as much pressure to perform.

• Games are the opposite and you have a ton of things that can interfere with your aim skill: positioning, recoil, accuracy, crosshair placement, game-sens, performance anxiety, enemy unpredictability, etc. etc. etc.

As you can see, suddenly things are stacking up. Some of the things you encounter in-game are RNG too and are out of your control.

As murmur mentioned, your issue is very likely not your aim but that more game-specific related things are dragging you down. But even if that would be the case, there are still days where you have slumps in that too.

But the thing is, you are now overthinking all aspects around your aim thus your focus is not in the right place.

Focus less on your aim. Focus on the game. Let your subconscious do the aiming for you. Your Aimlab benches are showing progress. So this is not the issue

Records VODs of yourself and analyze your games.

[heavy drift]

my m8 in discord just agreed with you which is no bueno - i say this because i usualy believe to be good what im doing (besides some shit plays that sometimes happen obv)

[proven abyss]

This gonna sound harsh, but - that is your ego getting in the way.

Nothing wrong with feeling like you are good/decent at something, but always have the mindset in mind that you can improve much further

[heavy drift]

let me rephrase that im actually able to (again i beliebe this) objectively look at things and how the play out - im saying this because i have a friend that is somewhat higher elo and we see things pretty much the same (as we both believe scenarios should be played) and im absolutly able to (this i know for certain) to rethink when told this could have been done like this or this. What i do notice is alot of focus on aim (im really havbing a trouble making it subconsious) and alot of questioning to what enemies are doing especialy when its a bad play (but more because i couldnt punish them for it rather than it being bad itself)

[proven abyss]

I see. Thanks for explaining in that case.

Well you can work on issue #2 if you try to get rid of issue #1. The only way you get rid of issue #1 is to truly just focus at the game, map, enemies, mechanics, whatever it has to offer and think about "how can I win this game/round". You keep pulling your focus away from where it needs to be and you need to push that back into the game.

[heavy drift]

im not that typical super ignorant but there are some issues i cant quiet get around

[proven abyss]

Understandable. That can sometimes be quite an issue that everyone faces, including myself.

I wasn't insinuating by the way that you were ignorant or arrogant on that part, but sometimes people tend to rate themselves a little higher than the reality or they simply have a completely different mindset when it comes to improving that actually halters them more rather than helps them.

Long story short just is, try to shift your focus more to your game and the communication with the team, and everything else surrounding it will fall into place.

It is clear that your mechanical aim isn't the issue. It is just that it doesn't have the enviroment yet to completely shine through and that is more likely more centered around your gameplay than your pure mechanical aim.

[heavy drift]

Well i hope i learn to shift my focus bevor i go completly mentaly broke xD on a side note aim might be less an issue but its not quiet good either because i do tend to lose open duels or atleast duels i believe i should win or lost because of aim

[heavy drift]

intresting is also the mindset part because if you check any streams of higher ranked players or old/new pro's you will often find them flaming, asking why enemies do certain things and stuff in that manner so i wonder how they can dispatch that from the actualy gameplay - its prob just skill diffrence rather than mentality diffrence

[proven abyss]

Skill difference in this case yes, but that still doesn't detract that they are completely shifting their focus to something unnecessary

[heavy drift]

do we effectively know where higher tier players have their aim set in aimlabs/kovaaks? As a mesurrement where i want/need to go

i had a guy tell me he peaked immo with just plat aimlabs aim which is looking it rn kinda hard to believe

[proven abyss]

We don't really know and I wouldn't think about it.

Just set your own goals and work towards them. Don't compare yourself to others, even if you want to use them as an example.

There were also people who had like silver-gold aim and peaked highest level in Val. A while ago, there was a person with bronze level aim that reached the highest rank in Apex.

This alone shows much aim is just a small part of a bigger equation.

[heavy drift]

there is no way that is true (imo) - woohoojin who made a list with voltaic said it perfectly - it doesnt matter how much smarter you are than me if you cant go toe to toe in gunfights with me you will lose

[proven abyss]

Going toe-to-toe in gunfights is not just about pure mechnical aim skill.

Also, woohoojin is just another person with another opinion. Just because he is very good doesn't mean that his word is fact.

[heavy drift]

Agree on both but my gut atleast would agree with him since in valo you can compensate with abilities that is true but at the end of the day its straight gun fights where aiming faster and better xhair placement will win out no matter what

[proven abyss]

I mean yeah, obviously he has the edge in that.

But that doesn't mean there is absolutely no way to counter him.

If you just look it from an aim-perspective, then yes, you will lose almost all the time.

But I repeat - gaming is more than just aim. You have a lot of tools at your disposal. Terrain, cover, hiding spots, etc....

Woohoojin can likely outsmart you on many of those aspects so he will likely will always be on top, but if you somehow can find his weakness in it or some aspects are better then you can use that in your favour.

[heavy drift]

mybe idk its crazy to me to see how sometimes "lower tier players" will appear on your scream and just send u to heaven in one bullet but if you watch him will miss half his clip

[proven abyss]

Apex legends for example is also just more than "pick up loot and kill all people on the map".

One of the better players in Apex, "Fade", is considered one of the movement-kings.

He is one of those players that has both decent aim and incredibly movement/game-sense. But even with these advantages, he picks his fights in a very smart manner. He doesn't just rush in and attempts to 1-spray people. He uses many tricks up his sleeve to get the edge in a fight.

[proven abyss]

That can be due to better positioning, game-sense etc.

This discussion can go endlessly like this.

It just comes down to that there is more to it than just aiming.

[heavy drift]

well i do have to admit my playstyle is picking fights (okay im not just rushing and stuff i also hold angles or do i atleast believe smarter things) but its heavy aim oriented but idk i cant figure it out once again

[proven abyss]

Record many VODs of yourself. All I can say really.

[heavy drift]

i can try but it might be the same like with math - if you see it this way once you might see it like that allways

[proven abyss]

That is why multiple perspectives can help. If your friend is better than you as you say, he can help you analyze things.

[heavy drift]

we agree on many htings as how the game should be played the other thing is if it really is played that way now those are two diffrent shoes - i would assume so tho because i cant imagine believing you should play it like this but then do somenthing else

[proven abyss]

It is not necessarily about how alike you are in playstyle. It is just about that 2 pairs of eyes can help with identifying issues.

Even if you are "alike", you both have differences.

[heavy drift]

his playstyle for instance is pretty agressive since he just outaims people and this is somenthing i have been saying for years and i truly believe - you can atleast reach immortal with pure aim only (same with cs) - what really pisses me off is dying to mistakes of m8s

[proven abyss]

That is not true. That will require you to get carried.

[real ore]

In low TTK games I think it's really hard to know if aim is why you lost the gunfight most of the time, especially if you don't know what the enemy's POV looked like. Could be he was way more ready for his angle than you were for yours. Maybe his cross hair was already on your head before his reaction time even noticed you on screen whereas you had to flick a few inches to his when you saw each other. Maybe he was just way more ready because he was doing better at map awareness. He might be way better at timing his shots with deadzoning/counterstrafing so his aim was less hampered than yours regardless of whose aim was better. In a high TTK game like quake if a guy with less health than you kills you in an open area yeah he probably out aimed you. These extremely brief duels in valorant are much harder to analyze I think.

[heavy drift]

i dont understand - he and this i can asure carries with this playstyle alot especially in important/clutch rounds

[warm loom]

Tac shooters aren't very aim-heavy in the first place. They are more about already knowing where your enemy is through info or seeking them out with good crosshair placement so that your first shot hits the head.

[proven abyss]

His playstyle is more than just his aim man.

You cannot keep chalking things off as "good aim".

[real ore]

Exactly

[heavy drift]

that is a very good point actually - mybe a complete change in playstyle would bring diffrence?

[heavy drift]

its hard to explain without seeing his pov but trust me in my words when i tell u he dry walks into angles and just shoots people (but i know what u mean he has a general idea where people are and a really good map awarness)

[warm loom]

Well, it's funny you bring up quake because there are plenty of pros who have amazing aim, but the current long-running champion "Rapha" is good at Quake because he outsmarts his enemies and hits the shots that matter rather than hitting every single amazing shot.

[proven abyss]

but i know what u mean he has a general idea where people are and a really good map awarness)

This is the point that I am trying to make, but your answers to me keep looking like the opposite, that is why I am hammering down on it.

[heavy drift]

in this case i really have to change up my style or there is somenthing i do that makes them more aware of me than others - this will sound arrogant but i will still type it out: really objectively looking at people at my elo they are very often not aware at what is happening at all - this concludes it has to be somenthing i do that makes them super aware of me

[heavy drift]

i honeslty mask that as aim tbh he does seem to be more patient aswell because a curse in lower elo is peeking dry and also repeeking even tho u saw multiple enemies wheres my head goes "there is no way this kid is dumb enough to peek that again"

[real ore]

Even he has really good aim, you need a deadly LG to compete at quake let alone be the best. Butnyeah he's not an aimgod like toxjq or strenx or clawz or something just kind of a genius

[proven abyss]

But map awareness =/= aim.

[heavy drift]

well yes and no - map awarness just gives u a slight idea where people can be but theyre rarely going to be where u last seen them so its aim adjustment and some xhair placement in the end no? idk i feel like its a bigger part then given i might be wrong tho

[proven abyss]

Of course, but your definition of "aim" in this whole conversation is different than what we are trying to tell you.

[real ore]

Maybe it's just at your ELO everyone has various holes in their game. You notice theirs but might be oblivious to your own which they notice and exploit

[heavy drift]

also good point damnnn - since u are spitting facts left and right what would u recommend

[real ore]

There's definitely a type of player who might top frag his attacking half then go relatively unnoticed in his defending half and vice versa. So at your ELO you have gotten good at stuff that others still suck at but they've learned stuff you still don't know etc

[proven abyss]

Exactly. Hence why everything is more than just "aim" when it comes to these games.

[heavy drift]

i for sure have to somehow shift my game to more ranked oriented ways - i die so many times expecting people to do certain stuff (i know i know its my own fault)

[real ore]

My opinion is that coaching and heavy game study is for going from an advanced player to a high level player. Like not that useful until you're already good, and the most effective thing until you're a high elo player is just getting more hours and naturally improving understanding of the game, awareness, and decision making and only giving intentional extra attention to fundamentals until then

Keep in mind I am not even good at valorant and this is just my personal judgment

[heavy drift]

well unlucky me then because i have alot of hours and still didnt figure it out xD but i could atleast try to switch my thinking from "i died because i lost a aim duel" to well somenthing else

[proven abyss]

Sometimes it just takes a mental/approach-shift. If you have only been playing the same way then you eventually might become blind certain aspects.

[real ore]

Keep in mind that when Val came out, the high ranks were dominated by people with thousands of hours in CS and people who sarted with vaalorant had to grind super hard to catch up

[heavy drift]

probably

[heavy drift]

Ye but it is really noticable (atleast to me) that there are alot of fresh fps players in valorant and not so many transitioning from cs because they lack alot of fundamentals like trading, awarness, damn some of them dont use abilities at all but im also not sure what you were trying to say with this

[heavy drift]

considering all this tho it seems aim train might be more or less pointless u prob achieve more by just playing - man i wish i wasnt dogshit

[proven abyss]

Aim training isn't pointless.

You just need to understand that both playing your game and training your aim has their place.

Aim training is however considered more "complimentary", but regardless of that, it is still the best way to train your raw aim

[heavy drift]

ngl playing the playlist once is exhausting especially when it just doesnt convert to the game (noticebaly)

[proven abyss]

It just takes time, just like with improving in a game.

The only difference is is that you are hardfocusing 1 specific skill in aim training compared to many other different smaller skills in a game.

[heavy drift]

i mean yes i started with css and have 6k+ hours in csgo i somehow expect myself to have the basics down

[proven abyss]

And you do.

You just need to push that further, and you might simply do not have that overview of what exactly needs to be improved/what you are doing wrong, hence why you are not improving any further.

[heavy drift]

i despise how i cant tell what it is - i hate nothing mre than wasting time and not improving - playing only improves really when u practice certain stuff - sure u can go with crazy amount of hours but its inneficient

[proven abyss]

VODs 😉

[heavy drift]

i agree to the point if youre doing some stuff youre not aware of - otherwhise you are reaffirmating what you allready know (imo)

[proven abyss]

And you will always do stuff that you are not aware off.

[heavy drift]

mybe im perfect

But ill prob try to look at fights and not just go "i lost because of aim" but rather what exactly happen even if that needs more brain power

[heavy drift]

i watched to many scream highlights for sure

[heavy drift]

cant believe ur making me look at my own vods this gon suck