Marvel Rivals – How to Get Out of Bronze (Solo Queue)

Whether you’re trying to get the free skin at Gold or you just really want to climb up the ladder, if you’re struggling to get out of the initial ranks, I’ve got a few tips to help you get on the right track. Before you proceed, just know that this isn’t gonna be a “just aim better lol” kind of deal.

Mechanical skills are far from the only factor to consider, though being a decent shot or having prior experience with the genre definitely helps a bit. I was a master-ranked flex player on Overwatch back when I still played it, so this is how my solo queue games have looked like here while mainly playing strategists (Mantis, Luna Snow, and Cloak & Dagger):

Stop Blaming Your Teammates

I’m ripping the band-aid straight off here: You are the only constant factor in the majority of your matches. I know there are times when your teammates just refuse to adjust, but that’s not what’s causing you to go on long losing streaks. Think of it this way, the other team is very likely facing the same problems as well, so why are they always winning?

I’ve been through my fair share of stubborn/inflexible teams, and sometimes it really might just be a completely unwinnable game, but that’s really not as common of an issue as you may think. Janky team comps can absolutely work outside of the top ranks too, but I’ll get to that later.

Stop focusing too much on what other people might be doing wrong, because that’s not going to help you improve in the long run. It’s a hard pill to swallow, but if you’re “hardstuck” bronze (or any rank for that matter) your teammates really aren’t the ones holding you back. You’re exactly where you belong at the time, but that doesn’t mean you can’t improve.

Analyze Your Own Plays

What I recommend is to focus on your own gameplay. Take a step back and reflect on what you could have done better after a loss, or maybe even look through your replays if you have the time to do so. Most of the time, you’re going to notice some really obvious mistakes that you could have easily avoided.

Maybe you were playing a strategist and you were just not healing enough or completely ignoring other dying teammates cause you were completely fixated on keeping the tank at full health. Maybe you were a vanguard and you just kept recklessly diving into a full squad or putting yourself in positions where the healers can’t reach you (a very common issue with Venom or Thor).

There are a lot of tiny mistakes that can add up over the course of a single match, and being more aware of them and trying your best to avoid those next time will make a massive difference in your personal performance. On that note…

Find A Set of “Mains” You Vibe With

You wanna know a little secret? The meta literally doesn’t matter unless you’re at the top end of the ladder, and even then, some “one trick ponies” can make their “bad” picks work even at the highest level. Role queue won’t fix your problems either. I’ve had decisive wins where we had just one tank, for instance. ^{_{(In a more extreme & silly non-competitive case, I’ve even won a match with just duelists against a standard team)}}

Don’t corner yourself into thinking that you need to play certain heroes in order to climb and “carry” your team. Instead, find and practice characters for each role that you enjoy playing and that you can see yourself becoming more consistent with.

Just because Storm and Wolverine are dominating the ladder right now doesn’t mean that you should force yourself into playing them, especially if you’re not particularly good with them. I’m a pretty alright duelist myself, but if you force me to play Wolverine against an equal team, I’m gonna do hilariously bad.

Seriously, I’ve seen good Squirrel Girl and Mr. Fantastic players wipe the floor with supposedly top tier duelists, and those are characters that can normally be outclassed by strategists in the damage-dealing department. Trust me, anything can work unless you’re somehow playing against insanely coordinated groups.

You’re better off playing your comfort hero rather than someone like Psylocke and dying every single time you try to flank. If you’re more comfortable playing as the much lower-rated Hulk rather than one of the “best” tanks in Dr. Strange or Magneto, then just go with the green man.

Don’t forget that even “bad” heroes can have some strong team-ups too. Hulk can enable Iron Man and even Dr. Strange to dish out some serious pain. Even Scarlet Witch, who’s considered a really low tier pick, can give Magneto a bit of a boost.

Understanding Each Role

There are three different roles in the game, and it’s important to understand what you’re supposed to do as each of them. It’s not as simple as just “tank, heal, or damage”, because there’s always a lot more going on in the moment to moment gameplay that will cause you to think about stuff outside of your general “role”.

• Duelists – Obviously, you want to be dealing as much damage as possible to your enemies. You should be focusing strategists or other duelists whenever you get the opportunity to hit them.
  • Don’t become too fixated on just the enemy’s backline. Watch out for enemy flankers and try to protect your strategists whenever somebody dives them.
  • Generally, strategists should be your main targets. However, there will be occasions where you have to go for the tanks instead.
    • This is a situational thing that you’ll just have to learn as you go.
    • An example of this is whenever you need to get their tanks off the point and you just can’t get a good angle or path to hit their supports at the back.
    • Another is if they have tanks that dive right into your backline.
  • If you’re playing as a flanker, be patient and try to look for isolated strategists rather than just diving in the second you see somebody. If the other team is not busy fighting your allies, you’re likely going to get clapped the moment you show yourself.
• Vanguards – Your job as a vanguard is to create space for your team by staying on the frontline and shielding your allies either with a literal barrier or with your own body. You’re also usually the first on the objective.
  • Don’t just play passively and try to shield people 24/7. Engage the other team by pushing up a bit and attacking them to force them to pay attention to you.
    • As long as your healers are doing their job, you shouldn’t be an easy target to take down. If you find yourself dying a lot, you might be overextending, so don’t push too far.
  • If you’re playing a Thor or Venom, focus on disrupting the backline rather than starting slap fights with the enemy vanguards. At lower ranks, you’ll be surprised at how completely unsupervised strategists usually are.
• Strategists – This is the “healer” role, but don’t trap yourself in the mindset that you can only heal. Supports in this game can be formidable fighters too. Just make sure that you don’t focus too much on damage.
  • At this level of play, prioritize healing first! I’ve seen people say that you “can’t outheal stupid” and then go on to hold left click as Cloak or try to snipe with Mantis, but I’ll just point to the first tip of this guide: “Stop blaming your teammates!”
  • Keeping tanks alive is your main priority, but avoid tunnel vision! Pay attention to everybody else too, including your fellow healer (if any).
    • No, seriously, I mean everybody. Keeping your duelists healthy will do wonders in most cases. Some of them might be struggling to do damage because they’re not being supported, not because they’re bad at their role.
  • If you see a flanker approaching, ping them with your middle mouse button. Even in Bronze, you’ll occasionally have teammates who will notice this and try to get them off you.

Don’t Queue While Tilted

We all have our off days, and if you’ve lost way too many games in a row, you’re probably already tilted by that point. Take a break and come back to competitive on the next day so you can start over with a clear head.

The worst thing you can do while tilted is to hop right into another match and potentially do some careless plays out of frustration. If you really want to keep playing, at least do something with less stakes, like quick match or an arcade mode. Just unwind and go back to the ranked mode once you’ve calmed down a bit.

Sometimes, the other team is just straight up better, even if nobody is doing anything wrong on your end. Stuff like that can be really frustrating, but it’s completely normal and you’ll just have to learn to accept those kinds of losses.

This can happen at any rank, but don’t let it affect you too much and you’ll be able to bounce back eventually. While editing this, I just hit grandmaster after locking in for a whole 2-hour session, as you can see at the start of the article. You wanna know what my match history looked like before that? Here you go:

There’s No Secret Formula to Climbing

That’s really all there is to it. There isn’t a “secret sauce” to climbing out of the starting ranks, and playing strong heroes that people rate highly won’t magically make you a better player. Getting out of bronze and climbing in general is all about consistency and the occasional self-reflection.

Over time, as long as you keep at it, you’ll hopefully naturally develop the necessary game sense and mechanical skill to reach even higher peaks.

At the end of the day, it’s just a game, so try not to take things too seriously. Seasons last long enough that reaching even just that gold milestone for the cosmetic reward shouldn’t be too hard as long as you take steps to identify and fix whatever mistakes you may be making.

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