How to get good at this rubbish game?

You present (at least to me) as a sound and competent player - and one who is willing to be a good team player even when teammates prove themselves less so. All that may sound like I **bleep** you with faint praise, but none of that comes easily in this game, and I would personally count myself extremely lucky if all my teammates were like you. Maybe I should have said "any."

At any rate, I'm taking away here that you primarily solo queue the game. (Ignore the rest of this if that isn't so.) And this game puts a very heavy burden on a player who doesn't have a regular and reliable crew. I'm not saying you'd have your 20/4k if it wasn't for "bad teammates" or "bad matchmaking" or "bad Respawn" or what have you. Although there is some truth in there somewhere, but we'll leave it aside since sour grapes and poor sportsmanship are never a good look. But given the constraints on a serious solo queue player who doesn't cheat... I'd say there's no reason to be unhappy with where you are. Obviously it's in the very nature of competitive shooters that we all feel unhappy about our performance, but remember that feeling is subjective. Objectively I'd say you're doing just fine. Forget about the badges. They represent, in far too many cases, proof of luck, not proof of skill.

1. No not necessarily. If it's a bad position I will position myself at worst somewhere safe so we can stay in the game, or I'll try be on the periphery to support but have an out if it inevitably goes bad. Otherwise I try to encourage good positions but some people have their own ideas
2. A mix of close to mid. I do like doing some long stuff too. I'd say my gameplay style is trying to get thr jump on players sneak attacks catch people out. Whether that's my actual best play I don't know; but that's generally me
3. It changes, I typically like something that can deal damage close range with something that can deal midrange; my weapon changes all the time as suddenly I'll stop doing well with one and another etc. At the moment I'm quite enjoying the Spitfire, for sustained heavy damage in that midrange and extended magazine. I might pair this with an alternator or anything to finish off. I liked the RE45 with Ballistic before it got changed to a charge up burst. I also liked the Nemesis for a minute but not been doing so great with it
4. I used to like dropping cold to loot and working way through the map meeting teams along the way. In Wildcard I prefer hot drop. In normal times a mix of hot or cold, but it's important teammates know how to drop on a hot drop.
5. I'm usually aware of most whats going on. In wild card however some enemies seem to appear out of nowhere (I do sometimes have this annoying thing where I seem to get focused on instead of my teammates even if I'm front back or middle or wherever. Sometimes my teammates sitting in blatant open space between everyone I get aimed at. Weird)

Nah my KD isn't where I'd like, but I find that often comes from teammates not finishing after I've knocked 2 and broke the thirds shields. Or variety of things. I feel I win a fair enough, and some legends I just seem to win with even if my contribution felt dull.

Key is to take cover, peak shoot, and know when to push. Also depends on teammates 

One thing I find happens and is weird ... if I switch legends, depending on what legend, i suddenly have amazing games with that legend and think 'wow this must be my legend', then after more games with them just become trash. This phenoma continues until i switch legends and repeats. I'm not sure why I would suddenly be good with a legend i havent been using and then become really rubbish or 'back to bad experiences' with them.

I find when I reviewed mine, I'm generally only capturing good events. But I find it incredibly hard to watch back, I'll be watching it thinking i have the most insane God-tier reflexes in the world having no idea how i saw that in game.

I'm probably the last person who should be weighing in on this, but what the heck.

My initial takeaway was that any player who is asking themselves why they don't have a 20 kill or a 4k damage is asking the wrong questions. The badges are arbitrary and kinda meaningless, especially given how there are always specific seasons, times, events, etc. where they are easier to get than they normally would be. And you might never know which times/events those are until they're long over. Also, as the community manager pointed out, those badges are not as common as you might think. Of those that exist, at least some of them are a lottery win. Guy got lucky with sbmm, and gameplay, and teammates, and everything else, ALL IN THE SAME MATCH. And some of them, I'm sorry to say, were obtained by less-than-honest means. And some still were achieved by insane amounts of skill. Regardless, they shouldn't be anyone's benchmark for adequacy in the game. The vast majority of legitimate players, many of whom would look very good in action OR on paper, will never attain either of those badges.

So the only other things I have to go on is "I see my enemies first, I shoot my enemies first, I use cover, don't camp, get involved in fights." And the questions I want to know about are along the lines of:

1. Do you go where your squad goes no matter what?
2. Do you prefer close-, mid-, or long-range play, or a mix of the above?
3. Related: What is your preferred weapon set?
4. Do you like a cold drop, and hot drop, or whatever it is your jump master says?
5. Does "I see my enemies first" mean that you see AN enemy first but don't see the other two squadmates, much less the other one or two squads in the same POI? I guess that's a general situational-awareness question. I've made a science of it over the last seven years and I'm still often surprised how people can seem to appear out of thin air in an engagement where I was 100% certain who I was up against - sometimes down to specific legends, weapons, and even rough locations.

And not to be reductionist, but are you satisfied with your "benchmark" stats like k/d, win rate, etc.? You don't have to say what they are, I'm just trying to get a sense of whether you feel they are in a better place than the badge hunt?

When Ballistic was released I think I ended the season in like the top 2% of players with him.

Now that, I'd put a few steps above just "good" at Ballistic, very nice. 

Another aspect of recording your gameplay is also purely for yourself. Middle of a game, you're observing teammates and worrying about your own gameplay. I'll watch back one of my games at times and notice I completely missed someone sitting right there or find the moment I made a bad call and it all went south.

Reviewing your own "tapes" can help quite a bit, especially if you're already pretty familiar with a particular legend.

At the moment I can only really do clips as opposed to a full session.

I've won games, and won games where I've carried my team or been carried, some legends i use i get loads of wins even if i get more kills and damage with other legends.

In Wildcard I regularly see players getting 20+ kills and 4-6k damage. I try observe their gameplay and obviously i observe what happens as a teammate and nothing stands out just somehow they have endless kills and damage, whether i use same weapons or not.

When Ballistic was released I think I ended the season in like the top 2% of players with him.

Thank you for the reply and suggestions too.

Also, currently, with 42ms 0 loss and like a 40/60, players with half health bar, im shooting them first, with any weapon (typically Spitfire or 301) and they turn around and kill my full life instantly and somehow have hit the same or more shots.

Hey 1ronKeys​,

Out of curiosity, are you able to record gameplay at all when you play Apex?

It sounds like your tactics in general are pretty solid based on what you've mentioned here and in the past. A lot of times when I see people looking to improve further, getting specific gameplay situations can really help others provide tips or info detailed to your particular playstyle and whatever you may be running into in a particular match.

I'll hop into boards like the Apex University subreddit from time to time as well, and it's one of the more helpful places I've noticed breakdowns of that nature.

Some of this may also depend on what you consider to be good for your own personal goals. If you only count good as those that have gotten the 20-bomb/4k badges, that's actually a relatively elite crowd and probably one I'd consider a couple steps beyond just being good at the game in general. Being good at Apex overall and chasing that 20-kill badge can often be completely separate mindsets and playstyles. Not having those badges doesn't necessarily mean you're bad at the game.