- To maximize Elo gain and minimize Elo lost, players are incentivized to match up against opponents close to player’s own Elo. The laddering opponent searching process will prioritize on opponents close to your Elo, and the longer you stay searching, the server will reach for players “outside your league”. One technique is to NOT remain in “searching” for a long period of time. I personally use a rule of thumb of 5 seconds, and cancel searching after 5 seconds of searching. Rinse and repeat, until an opponent close to your Elo shows up.
- Keep an Excel or google sheet open, and keep notes of every player you run into laddering. Write down their name, and any notable information, such as items, moves, speed tier, etc. I even go one step further, and note their playing tendency as well. For example, do the player go for risky 50/50 play such as predict reverse TR on turn1 vs hard trick room team, or make a lot of defensive switch and protect, etc. Even though players change team often, these notes would sometimes be very helpful.
- Lookup your opponent every match. If you keep a running notes of all opponents, like I suggested in tip#2, all it takes a name copy (ctrl-C) and lookup (ctrl-F). If you did not have any notable notes on the player, try look him up on https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/. If there is any recent game with the same team, you can often skip through the turns and find some useful information.
- Have multiple tabs of damage calculators https://www.pikalytics.com/calc available at your finger tips, and pre-fill your Pokemon with exact EV in one slot in each tab. I always play with timer on, to mimic the same laddering process on cart. So if I need to run a quick damage calc, having half of the data pre-fill will save you a valuable 10 sec.
- Dodging. No matter how good your teambuilding is, there will always be a nightmare matchup. Make sure you know your nightmare matchup, and do your best to dodge it when laddering. The pre-requisite of dodging is to keep notes of every opponents, like I suggested in tip #2. What I do is I color code the sheet, and categorize players that you have good, neutral or bad matchup against. If you have a good team, there should be very few bad-matchup players that you need to dodge, within your Elo range of course. If there is any, lookup their name to see if they are online, if so check if they are actively laddering at the moment.
- Preying. This is the exact opposite of dodging, and the same process apply. There is an additional trick of preying if you are extremely serious about laddering. The trick is to have an alt account that’s close to your main account’s Elo, and laddering with it first. If you run into an opponent that you have good matchup, and hopefully beat it. Immediately log off and log back in to your main account (or have it ready on a different device), and start searching. More often than not, your main account will match with the same opponent, and get an easy win. If you do not get the “prey” within 5 seconds of searching. Give up and continue laddering on your alt, and rinse repeat. I only use this advanced trick when I’m within top 10, or trying to secure #1.
- Use deception to your advantage. Laddering is not opensheet, and BO1, and that’s why Pokemon such as Venusaur/Celesteela that can run multiple sets and items are so scary. I personally use the Pokemon nickname as my mean to bluff. For example, if your Pokemon can learn ally switch, naming it “ally switch” can plant a seed of doubt in your opponent’s back of mind. Even if you do not allocate a move slot to ally switch, the threat of ally switch will make your opponent make safer or sub-optimal play sometimes. You can get creative with your bluff, and use items, move, ability as nicknames.
- Always take the time to review your game afterward, turn by turn, even if you win. Look for any mistake, and if there is any room of improvement. This is also a good time to start taking notes of your opponent. Do not auto pilot and go back to the ladder immediately. You should learn something new from every game, not only about yourself but also the player pool. Do not play if you are on tilt, especially from bad RNG. Try to make the most optimal decision, and embrace the RNG. With a big enough sample size, all luck/RNG factors will even out in long run.
Good luck laddering
Oldcigarette
