Doray#VAL

profiles

Player

ambitions

My ambitions are simple (for now), BUT may grow as time passes:
-Improve with a team.
-Develop team-bonding and comradery with a team.
-Play in tournaments.
-[In The Future]: Maybe attempt to go Semi-Pro/Pro.

description

Hello, my name is Michael "Doray" Nicklin. I am 19 years old and live on the East Coast of the United States of America. This year (2020) I decided to switch my ambitions from CS:GO (a favorite game of mine) to Valorant, mainly because I felt as though my efforts in Counter-Strike were going nowhere. CS:GO being a very old game, compared to Valorant, the amount of teams and room for growth felt very limited, and thus I focused my eye on Riot's new and upcoming FPS game. Having over 2,800 hours in Counter-Strike, I am not a first-timer with FPS games; I have a pretty decent understanding on the mechanics, positioning, and game-sense required to play these kinds of games. I started playing Valorant in the beta, getting an access code just a couple days after Twitch began releasing codes via streamers. There, up until now, I played Valorant casually with my friends. However, I recently gained the desire to bring my game to the next level and I want to begin playing competitively with a team.

Regarding my achievements in Valorant, my highest rank achieved was Platinum 1 and I can confidently say that I probably have around 400-500 hours in the game. My current rank is Gold 1, and I have an alternate account that is Silver 3 (I made this account to play with friends, mainly because of the recent rank shift and playing limitations).

My achievements aside, I thoroughly believe that rank and elo, despite being ways to "determine skill," do not accurately depict a player's motivation, dedication, communication, and mind for the game. I also believe that a positive player, no matter the skill, is far better than an amazing player who is toxic towards everyone he or she communicates with. Positivity, dedication, and comradery is the KEY to success for a team (comradery also encompassing communication and coordination). Some arbitrary rank in a game shows how individually skilled a player is at playing mind-games with an opponent, but I do not think that it accurately portrays how good said player is at communicating, coordinating, or practicing in a team environment. Your childhood friends is NOT a team environment (if you all have different motivations and desires) and your matchmaking team is NOT a team environment (purely because it is a group of random individuals who will probably not play with each other again, or at least consistently). Therefore, rank and elo is not the only factor that I believe a team should consider when looking for teammates.

Now onto my strengths and weaknesses:

STRENGTHS:
-I am an older individual, and thus I have access to certain technologies and information that younger people may not have. I am an adult, and thus can do things that adults are able to do.
-I communicate fast and effectively with people, and am capable at holding with a plan.
-I am dedicated to "getting good" at the game, as well as desire to help others improve.
-I take constructive-criticism well and attempt to improve my game based on other's ideas (as well as my own reflections).
-I do not tolerate toxicity, racism, sexism, etc. if it is intended to hurt someone.
-I understand that the goal of PRACTICE is NOT RESULTS. The goal of practice is learning, and that the only scores that matter are the ones in OFFICIAL games from tournaments, LANs, etc.
-I am willing to sit down and look at demos, videos, etc. if it means I can improve from them or learn how an enemy plays.
-I can pay for my own platforms, games, tickets, etc.
-I have A LOT of free-time compared to many other people.

WEAKNESSES:
-While I can take constructive-criticism, I do NOT like [1] back-seat gaming, [2] toxic leadership, and [3] constant criticism DURING a game. If I make a mistake in the game, and you point it out, THAT will be in the back of head instead of the game itself. The way to improve from criticism is PRACTICE, and thus you can turn those points you make into second nature knowledge and actions. If we are trying to win, the more important thing to do than dawn on my mistakes is to point out the problem in a less-aggressive and accusing way, so that the criticism is not in the back of head while trying to win and I can maintain my confidence. After the game, we can then focus on the issues in less-important games so I will be more prepared later on. The reason I consider this a weakness is because, I know many teams (especially US-Formed, from my experience at least) tend to point out problems more in matches, and thus it weakens their players' confidence levels. In matches where you WANT TO WIN, the worse thing you can do it destroy the confidence of your team. In these games you are NOT trying to improve in the moment, rather you are trying to WIN. Improvement should be left for after these games, and during scrims, etc.
-I am a passionate player at times, but I always try to limit my range of emotions to prevent anger from coming into the communications.
-I do NOT like Push-To-Talk. Having to push a button to talk distracts me, and I know that is weird, but just being able to speak without pressing a button really helps my focus.

THAT IS IT! If you have gotten this far, hopefully you can understand why I want to be as thorough as possible. I want to get a good match with people who I like and am able to develop comradery with.

Geolocation