# What Is Better for Climbing in Marvel Rivals: Blaming Your Teammates or Fixing Your Own Gameplay A Marvel Rivals coaching breakdown of a Grandmaster player who blamed teammates: what actually keeps players hardstuck and how to climb instead. Source: https://st08cdnbs.top/what-is-better/ · based on the channel [Flats](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCulXXKKrC3LjQpxGNPNMFPA) · Video: [I Spectated Someone Who Claimed To Be Hardstuck In Marvel Rivals](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcYEuIer4VI) · 2026-10-23 ![What Is Better for Climbing in Marvel Rivals: Blaming Your Teammates or Fixing Your Own Gameplay](https://st08cdnbs.top/what-is-better/what-is-better.webp) ## Key takeaways - The spectated player was in Grandmaster rank in Marvel Rivals while claiming his teammates were holding him back. - He was a Spider-Man main who switched to support and played Cloak and Dagger as "Dagger holding the Cloak" — rarely using the cloak side of the kit. - He walked past a health pack while looking for a health pack, one of the most cited moments of the review. - He argued that Invisible Woman was throwing, while the review showed he was not supporting his backline. - Flats reviewed the gameplay live on Twitch, where full VODs and coaching streams are available. In Marvel Rivals, the better option is almost always fixing your own gameplay rather than blaming teammates, because the only variable you control every match is your own play. A Grandmaster-level player who insisted he was hardstuck got his replay reviewed on stream by Flats, and the footage showed the opposite of what he claimed: passive support play, missed health packs, unused abilities and a kit played at half its value. If you want to watch that kind of live review as it happens, Flats streams full matches and coaching sessions on [his Twitch channel](https://www.twitch.tv/flats). The gap between a player's self-image and his actual decisions is the whole story of this review. He was not losing because of matchmaking; he was losing because his hero was doing roughly half of what the hero can do. ## What the Marvel Rivals review actually showed The spectated player was in Grandmaster, a rank where basic execution is supposed to be automatic, and yet the replay was full of bronze-level habits. The most repeated criticism was his Cloak and Dagger: he played the character as "Dagger holding the Cloak," staying in the healing form almost permanently and treating the cloak side of the kit as decoration. Cloak and Dagger is a two-mode hero, and the dark form exists for escape, damage and the blindness utility that wins duels; ignoring it removes half the character's threat and half the character's survivability. The second pattern was positioning without purpose. He wandered past a health pack while visibly searching for a health pack, a moment that became the most quoted clip of the session. He also blamed his Invisible Woman for throwing, while the review framed it the other way around: a support who does not enable the backline cannot expect the backline to bail him out. ## Why "hardstuck" usually means a hero played at half strength Hardstuck is a label players apply to their account, but in practice it describes a skill plateau that the player has stopped examining. Three things separate a plateau from a slump: 1. **The kit is underused.** A Cloak and Dagger who never cloaks, or a Rocket who refuses to heal, is not playing the hero — he is playing a weaker version of it. 2. **Blame replaces review.** Every death gets assigned to a teammate, so the actual mistake never gets corrected. 3. **Rank inflates confidence.** Reaching Grandmaster makes a player believe his decisions are validated, when the rank may simply reflect time played and a forgiving climb. The ego problem is specific to Marvel Rivals' ranked economy: players can climb with a negative win rate because of protection points and generous rank floors, so a high badge does not automatically mean high-level decision making. That is why a Grandmaster replay can look like a metal-rank lobby and why the community reaction was less surprise and more resignation. ## The hero-pool problem behind the ego The player identified himself as a Spider-Man main who had moved onto support, and that detail reframed the entire review. Duelist mains who flex onto strategist often keep a duelist mindset: they chase kills, they hold cooldowns for personal escapes, and they treat healing as a secondary job. On Cloak and Dagger that produces exactly what the review showed — a support standing in the backline, contributing chip damage, and letting the tank and the second strategist absorb the pressure. A healthier approach for a flexing duelist is to pick a strategist whose kit matches the instinct. Rocket rewards constant repositioning and chip damage; Mantis rewards aggressive off-angle pressure; Luna Snow rewards disciplined line-holding. Cloak and Dagger demands active form-swapping, which is the opposite of the passive style the player defaulted to. ## What the viewer reaction says about ranked Marvel Rivals The audience response turned the review into a shared experience, because almost every ranked player recognized the archetype. The most liked reactions were not about mechanics but about attitude: a player with enormous confidence and no results, climbing on a losing record, ruining the lobby at 99 out of 100 points to the next rank. Several viewers also pointed out the irony that the player did, in a sense, prove that teammates matter — just not in the direction he intended. Others noted that the Rocket debate, where players insist a damage-only Rocket is viable, does real damage to the character's reputation because it teaches new players the wrong job. The consensus was blunt: this is a self-inflicted public humiliation, and a name change is probably incoming. ## Typical player questions this review answers Players who watch a review like this usually ask the same things about their own accounts. Does a high rank mean you are good? No — it means the system placed you there, and the replay is the only honest evidence. Is it fair to blame a support who seems to be throwing? Sometimes a teammate is genuinely playing badly, but in a five-versus-five team game one weak link is survivable if the rest of the team plays its role properly. Should you switch heroes when you are stuck? Often yes, but the switch has to match your instincts rather than your rank. And is it worth having your gameplay reviewed publicly? It is uncomfortable, but a third party who does not care about your ego will spot the health pack you walked past in seconds. ## Where to watch the full breakdown and Flats' other channels Flats publishes the unedited version of these reviews and much more across his platforms: - Twitch live streams and coaching: https://www.twitch.tv/flats - Discord community: https://discord.gg/flats - Twitter/X updates: https://twitter.com/Flats_Ow - TikTok clips: https://www.tiktok.com/@flats_ow - Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FlatsTTV ## Final verdict on blaming teammates versus fixing your own play Blaming teammates is the better option only if your goal is to feel better for ten minutes; fixing your own gameplay is better if your goal is to climb. This Marvel Rivals review makes the case concretely: a Grandmaster player with a Spider-Man background lost value on every Cloak and Dagger form swap he never made and every health pack he walked past. The replay did not show a victim of matchmaking — it showed a player who had never audited his own habits. If you want to see how those audits are done in real time, join Flats on [Twitch](https://www.twitch.tv/flats) for live spectating and coaching. ## Questions & answers **Can you really be hardstuck in Marvel Rivals if you are in Grandmaster?** Yes, because rank in Marvel Rivals reflects time played and the ranked system's protection mechanics as much as raw skill. A player can reach Grandmaster with a negative win rate and still lack the decision making expected at that level. The replay, not the badge, is the honest measure of where you actually stand. **Is Cloak and Dagger supposed to be played as a pure healer?** No. Cloak and Dagger is a two-mode hero, and the cloak form provides escape, damage and blindness utility that wins duels and saves the player's own life. Staying in Dagger form permanently removes half the kit's value and makes the character far easier to punish. **How do I know if my teammates or my own play are holding me back?** Watch one of your losses back without commentary and count your own unforced errors: missed cooldowns, bad positioning, ignored health packs, unused abilities. If you can find five clear mistakes in a single replay, the teammate question is secondary. Reviewing your own footage is the fastest way to separate a slump from a plateau. **Should duelist mains switch to support to climb faster?** Switching roles can help, but only if the new hero matches your instincts. A Spider-Man player who flexes onto Cloak and Dagger but keeps a duelist mindset will play passively and lose value. Pick a strategist whose kit rewards your natural style, such as Rocket for constant repositioning or Mantis for aggressive off-angle pressure.