Basically what the title says. Growing up I was all about multiplayer games. MW2 in high school with the boys every night is one of my great gaming memories. I was never the best, or even top 3. But I could hold my own, occasionally I could top a match leaderboard, killstreaks were not a rare occurrence, etc.
Then the PS4 and XBone were announced, and I went the PS4 route. Since graduating high school it's been 90% single player games, I got super into Overwatch for a bit in college, but that's it. Me and the boys are all grown up now, and getting to play anything online is just fun to hang and chat. I've bought like 3 of the last 5 CoD's, enjoy them for a second. And then inevitably drop off because I am just getting my ass absolutely pounded mercilessly, constantly.
My friends are definitely better than me, so SBMM definitely doesn't help matters. But it's also very easy to tell that I just plain suck at the game. We got on the new CoD beta yesterday, and I thought the old maps I know so well would really help me. But instead my last excuse went out the window, not knowing the map layouts of the other recent CoD's was definitely not my issue, I am just terrible. Something with more strategy and less twitch based like Overwatch I think I could still play well but CoD is like my nightmare multiplayer experience for my what I'm good at in games.
It's all about positioning and 1v1 gunfights, hard to decide which I am worse at. I feel I am constantly fighting against controls in gunfights, even if the controls are perfectly fine. I just have a tendency to freak out when I need to do the exact opposite. So many embarrassing moments where I have no idea how I just lost a fight. But I really think my positioning and timing might be even worse. Clearly I just have no sense whatsoever of the rhythms (spawns, positions, etc.) of the game. The amount of times I'm staring down an alley for 30 seconds or more, only to be jumped the second I decide to move would be pure comedy if it wasn't so damn annoying. I am always just looking the wrong way, or a second early or late. I have no sense of awareness of anything outside my immediate point of view.
This novel could go on and on. TLDR: I STINK
But I like hanging out with my friends, I can still tell the game is pretty good too. Guns feel nice, I still do enjoy the familiar maps even if they don't help me at all. Can I do anything with my very little amount of skill to at least play with my friends without being a complete embarrassment? TIA