In the interest of tweeting about both neurodivergence and competitive gaming, I wanted to share an interesting experience I had in ranked Overwatch today.

I was playing on a very aggressive autopilot style and basically feeding, because I wasn't paying enough attention (1/8)

I tried to focus, but so little was happening that I couldn't bring myself to care about the match. Not because I didn't want to play well, but because my brain wasn't engaged.

My teammates started pointing out I was feeding and I couldn't tell them otherwise. So I had a plan.

I started asking my teammates questions about themselves. Favorite animals, ice cream, anything that would get me engaged with my team as people and care about the game.

After that, I immediately and noticeably played better

I needed to care about my team to care about the game enough to win. I needed to learn about my teammates and talk to them to have enough mental stimulation to not get bored.

This is what ADHD is like in competitive gaming for me.

It's the same thing with school work. I never did work that I didn't care about or was interested in. I needed it to be made interesting by good teachers.

And the same thing helps in overwatch. Good teammates make the match more engaging.

When I'm trying to win for my teammate's pet rabbit, or when I'm taking to someone about their taste in ice cream, or anything while playing, I'm immediately more focused.

But so many games have silent teammates that only speak up to flame at the end of the match

The people that put out so much energy into telling me I'm dog at the game and explain why *after* the match could have spent that energy engaging with the team and talking about the game instead, and I and others would perform better by caring more about winning for the team

Don't think that's a revolutionary idea, but from the perspective of ADHD I'm seeing just how much it plays into this dynamic. Teams that talk more (positively) with each other get more focus out of me, and then I play better.

I literally need help paying attention in matches.