Remember, points are not a measure of skill. Points are a measure of how much ballchasing a player does. Don’t focus on points.

Don’t focus on your teammate’s mistakes. You cannot change or improve your teammate. Focus on your own mistakes, on what you could have done better in any given play. That’s how you’ll improve, and improving is literally the only way to rank up.

Even on plays where it looks like it’s 100% your teammate’s fault, question that. Could you have done anything to make the play develop more favorably? Could it be that you rotated erratically, throwing your teammate out of position? I can almost guarantee there are situations where you’re not realizing that you’re cutting your teammate off.

As I’m sure you know, it’s usually much easier to identify mistakes that your teammate makes rather than your own. So watch some of your replays, but from your teammate’s perspective; then you’ll be the “teammate” and it will be easier to see what you need to improve on.

Every rank plays a bit different. A champ will have a hard time in the lower ranks because you cannot anticipate anything. If you expect something to happen, you can react much quicker.

So if you know your mate (and enemies) are gonna be below the level you’d gotten used to, you’ll need to adapt your own style to it a bit. Be more patient, if your mate is a chaser, stay behind and make sure you at least don’t get scored against.

It’s basically just a case of letting the kids play and be the bigger man until you get back to a level where at least rotation is good and folks hit the ball.

Then again, I’ve been diamond 3 for a very long time, some matches you just gel with mates, some matches you don’t. It comes down to team mate compatibility.

Some great advice already given so far. This may help as well:

When were you C2? The average skill level continues to increase in the game. I’ve been D3/C1 in duos for many seasons now despite being better at the game than I ever have. I’m just barely keeping up though and I’m lucky I have a consistent team mate. It could be that if your rank is going down you aren’t keeping up with the skill level. Air dribbling across the field seemed rare at this rank a few years ago. Now it’s pretty common. The game meta evolves as well and this doesn’t always work for all play styles that don’t adapt.

Plat3 is really inconsistent. The average player is probably close to what you describe. It is for sure tough to break out of it when solo queuing. I suggest adapting to your team mates. Make things easier for them and also don’t trust them. Heavy defense if they ballchase, smart/safe offensive plays without giving up possession if your team mate is passive or goal tending. Are they looking at what you are doing, can they read a pass? If they are/can, then try to use that.

I’m obviously no GC or SSL. But I have noticed that in the games where my team is at a disadvantage mechanically, we can still have a pretty good shot at winning through the mental game. I almost never forfeit. Even if we’re just getting smashed by smurfs. It’s an opportunity to push myself and play against way better players than I usually play against. Sure, I’m gonna lose. But if I can get a couple goals in that’s rewarding for me. If I can block their flip reset musty in the process? Even better. Oh my teammate left because we’re down by 1? Then time to prove myself in a 1v2 (the feeling of winning that is better than anything, and losing in that situation feels less bad than just forfeiting).

I think one’s attitude going into this makes a huge difference as well. If you boot up expecting to have shit teammates, thats probably gonna be your experience regardless of whether they were actually good or not. If you boot up with the mindset of prioritizing a strong team experience, a lot of players will pick up on your behavior. They’ll probably feel more relaxed and maybe even play better. For me this is as simple as using quick chat to own up to your own mistakes, throw out a “no problem” when they apologize. Or a close one if they whiff a save. Throw them a pass or two to show you believe in them. Respect them, give them a chance to show they can play ball. Show them that you have some chops too.

Hopefully this helps. Getting a consistent duos partner will help alot. Then you can at least get to a rank with somewhat better average players. Id be down to play with you if you wanna dm me (USW).