How to ‘git gud’ at Games (Faster Than Everyone Else)

I’ve always been deeply competitive. That’s a common trait among traders, and for me the natural place to exert it is games. Over the years, I’ve repeatedly taken new video games or board games and tried to reach an elite level as quickly as possible.

I was Master rank with all races in StarCraft 2, top 50 in NA in Hearthstone Battlegrounds, and highly rated at many board games including current rank 1 in the world at Patchwork on BoardGameArena. I’ve done this enough times to notice consistent patterns in what works for me.

So, if you’d like to become world-class at a game, finally beat that one friend, or get your first victory royale, I hope this can help you along that journey.

1. Don’t Play the Game (At Least, Not Much)

One of the least efficient ways to improve at a game is simply playing it.

That sounds counterintuitive, but in most games the feedback loop from raw play is extremely weak. You win or lose, but the outcome is the result of dozens—or hundreds—of decisions. It’s very hard to know which ones mattered and why.

If a game has a heavy mechanical component, you eventually need to play to build execution skills.  But most improvement here comes from structured practice, not play.

2. Borrow Your Understanding From the Best Players

We live in a uniquely good era for learning games. High-level players stream, publish analysis, and share replays. This has raised the average skill level across every competitive game compared to 20 years ago.

If you’re trying to improve quickly, you should aggressively leverage this. Read what top players have written. Use statistical resources if they exist. But most importantly, watch elite players play.

Spend some time searching around for a top-tier player you enjoy watching who talks through decisions as they go. This lets you pause, predict what you would do, and immediately compare your thinking to theirs. That instant feedback—“I would do X, they did Y”—will help you quickly build an intuition that matches that of a top player.

This form of practice is also more time-efficient than playing. All games will have some downtime. Whether it’s time spent looking for a match, unskippable animations, or going through the motions of finishing a game that’s already decided. You can skip right through these when reviewing VODs.

3. Know the ‘Rules’ Intimately

At high levels, it’s fine if we’re giving up expectation by not being able to calculate as deeply down the game tree as our opponent—but let’s not give up expectation by not knowing the rules or what’s possible.

This isn’t just about knowing what’s allowed. In a MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena), the progression looks like:

I’m low on life—I should go heal.

I’m low, but my opponent has no mana, so I’m safe to stay.

I’m low and my opponent can’t cast their primary spell—but if they level up, they’ll suddenly have enough mana, so I need to leave before that happens.

There’s a quote from when I was learning Backgammon that always stuck with me: “The biggest blunders came because the best move simply hadn’t been considered.”

Deep rules knowledge enables creativity. If you’re only following established “meta” patterns, it’s harder to separate yourself from the competition.  Games reward players who know when the standard move applies and when it doesn’t.  This knowledge enables decisions that look risky to others but are actually safe, or plays that exploit lines most players don’t consider.

4. Build a Valuation Framework

Most strategy games become far clearer once you develop a way to value actions.

In board games, this often means reducing decisions to expected victory points. Late in a game, this can be straightforward. Earlier on, it requires estimating how present actions convert into future value.

Games with multiple currencies—resources, influence, tempo, positioning—still allow for valuation if you identify conversion paths. Even rough bounds are enough to compare options meaningfully.

Without a valuation framework, games feel abstract and decisions feel arbitrary.  In chess, you might be able to calculate deeper in the decision tree than your opponent but unless you’re calculating to checkmate then this isn’t worth much if you don’t have a heuristic for comparing two positions (at the maximum depth you can calculate).  Chess players understand that a knight-for-rook trade is generally favorable, and you need some way to make those sorts of comparisons in your game.

5. Record Yourself and Review

One of the most powerful improvement tools is watching yourself play after the fact.

Outside the pressure of the moment, your analytical ability improves dramatically. Mistakes become obvious (although you have to fight the hindsight bias of knowing the outcome).

Review also helps dismantle mental barriers. What feels “too fast” or “too complex” in real time often looks manageable on replay. Seeing this gap between perception and reality builds confidence and encourages deliberate improvement.

6. Protect Morale

Finally, none of this works if you burn out.

Improvement requires failure. If every mistake turns into self-reproach, progress will stall. The goal isn’t to maximize short-term results but rather to raise your true underlying skill level. If that improves, outcomes will eventually follow.

To improve, you have to learn to appreciate losses.  If you’re afraid of losing, you’ll be afraid to experiment, and it becomes easy to fall back on ‘what works for you.’  That may be a local maximum, but staying there can keep you from reaching a global maximum.

This approach isn’t for everyone. Some want games to stay light and casual, and that’s perfectly valid. But if you enjoy the competitive grind, or find satisfaction in mastery itself, hopefully this helps you a little on your journey.