It's easy to get to Platinum 2-3 from where you are at now with just your basic skills.
Gold 3 has players that are in 1 of 2 basic camps:
1. Bull chasers
2. Low Skilled Players
How you get past this is just assume you have to stay in the net for the first couple of kickoffs. If they don't go, ofc go but give all the signals possible that you have their backs. "Defending" "Go for it" "Take the Shot". Under no circumstances should you go to grab corner boost on the kick at this level. Your number one objective should be to stay between your goal and the ball, and your number 2 objective should be to keep in good position in regards to your teammate. The only reason this is number 2 is because your teammate is going to chase you down when you have the ball, this should not send you running, but you should certainly take note of what type of shots he is willing to dive for. You should get plenty of free shots at long goals, you should have 300 points from clears and centers, and when you center the ball, just let your teammate go for the shot. You will have 10-15 centers each game and your teammates may or may not be able to capitalize. Only move up for the shots that are 100% (open net, good angle, a ball chasing teammate cannot get to the play to hit you) Once you are up a couple goals turn up the defensive play.
There are a few things to avoid:
Punting. Don't hit a ball to a defender if you see they have a decent defensive player.
Dribbling. Don't try to dribble the ball if you are going to be a tee for your teammate.
Offense. Don't try and make goals, you have a ball chaser teammate for that. He will make 1/10 no matter how bad he is.
Trash Talk. Kids that suck at this game already know it, call them out for being a ball chaser and they will just show you they are a thrower too.
I know this is all basic stuff, but it's the stuff you need to get past Gold3. You don't need aerials, deflections, offensive positioning... none of that. Save that for Diamond, for Gold3 you need to survive 30 games so you can get a teammate.
This post was edited by Franklymydear on May 10 2017 09:25am