Ok, I am reading this book where a brain performance expert talks about the challenges that athletes and others may have when it matters the most. It has actually helped my performance in VALORANT.

In the book they address the biggest reason people who have math anxiety fail tests is because they only use half of their working-memory to solve math problems. The other half of their brain power is used for other non-useful stuff like negative self-talk, “what ifs”, etc.

This mechanism makes it even harder when you are using muscle memory. When your brain is on autopilot, you have more bandwidth to think negative meta stuff.

If you can find a way to solely focus on the game. Enemy by enemy, round by round, just hitting headshots, not over-peaking, movement, etc. instead of using your brainpower thinking about how your rank is affected, your toxic team8, arguing, blaming others, etc… you may be surprised at the results when under pressure!