Riot please make a PSA video about Teamwork in League of Legends and it's importance!
I wish Riot would address this more and educate their community so that when translated in-game, there would be much less friction and confusion. So that when a team fails we see it as a team failure rather than misguided angst. Theres only one thing I have an issue with in this game immediately when reading many posts and playing the game, it is the community's perception of the winning conditions of a game. To many of you the players, a snowballing champion is the premier role to carry a game and lead it's members to victory. While snowballing is very crucial in securing a win, so are the other lanes. I've seen supports and have been a support myself to have a greater impact than the typical carry and secure wins. I've played every role with experiences of success in each to constitute a carry in my elo bracket, watched many professional games as well as streams and I can firmly say that no single position can make up for the mistakes of the entire team. If you win lane hard or get a solo laner super fed as a jungler, it's still on your team to play correctly. If they continue to make bad decisions and do not group to build upon leads you will lose. A team disjointed will fall, thats just the nature of team games. It's a common misconception in League that one player can make up for the transgressions of many, as if you are Jesus Christ himself. That is not the case, while a single stellar performance can be the catalyst to a secured win, the rest of the team needs to stop making those critical mistakes otherwise things will fall apart.
I found it vastly odd how my perception of teamwork was shaped after playing this game in comparison to when I just picked it up. When I started playing League I knew that no matter what the game teamwork is necessary for a win. I've been apart of award winning Footballs teams, Track & Field Teams, National Robotics Teams and many more. Through these many experiences I had fostered a love and appreciation for unity. My individual performance did not make me better than the team as a whole, our teamwork led us to victory, with my performance being one of the driving forces. When playing video games of other Genres with PvP or PvE features such as first person shooter's or MMORPG's my attitude towards teamwork, it's many roles and my role in that never wavered, it stayed consistent to my experience in life previously shared. It stayed positive and healthy. In League for some reason this is not the case and despite my attempts to try and bring this approach to my teammates it's inevitably crashed. Perhaps this is because many League players have never been on a team before and do not know team dynamics. My first loss in League many months ago against other players was one of self reflection and positive outlook for future games. Sadly that has changed dramatically, the community as a whole has embraced this sense of individualism that looks to separate the team to praise the individual rather than foster it into a well working unit. One player can suddenly be responsible for the fall of the team, one can save us all, responsibility is not shared and inconsistent behavior is of the norm because there is no standard to be held to. Teams quite simply fall apart really quick and player interaction becomes crude to the point the game becomes painful (even regrettable) to play..
When I play with other players they do not want to take advantage of the lead I have or they may have. They want to stay in their lanes, they want to belittle the other players on the team doing poorly. When things fall apart they throw taunts and ascribe you to "bronze 5" when you do not make miracle plays. Riot this is a request from a casual player that just wants to enjoy the game on a rudimentary level, without having to feel like i'm being subjected to the whims of emotionally distraught individuals. There needs to be a code and an etiquette to which players on a team see the game as a team effort. Roles needs to be treated as such, a responsibility to fulfill a task for their teams success and ultimately the teams success needs to be described as a successful combined effort of each role to play better as a unit. Create a page or a poll in which we can all accurately describe and represent the successful actions of each position. Create a spotlight video on the meta itself, describing it's evolution and how important teamplay is and what the dynamics are to make a successful team on the casual and professional level. Have your Professionals be ambassadors for healthy play and communication. This game needs clarity for the casuals because much of the toxicity stems from a lack of understanding and respect for the team game.