If you do poorly in lane, it's not the end of the world (or: The True Path to Diamond)

So please stop acting like it's gg if you died a few times in lane. Or are behind in cs. Or both. Let's face it, we all have bad days. We all have match-ups that aren't in our favor. But you want to know the difference between the plebs and the pros? The plebs lament their poor situation, always carrying a defeatist attitude, acting like doing poorly in lane means the game is already over and there's nothing to be done about it. Their negative mindset makes them prone to even more mistakes, and causes them to do worse throughout the game. It turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The pros on the other hand (and by "pros" I don't just mean LCS-level players, I mean anyone who is actually good at this game) don't let themselves be run down by a bad laning phase. To use a tired old adage, they pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and jump right back into the game even harder than before. Because they know that being down on themselves will put them on tilt harder than anything their laner could have done. Always keep in mind that League is just as much a psychological game as it is a mechanical one. If you let the experiences of lane phase get to your head, of course it will be over. But even if you're 0/5 in lane there is something you can do, whether it be split-pushing, peeling for your ADC, zoning the enemy front line, or even being a cc bot. Positive thinking might not win the game for you on its own, but it definitely doesn't hurt your chances; in fact it improves them tremendously.

But unfortunately the average League player doesn't know this. If someone does poorly in lane, the team's first response is usually verbal abuse and harassment, either overt or passive-aggressive. But here's the thing: everyone starts out as a noob. Everyone starts off with no experience, and must learn through trial and error. We all get laughed at by our peers, and we all get criticized by our teachers. It's part of the improving process. League players are conditioned from very early on that in order to reach higher ranks, you must be able to carry your team. If you can't carry your team and get good enough to do everything winning the game requires on your own, then you won't rank up. But this line of thinking is what causes so many of the defeatist attitudes and negative thinking in this game. If you do poorly in lane, you can't carry. And If you can't carry, then you're going to lose. People far too often resign themselves to a loss because of a few early mistakes.

But now think about how much better your gaming experience would be if you DIDN'T have to carry. Imagine what this game would be like if every team member pulled his or her own weight all the time, each person taking an equal share in the strategic process. Instead of harassing a team member after a mistake, what do you think would happen if you gave them some friendly advice instead? You can bet your ass they'd at LEAST consider it for next time. Yeah, I know that people will say "but the people in this game are far too sensitive to accept advice". And unfortunately it's true; some people look down on anyone who's not at their level or lower. They think they're being harassed when in reality they're being offered assistance. In these cases it's not the advice giver that's at fault, it's the interpreter of the advice. Not everyone online is out to get you; some people are genuinely trying to help you. But if you're too stubborn or proud to accept the fact that you don't know everything about this game, or that it's possible you could have handled a situation differently, then the only one losing out is you.

League of Legends is a TEAM GAME, not a 1-man-army solo carry game. And ironically, the only reason the carry-or-lose mentality is driven into players so hard is because the carry-or-lose mentality is driven into us. If ranking up wasn't about having to carry a failing team, and instead about achieving the objective designed by Riot in the first place (aka kill the enemy nexus) then games would go a lot smoother. Ignore the existence of trolls, intentional feeders, afks, and Riot's craptacular matchmaking system for a moment. Assuming none of these things exist, would it not make sense for players in a TEAM GAME to actually work together, not attempt to carry everyone else by themselves? No shit, of course it would! But let's add in those trolls, afks, and other undesirables that didn't exist before. What happens? "OMG, TEAM SO HEAVY, MUST CARRY TRASH!" Now imaging a player with this mentality does poorly in lane. "Well, this game is over, didn't get fed, can't carry now".

So let's think for a second about what we can do about these undesirables...........oh right, it's obvious, 5-man queue ftw! Getting together with 4 people of similar skill and mindset is the best thing one can do to improve one's chances at victory. Not only will you avoid the undesirables, but you will also avoid the toxic chat, the flaming after a mistake, the defeatist attitudes, and the lack of communication that happens in solo queue. Of course the problem there is that you won't always have 4 other people to play with. But therein lies the crux of the matter: a 5-man party will always, always, ALWAYS be at an advantage over a solo queue player. Grouping with people you know and trust is the holy grail of gaming.

Most of you already know this, but what you don't realize is that you would save yourself many stressful hours of depressive rage if you only had the time management skills and/or the patience to put off playing League until queuing as 5 is possible. But no.........people want their entertainment fix and they want it now. Paradoxically however, when a person takes this approach and refuses to wait, hardly any entertainment is had at all. They just get stuck with having to carry, over and over, having one stressful game after another until they've run out of time. Meanwhile they complain on the forums about how hard it is to carry and how they deserve a higher rank.

But being able to carry is not the true mark of a top level player, nor is it mechanical skill. It's plain old communication and teamwork ability. Above all else, top players have these assets that allow them to overcome many of the obstacles that lower elos face. And what else do top players do more frequently than any others? Why, queue as a team of course! One would think that with a playerbase of well over 10 million players it wouldn't be THAT hard to find good people to team up with. But as it is, we're too locked in to the mindset of carry-or-lose. Instead what we should be thinking is cooperate-or-lose.

That is the true path to diamond.