I CANT WIN GAMES CUZ O MUH TROLLIN TEAMMATES!!! QQ!!!! Low level player fixation.

A lot of times many low level players will give this as an excuse. "I can't win and climb because my teammates are so bad/troll/toxic!"

And while this will be true on occasion, the reality is in low level play you should never surrender, never give up, maintain a positive attitude and work with the members of your team who are trying to be productive. I was just messing around on a smurf learning mao and here's what happened:

https://i.gyazo.com/cd1d08d632c2b6a2c20f590bbce5320c.png https://i.gyazo.com/d6d8bc28a7a3f62f33181129a40889f9.png

Do you see our Caitlyn? Lets ignore the summoner spells she took, lets ignore the items she built, lets ignore her extremely toxic attitude for which she was already punished (got the notification) and her afking for 5 minutes, and her intentionally feeding 6 deaths at one point. Just ignore all that. This was a BAD player. Period. That's not the problem. She also had a HORRIBLE attitude and she gave up on the game 6 minutes in. At 17 minutes she had 37 farm. Quite simply, this is a player who is not cut out for gold level play at all but she is ranked there currently none the less and I had the misfortune of playing with her this match. Ignore all that.

Instead focus on what you see from the other teammates. Just looking at the photos you can see the other 4 kept it calm, cool, and collected. We sat tight, we defended our tier 1 mid tower with everything we had while we sacrificed the side lanes. We farmed up, sharing what ever resources we could. We communicated a game plan to deal with our troll and make use of her feeding by making plays when she drew the attention of opposing players. We made a great baron call when 3 people went to kill the intentionally feeding Caitlyn bot lane and we took 2 inhibitor towers and 2 inhibitors with it while only sacrificing a bot lane inhibitor tower ourselves before recalling to defend as a group. This is a situation where our pure will and determination to WORK as a team overcame the huge handicap of being basically 4v6.

This is an important lesson for all low level players because it shows that no game is hopeless. If you keep your head about you and work your tail off to do everything you can do to win a match even you can overcome trolls. And yes, I know some of you will go "Yeah, but you are a diamond player playing on a smurf, there's no WAY I could do something like that, so this doesn't really apply!" To that I say, hogwash. I'm a terrible mao player, and I made plenty of mistakes you wouldn't expect from a player of my caliber. They didn't matter. Because what I did RIGHT was play my hardest, be positive, organize my team, and then execute a game plan to the best of my ability. Being a diamond player doesn't have anything to do with those qualities. ANY player can possess them. That is the lesson here. Never give up, never say die, play with a good attitude, work with those willing to work with you, and give it your all. You can't win em all, but occasionally you can do something epic just by giving it your best shot. And make no mistake, it will be THOSE games that decide your fate on the ladder.

So don't be a whiny baby, don't give up, don't play half heartedly. Give it all you've got. Every time. It will make all the difference in the world.

Best of luck on the Rift summoners and here's to hoping you never run into a player like this. But if you do, now you know what to do about it.