The Importance of Morale; How Your Flaming Isn't Constructive Criticism

I had a couple of ideas for this but they intersected and came to the same conclusions so I merged them.

So, this may seem obvious to some but after playing since 2010, I've seen tons more examples of people that just don't grasp the concept that yelling at your teammates isn't going to win you many games. Don't worry, I'm not simply salty from some losing streak, instead I find this an interesting topic about the psychology of team-play and the nuances can be easy to miss if you are upset for whatever reason.

Picture it: you give first blood and your mid goes off the handle with how you should uninstall the game or your life and that we should FF@20. Game continues and your bot-lane actually does well despite it and wins lane, but because of the midlaner making such a stink, jungler fed, top lane fed and uh, yeah the mid fed too. So you lose because the discord that one mistake created due to how someone reacted to it. That mid has been stuck in iron since 1987. Send them your prayers.

Competitive games can get heated, especially games involving a team of other people when you can feel like their mistakes are completely out of your control and if you did even remotely well it becomes easy to simply blame them for why you lost, or why you didn't win fast enough. Flaming in this regard is birthed from frustration of feeling you have no control over the pace of the game and that it was your scumfuck jungler that didn't gank for you which made you feed and lose the game.

It's important to realize however, that despite it being 5v5 you hold more control over the game than you think, and the irony is that your bad attitude is an enormous factor in this: you are contributing negatively to the game by flaming because you feel like you have no control over it. It's entirely possible you lost because you flamed. I've only ever seen one game be won by my team after they started flaming. One out of thousands. It's a significant factor, that if we recognize we can avoid and even use the same framework to our advantage.

Morale is a psychological phenomenon where you feel motivated or discouraged as a result of what happens around you. Good morale can push you to play better or have the courage to take risks that you otherwise wouldn't, and those risks will often pay off because you can commit to them wholeheartedly. Bad morale, or being tilted, will cause you to play worse more times than not. You may also be inclined to take risks, but they are out of desperation to make something happen or compensate for mistakes you or your team made prior and only cause the downward spiral to accelerate. We've all been in both positions even if we've been unable to recognize why it happened. If you just lost a team-fight and pointed out someones build and questioned it in the rudest way possible, don't expect them to be receptive to your "advice" even if you are correct in what you are saying; because if you had won that fight you probably wouldn't have given their build a second glance unless you were looking for someone to blame. If you take issue with something like this, do it in a way that implies you care and want to help them rather than looking like you need a scapegoat. People are more receptive if you approach them and treat them like a person rather than an animal to be scolded. The old saying rings true, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

With that stated, it will seem obvious why you'd want to keep your team morale high, but then why do people still try to bring everyone down through a bad attitude when they could support your team through mistakes and all instead? Well, if you've played with friends I'm sure they've made mistakes, right? How was your reaction then? I would be willing to bet it wasn't flaming, or if it was it was obviously a joke and everyone laughed it off. You wouldn't dog on your friend because of a simple mistake, you'd probably be more inclined to help them understand what happened and how to avoid it. So why not give the randoms in solo queue the same benefit?

Anonymity plays a part here. Your friends know you, and there are social repercussions if you create turmoil. Those people in solo queue will probably never see you again. So you can afford to be an asshole to them and suffer none of the social stigma that would come with it. Aside from getting reported or annoying those people for the short time you're with them. Considering however the massive benefits of not getting upset, and instead being supportive, why would anyone choose to flame in the first place?

It comes back to the competitive aspect and feeling lost. For all intents and purposes, these people making mistakes is going to adversely affect your experience and your enjoyment. You lost LP because those goons didn't learn to play, but is this really true? Dunning-Kruger is evoked often in these situations because the individual flaming will conveniently forget all the errors in their own play that brought them to that point to begin with. After all, taking responsibility for your part in the loss isn't really an easy thing to do. Nobody wants to face the fact that they screwed up and as a result ruined a game for 4 or sometimes 9 other people. If you can dodge that responsibility and turn the ire of the team onto someone else, you void out any impact you had and can convince others that it was the lack of ganks or someone feeding that caused you the lose. The funny thing is that it's the social repercussion in the short term that causes us to risk social repercussions in the long-term. You don 't want to be the guy who lost the game for your team, but to call out someone will feel worth the effort even if you get banned because you told that idiot scrub what-for.

I'm probably talking a bit in circles but the main takeaway here should be that when you play a game, your goal should be on yourself. You should be looking to improve your own play, and pointing out the flaws of others isn't really going to contribute to that goal. If you are going to call out a mistake, do it constructively. Do it like you would want someone to talk to you, and you may find out that you boosted your teams morale simply because you gave advice and constructive critique instead of burning the house down over some spilled milk. Sure, you can suck-off your team at every moment of every game and sometimes it'll work but selecting your opportunities to support your team will have bigger impact, just as the inverse is true. Flaming from the start won't be fun for anyone but they can mute you ahead of time, but flaming someone when they already know they messed up can be the final nail in the coffin.

Or it can be the saving grace you need to bring that person back from the brink of inting. You are not the only person on that team, and if you want to truly control the outcome, you'd do better to be a nice supportive team-mate even if you aren't going to carry. Leadership is omni-important in a game like League, and leading is more than just shot-calling and making good pings. A leader bolsters their weakest link, and leads their team to victory or graciously accepts defeat while learning from it. It probably sounds like a Saturday morning cartoon message here but these lessons are taught to kids because of how important they are. It's easy to forget simple things like the golden rule when you are upset and genuinely feel like it's not your fault.

Ultimately, games can be won or lost without anyone on your team or the enemy team saying a word. However, in most cases I'd say the turn in team-morale can be a deciding factor more than a Baron play. If you want to put this into action, start your next game off by wishing people luck. If someone feeds, tell em to shake it off and get back in there. If someone does a good play, tell them that it was good. If someone makes a good gank, thank them for helping your lane and giving you that edge. Take responsibility for your errors and say you'll do better when it happens, instead of flipping out and becoming pessimistic or worse, blaming someone else. These seem so obvious in hindsight, but when you're heated it can be hard to recognize the simple things. If at the end of the day you are too upset to say something nice, then just don't say anything at all. Don't spam pings either. Just get through it and go on to the next one hopefully in a better mood. Maybe take a break if it's impacting you badly. Put on some music.

We take for granted things like our mental state in this game and expect people to play flawlessly. We lose sight that they are people who could be having a number of things happening to them outside the game that impacts them in the game. We forget that we aren't the best there ever was. If you do nothing else, just remember that everyone is a person just like you, and that if you don't like getting shit on by your team for a mistake you know you made, give them the same courtesy. You may find you win more games because of it. If your goal is to climb and get better, assume that is everyone elses and help them to achieve it, as a team.

Stay positive, friends.