What's the deal with players being so avidly against surrendering?

LifeIsAbsurd·2/10/2015, 4:38:39 PM·4 votes·1,261 views

I'm not talking the standard match where a comeback is a possibility. I'm talking bad players, complete lack of team communication, down by 30+ kills, and not a single tower down at 30:00. The absolute worst scenario you can imagine (since everyone has experienced that garbage).

Is it that surrendering a match is somehow a blow to someone's ego? That somehow surrendering in a normal will stain their mental image of themselves? I don't get it.

Many say things like "well I'm playing just for fun" - what's the fun in being completely dominated by an opponent with no chance of winning? Unless playing against a younger relative who might be trying to learn the game, I see very few possibilities where players would join a game just to lose it.

32 Comments

Nova Skye2/10/2015, 4:42:01 PM4 votes

Usually when the odds are that overwhelming, the end is near anyway - so I usually try to play it out. If we manage to hold on longer than even I expected, that's a small personal victory.

That's just my train of thought :)

Deep Terror Nami2/10/2015, 4:48:47 PM3 votes

Just because you think the game can't be won doesn't mean everyone else thinks the same. The fact that they don't surrender usually means they feel quite the opposite. If the majority does not want to give up, you should respect them enough to stop initiating a surrender vote over and over, and try to win the match with them. Just because you stopped having fun doesn't mean you should ruin it for the rest of them, and if you can't understand that then you should not be playing a multiplayer team game.

Also, if someone is in their promos, you should definitely expect them to not quit; you wouldn't want your team to quit on yours would you?

Drunk Rummate2/10/2015, 4:47:53 PM3 votes

It does bother me a bit when you're pretty far behind and people refuse to surrender.

The way I see it is that even if I win after turtling in my base for 30+ minutes, I wouldn't have fun doing so. I would rather give up, accept that I lost that one, and move on to the next game, especially so in normals.

I guess I can understand wanting to play the turtle game if you're in ranked. But winning isn't everything... sometimes it's better to just cut your losses and save 20+ minutes of your life in my opinion.

Knight SoIaire 2/10/2015, 5:38:03 PM2 votes

there are some factors that make not surrendering a better option

its late game so one minute is enough to push to the nexus
enemy is near your nexus and your fountain allowing you to fight them despite being behing

this is not just about ego but about the fact that your team still has chances to win the game despite enemy dominating you by surrendering you completly throw that chance away while you could have won that match

DrCyanide2/10/2015, 4:47:33 PM2 votes

In some situations, a players time is actually wasted by surrendering. This is often the case if you have a time limit of some sort, where you don't have enough time to start another match after the one you are in.

Alternatively, some people are just trying to grasp the mechanics of their champion, and more time playing with them, even in hopeless scenarios, can be good. They'd rather be really bad one game and OK the next than really bad one game and bad the next.

Troy2426212/10/2015, 7:36:39 PM1 votes

We're only 4 drags, 15 kills and 4 towers behind. We got this!

Kats Pajamas2/10/2015, 7:37:38 PM1 votes

"lets quit even tho if we do ace them at 53:00, it's a free win, because year long deathtimers"

Edit: I've even won games because 4 enemies walked into the fountain as 2 on our team re-spawned, walked all the way to the other base killed the last player and won.

JC DarkOmen2/10/2015, 8:42:13 PM1 votes

I usually refuse to surrender either because a: I want to learn how to carry impossible games or b: I think if we can just stall the game out and catch up we've got a chance. At my ELO no one understands the term "turtle" though, so it's probably a lost cause. Even so, there have been plenty of games where after getting wrecked all game we finally have one good play, and I can learn from that even if it doesn't completely turn the game. I don't play to win, I play to learn how to win, so wasting time on a losing game isn't a problem for me if we can just eke out that one play. I can learn how to stop arguments, call shots, and deal with toxic players. If the entire team was doing great there's nothing to learn.

BakedLotion2/10/2015, 8:44:20 PM1 votes

If its normals, i dont give a shit if we have a chance to win. I don't have fun playing for an hour turtling in our last two turrets... Then strain yourself for another 20 minutes trying to end even if they do throw

LordOfTheLeague2/10/2015, 8:54:07 PM1 votes

Surrendering...Surrendering...SURRENDERING

lojician2/10/2015, 10:01:18 PM1 votes

I frankly think a lot of it is people who think they're stuck below their 'true elo' trying to use 'tricks' like literally never surrendering for the infinitesimal chance something stupid happens because they'd rather do whatever top 10 tips people suggest on reddit than actually improving.

PrinceArchie2/11/2015, 1:11:10 AM1 votes

Well kinda cause you can come back from any game. It gets incredibly harder the longer you put yourself in the hole but you can come back. I am with you though to an extent. If I see my team just hates each other and dont wanna comeback then I vote for surrender. However if I see people really wanna come back and arent being arrogant, I try with them to come back. Barely anyone can close out cleanly in solo queue so, people get reckless and think they can 1v5 at all stages of the game. Getting picks is never so easy. So you kinda force the enemy team to close the game out properly or you end up getting a real chance to win, which is always fun to realize how bad the other team really was. Also it's good experience to try playing from behind, never surrendering give you room to try new things with less stress behind it cause.. you got nothing to lose.

Valaran Nara2/10/2015, 5:57:37 PM1 votes

Personally, I don't like surrendering, period.

I can tell when we're losing.

I can tell that, chances are, we may not win.

I still don't surrender because it's not about the victory.

For me, it's the struggle. Two forces going against each other, attempting to force the other to submit to their will. Even if I lose, I'm still happy because I know that I didn't just roll over without so much as a simple fight.

But that's just me personally. I believe I only agreed to a surrender vote once, and that's because I had to leave and they said "let's just surrender" since we're already behind. I didn't want to get that "leave" penalty thing. Ugh.

Colgate Gator2/10/2015, 5:59:11 PM1 votes

You'd be surprised how often people throw games, and you'd also be surprised at how many games people lose because they have a "ff @ 20" mentality.

Envy Sin2/10/2015, 7:30:28 PM1 votes

Ranked or normal? If it's ranked i'm never EVER going to surrender.

If it's a normal and it's 0-50 they have 5 dragons/baron and 2 times the CS then sure we can give up.

warpenguin5552/10/2015, 7:30:38 PM1 votes

im against surrendering if we have a shot with our pushing, if not then i will be voting yes