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Something seems seriously wrong with players this season...

Samael11·4/26/2018, 3:24:09 PM·27 votes·12,473 views

TL;DNR The number of players exhibiting pure toxicity in LoL appears to have spiked to levels where it's not just 1 every 3 games anymore, but 1-3 every single game. This is unacceptable.

Admittedly, I am heated as I write this, but I have every right to be.

I've noticed that as I close in on gold usually somewhere after clawing myself up to Silver II, your MMR goes crazy and tests how well I can carry my team in solo queue (as a support specialist, mind). Which is frustrating, but ok I get it, that's fine. I can slowly crawl my way up, before getting frustrated at the hard wall I hit at Silver II promotions and playing more to have fun than advance before finally settling in at Silver IV.

However, this most recent wall that I have been presented with is unduly punishing me, as over the course of the last 5-6 days, quite literally, in no less than 80% of my games I have been grouped with intentional feeders, rage-quitters / connectivity issues, players that spend more time talking shit in chat than entering commands in game, and/or players being generally toxic in other ways.
One game 2 days ago I was paired with 3 players that qualified for more than 1 of the above (one player from that game who was a toxic int-er ended up on my team again, in a game I played 3 games later - he was no better the second time around).

I may be an anomaly here, but I had maybe 1-in-10 games with truly toxic players last season. This current trend of practically every game having at least one person actively draining the fun out of the game for their team is a major culture shock to me, and it indicates that either;

  1. I am being phantom punished for a reason that is not apparent to me, as I have never been officially reprimanded in almost 9 years of this account being active - considering I do my best to be a neutral, if not positive, player in the game, was one of the first to hit Honor 5 last season and am on the cusp of Honor 4 this season (in spite of the amount of honor being given to people in my games having dropped to about 20% what it was last season), or
  2. Something is happening with the game that is causing a cascade effect to ripple through the community that is tilting an increasing number of players toward a toxic mindset when they play.

I don't know what the fuck is going on, but I literally can't play LoL anymore. I used to log in to get first win, usually playing 1-3 games /day, and finish playing relatively satisfied with my experience. Now, I play 3-5 games with mounting frustration over toxic players and my win rate plummeting causing me to tilt and walk away from the game incredibly dissatisfied, frustrated and angry that I can't even get my First Win, taking longer breaks away from playing the game. If this keeps up, I am increasingly likely to just walk away from the game permanently, though I have my doubts this will be alleviated this season in time.

36 Comments

TS Media4/26/2018, 7:00:53 PM8 votes

It's because the game is so team reliant, that people can't stay calm anymore. You ever try to tell a child to do something, and consistently have to do it over and over before they listen? Of course you have more impulse control irl, but online it's less there. It's that same kind of etching frustration.

Consistently telling teams what to do, while focusing on your gameplay is not only mentally draining, it's frustrating when they don't listen. When you see them make the same mistake, with no correction to it, it really digs deep under your skin. In a partial sense, this level of toxicity is all due to riot's balancing and how they are trying to force this game in a certain direction it really shouldn't be.

Crett4/26/2018, 4:08:11 PM6 votes

its definitely not just you; and i say next to nothing in chat, so it seems like it’s just the... natural state

my recommendation? play with other normal players. build a friends list of non-toxic players to invite to your games. like me! 😉

Athenes Lulu4/26/2018, 9:00:38 PM6 votes

I guess that's what happens when games become one of those "make one little mistake and lose entire game" even in low elo. It turns people hostile.

Lord Scorch 624/26/2018, 4:03:05 PM6 votes

had a game in flux yesterday, we were behind, but could very well still win.

team over by baron and we just got a pick. our jinx is taking scuttler, but the rest of the enemy team is closing in so i started hitting scuttler to get it faster.

i last hit scuttler, jinx then starts attacking baron...dies...we all then die to the enemy team running us down.

she then proceeds to condemn me in chat about how "she needs every CS she can get" (which is true) and how "i have just cost everyone the game"...because i took scuttler...

she did not even ping the scuttler or anything, i just thought she was taking it so we would have vision on baron. and had i know that me taking it would have been the last push she needed to plummet head-first off of retard chasm, then of course i would have made sure she last hit.

the main thing that made me feel like i was going insane was the fact that jinx had said next to nothing all game, no ping spam, nothing.

... i mean if i stole gromp them maybe i'd start to understand but...SCUTTLER?!

GigglesO4/26/2018, 8:33:44 PM4 votes

Its because the high damage snowball metas create toxicity. It doesn't feel like you can come back once the enemy gets a lead.

AirKingNeo4/26/2018, 11:04:46 PM2 votes

People having less fun are more toxic so...

Besteal4/26/2018, 11:44:20 PM1 votes

Hmmm. I'm not usually toxic, but there was something that just made me go over the edge. So I managed to claw my way up to Silver 1, and I thought, "Yes, YES! I'm going to Gold!" Then as soon as I thought that, I realized through the next 15 or so games that my teams seemed to be completely incompetent. 14 losses and one win later, I was back in Silver 3.

In short, I was preeeeeeeetty toxic for a few days following. That's just my anecdote, but I find a lot of people are the same. They lose a dozen games in a row, get tilted, and go careening straight off the edge.

Pumakam4/27/2018, 12:44:37 AM1 votes

It's worse as a support player than anything, especially in the silver ranks where every game feels like a coin flip or it's lost from the start due to draft issues. Plus you get into the territory of people flaming you for their mistakes. ADC takes a 1v2 while you're nowhere near them and loses? Your fault. Assassin 1v5 dives under a tier 3 with no minions? Your fault.

woodvsmurph4/27/2018, 12:58:04 AM1 votes

I'm right there with you. I've said stuff I'm not proud of this last year out of sheer mind-boggling frustration at the ineptitude of teammates.

Over 50% of my losses, I get absolutely 0 help from team the whole game - even if I'm 1v2 and going even.. my lane opponent is 1/4 hp, no flash, and shoved to my tower while my full hp jg is topside having just finished up 2nd buff. No, can't gank top - need to gank bot or we will lose - that's all most junglers think.

People think kda or getting kills wins you the game; it means NOTHING if you don't DO something with those kills. Kills are great... but only in that it let's you get OBJECTIVES (towers, baron, dragon, buff steals). The enemy team can always get a good fight, get shutdown bonus gold, and catch up in kills - especially if you give away objectives for free and bleed out towers to chase kills. They CAN'T resurrect dead towers other than azir of course.

Almost every game, you get at least one teammate who plays with the skill and intelligence of someone a full tier lower than they should - often more than one teammate. And it's not the issue of making some simple mistake here or there. It's consistent, needless, REPEATED "mistakes". Teammate can force fight over and over 2v2 or 1v1 or take 1v3 invades of enemy jg cuz they don't respect lane pressure and teammate's health bars and mana pools. They die... again and again. But it's somehow not inting when they've taken the same bad play 4... 5... even 7 times. But you die 3x to a lane opponent thanks to being camped by enemy jg and flash ganked by enemy mid twice in 12 min while getting zero help from team and they can flame you all they want - calling you an intentional feeder. They have no logic.

Everyone's scared to die. They don't think about the fact that if they sacrifice themselves in a certain way, you might ace the enemy team for just one or two of your team dying. Or even if they realize that, most are unwilling to do so. Thus, if you are willing to do that for your team, you often end up engaging a teamfight only to die 1v5 with your team standing there watching instead of exploiting that you tank the entire enemy team's burst and cc... freeing up your carries to deal massive damage to priority targets during the time you are tanking.

People flame any non-meta build and criticize itemization because they don't understand it. Hilarious how even when you're fed and carrying, playing a champ for the 200th time in ranked, someone who literally never plays the champ or role will act like an expert and tell you how your build is wrong.

Why would you go lethality or bork on renekton for example. Hmm... great for dueling bruisers and for kite/chase potential in the latter. Lethality lets you burst out a champ like trynd and force him to ult early or straight up pop him before he realizes he needs to ult. Your build might be entirely different another game. You should be happy someone adjusts their build based on opponents and, unless you understand the champ, runes, and itemization thoroughly and know if it's good or bad, keep your damn mouth shut about someone else's build. But everyone thinks they're an expert and no one is willing to learn or take any criticism these days. You tell someone they might want to play safe or at least ward if they're pushing lane and it's "reported, toxic".

Rather than go after players like that though, ifs focuses on people using specific words and on report frequency. The right people are not being targeted and reformed or removed. It's like trimming branches while leaving the tree-strangling vine to grow bigger and bigger.

DoktorKaiser4/27/2018, 1:03:46 AM1 votes

I am guessing that people are too frustrated with the shitty gameplay that considers of "you didn't pick meta champ, well I guess you lose to an inferior player" and "you died once, gg wp" and especially "your adc sucks but your team is better? you still lose" .

What I am especially seeing a ton of is bot laners rage quitting after 1 lost fight where they both die. Happened 10 times in last few days at least. Not blaming them, 1 death does equal lost bot lane which 90% of time equals lost game, so why wouldn't people quit when the odds are so fucking retarded and punish you for 1 mistake?

Kairoptra4/27/2018, 1:07:53 AM1 votes

Honestly, I wouldn't chock this up to anything more than bad luck. You just had a bad streak; it'll be okay. Anyway, my advice is to just take a break. Allow yourself some time to de-stress a little. Whether this time be a few days, a few weeks, or however long you want, just relax. The game will be waiting for you when you get back.

A while back, I could not win a game to save my life and dropped two divisions in the process. I was super heated, but had a trip to Pennsylvania scheduled anyway, so I stopped. When I came back, it was like nothing ever happened. I managed to climb back out to my previous position and things went back to normal.

I can't promise that it'll be exactly the same for you, but I'd say it's worth a shot. Take a load off; you deserve it.

BiochemicalZombi4/27/2018, 5:18:59 AM1 votes

Woah woah, hold up, while players are being toxic there’s a very easy way to get out of silver.

Improve game knowledge and gameplay

I thought you played enchanter classes and was about to tell you don’t play those play playmakers like thresh etc but you actually already play those. This means that you need to improve. The easiest way to climb out of an elo where you cannot rely on teammates to make plays is to play an engage support and make plays yourself.

2nd is game knowledge

Bro, gotta ask. Why do you build banner of command on every support 1st/2nd, it would be alright if the enemy was mainly Ap but almost all of your games at vs heavy ad

Start optimizing your builds based on enemy comps.

Rule of thumb. People are less toxic when they are winning

Vlada Cut4/27/2018, 6:14:58 AM1 votes

Same, I keep trying to put the broken pieces called my teammates back together, but they can't be fixed, something else is missing in order to fill up the gap. Discipline, and too many 10 year olds...

Hèntaî 4/27/2018, 7:55:21 AM1 votes

Its even gotten bad in aram, like the enemy team bming you the entire game and being toxic because rngsus was on their side

Snowman Arc4/27/2018, 9:06:18 AM1 votes

Yeah, the amount of toxicity is super high this season. I don't remember being that high last season, or the season before that. Now, I almost never get to play a game that's pure of some chat shit. Maybe I only play 1 every 20 games where that chat is pure, and that's probably a normal game. Ranked games are so freaking toxic.

One reason this might be is how one bad player can affect the entire match. Other seasons, one good player could affect the match, and you couldn't really flame anyone for it. Now, one bad player keeps on constantly feeding the enemy, then those fed enemies come to your lane and game is over. Also, any small mistake can lead to a big snowball (even like 1 death in lane, or a couple unanswered ganks etc), so any bad decision a player makes can lead to flaming, because it can be crucial.

Draehl4/27/2018, 5:43:28 PM1 votes

It's the snowball effect. One team gets too much of a lead, making the game less enjoyable for both the winning and losing team. Losing team feels helpess. Winning team doesn't have to try. We need more parity.

Fargo794/27/2018, 8:06:11 PM1 votes

Players in general seem to be waiting to blame someone for their own short comings in game.. people just need to chill and play.. but thats easier said then done..

Cynikul4/26/2018, 3:38:02 PM1 votes

I read most of it, but I must say I don't have many toxic games at all. I feel like the atmosphere is exacerbated when you add into it- try not to? IDK man, my games even in ranked or if someones fucking up phenominally are rarely toxic.

Bisaknosp4/27/2018, 11:40:25 PM1 votes

riots report system is just so bad, no1 getting banned no matter how toxic they are or how much they troll

Der Lindwurm4/26/2018, 4:14:13 PM1 votes

I don't remember it ever not being like this. That's why I don't play many ranked games. I feel like I should, but then I remember that whether I win or lose will probably have nothing to do with how well I play and everything to do with how many trolls, AFKs, bring-a-feeder duos, toxic douchenozzles and boosted monkeys I have on my team. It kills your motivation.

I nid a leesch4/26/2018, 5:40:23 PM1 votes

Tip if you play support roam top alot No one expects it.

Takazaki4/26/2018, 5:43:20 PM1 votes

idk where you see this, i only see toxic player maybe once in every 15 or so games

but im also quick with mute button

hi ìm groot4/26/2018, 8:56:57 PM1 votes

Mechanics are fueled by the dark side. Let the rage flow through you.

Devilreaper XIII4/26/2018, 9:29:16 PM1 votes

players were given too much power, this feeds ego and ego leads to narcissism and toxicity.