My First Night of Ranked Games = Terrible Experience

1nsaneM1nd·Jun 3, 2015·15 votes·3,399 views

So before I begin... I fully admit to being a noob and still have a lot to learn. But last night I was excited to try my first five ranked games... All turn out to be losses. The loss wasn't awful but how people treated each other was incredibly awful. Every game resulted in either myself or my teammates being verbally abused to a hardcore nerd rage level that to me is inexcusable.

I want to become a better player and I really enjoy this game along with the competitive nature. However if it means every game I have to deal verbal abuse to myself or anyone else on my team... I doubt I will play for much longer.

That being said I wanted to ask a few questions to the more experienced players.

Was my experience of 5 games the norm of what I have to look forward to every time my team is losing?

Does the attitude of players get better in higher ranked games or worse?

What advice do you have at getting better without dealing with the nerd rage?

53 Comments

BluePenguin9Jun 3, 201513 votes

Unfortunately, what you have seen is quite common in the ranked scene while your team is losing. Riot is working on a better system for punishing ragers and negative teammates that verbally abuse teammates.

Best advice, when you encounter a toxic teammate, mute them in the tab menu and just rely on pings. Then report them at the end of the game. With any luck ppl like that receive many reports and get chat restriction or other punishment forms.

Aside from the toxic players, a tip for getting better is do not play ranked right when u hit lvl30. Get really good at a couple of champs in each roll and then be flexible in picks and bans where to play. Nothing worse than 4 people calling Mid and the guy with first pick gets it and feeds while the other 3 flame him saying they should have been mid.

Anyway, good luck

dEAdbUsJun 3, 20151 votes

Great answer!

To InsaneMind: if you need any advices about champs - add me in game. I'll tell what and how.

1nsaneM1ndJun 3, 20151 votes

Thank you, I might take you up on the offer.

BluePenguin9Jun 3, 20151 votes

I don't think he can add you because you are EU and he is in NA.

1nsaneM1ndJun 3, 20151 votes

Yep, just noticed that after I replied

1nsaneM1ndJun 3, 20151 votes

Any good champs you would suggest for mid that are flexible?

BluePenguin9Jun 3, 20152 votes

Ahri, Cho, Lux are safe picks if you don't know your opponent. If you do counterpick you can use this site for ideas for good match ups

http://www.lolcounter.com/

dEAdbUsJun 3, 20151 votes

Ahri is skillful and Lux is tricky imho. Cho is a very safe farmer, but he needs poke in his team or initiator.

NoMonkuJun 4, 20151 votes

Ahri doesn't have many hard counters in the game, though. Even against her worst she can outplay to some degree, though the skill cap for that is high.

Sona PingJun 3, 20152 votes

Telling people to "counterpick" and to just whatever champion just because of one enemy player is Terrible advice if he actually wants to get better at this game.

BluePenguin9Jun 3, 20155 votes

I meant counterpick as in you know the opposing team's laner and you are considering what to play against it. There are some hard counters out there that are very useful to know and to utilize. Other favorable match ups can be made to pick mobility against a skill shot champ and things like that.

For example: The enemy team blind picks Katarina. I will instalock Diana. I'm no Diana main, but all u have to do is press E and cancel her ult and then you have 2 dashes to catch her trying to get away if u land Q.

Or if the opponent picks lux, Ill grab Fizz. She should never land a binding on Fizz 1v1 in lane.

dEAdbUsJun 3, 20151 votes

Sorry, didnt notice that you're from NA.

Annie for mid. Easy and very powerful. http://www.lolking.net/guides/336567 - very nice guide.

Heimerdinger can be very powerful on toplane and on midlane - you may check my games and build. I prefer to go hardcore AP (Raba first item over Zhonia). But Heimer is difficult, and you need to learn every matchup. You can read different guides about them.
http://euw.op.gg/summoner/userName=deadbus

Ekko permabanned, so you may forget about him for next few weeks.

Don't think that you need to play Azir in rankeds. Its a pick for high diamonds.

You need to have a pick for every role. Try easiest: Taric, Teemo, Annie, Rammus. Frozen Heart and Aegis always useful.
You may read this: http://www.nerfplz.com/2015/05/2015-champion-tier-list-solo-queue_31.html

Chespin2013Jun 3, 20151 votes

annie and heim are pretty safe mids to play theres also garen and malphite for top xin zhao for jungle graves caitlyn and ezreal for adc and leona or blitz for support

WillHealForHonorJun 3, 20151 votes

i hate all those champs and some of them would make me dodge

dEAdbUsJun 3, 20153 votes

My brother is D4 now, prev season he was D1. I grew from Bronze 4 to Plat 4. So I can tell you: "no, game won't become better with higher elo". You may read about banned pros (Incarnation for ddosing enemies and heavy verbal abusing enemies, Ocelote for heavy verbal abusing, etc) or about not banned pros, but still rude to their teammates (Forgiven). If WORLD LEVEL players, who are playing for million fans can be rude and toxic, what we can wait from usual frustrated from afk/noobs/trolls/losing_streak player?

Situation is becoming better, but better mute everyone before start. This helps a lot. Everybody do it sometimes.

AikidoLawnNinjaJun 3, 20153 votes

{quoted}

Was my experience of 5 games the norm of what I have to look forward to every time my team is losing?

Does the attitude of players get better in higher ranked games or worse?

What advice do you have at getting better without dealing with the nerd rage?

Pretty much yes. People take ranked play far more seriously than normal games, and as such they tend to have much shorter fuses when playing ranked.
It's about the same until around Platinum, but even then there are still plenty of ragers, just not as many as in lower Elo.
Stop playing ranked. There's nothing that says ranked is the only way to improve. Normal games still allow you to practice and improve, just without the bragging rights of a shiny border.

dEAdbUsJun 3, 20151 votes

I think there is huge difference between rankeds and normal games, because in normal people are not trying really hard. They want to get as much kills as possible and full build.

dEAdbUsJun 3, 20152 votes

I think Riot must read that post and think about new players experience. I was trying to create new account, described myself like "very experienced player" and still reached 10 level with only 1 lost game. Every game I had smurfs in my team. I cant even image what newbies feel when they are trying to start play Lol.

xLyoJun 3, 20153 votes

i wanted to uninstall, i cried, i felt horrible. and each time i got raged and hated. i felt like in primary school with rich children with one purpose- hate each other.

dEAdbUsJun 3, 20151 votes

Are you serious? Btw I heard story from on guy, he called his friends in game, and they... had 20% winrate until they get 10th lev, and then they stopped to play.

xLyoJun 3, 20151 votes

yes. well, i am happy i didnt stop. cuz i know i get better, but i need time to get good :) and since i started get "honorable opponent" or "teamworking" i deicided everything is okay with me, i just need to give it a time.

dEAdbUsJun 3, 20151 votes

Add me ingame, I play normals sometimes =D

1nsaneM1ndJun 3, 20152 votes

I feel like the issue is that when I'm not winning my lane the advice I get is "Stop feeding you *******". This is absolutely no use to anyone. Instead of giving any kind of useful advice... Even the most basic of simple advice would be better.

dEAdbUsJun 3, 20151 votes

This is a thing that you need to learn too. Losing with less loses needs skill too. Sometimes you better to give your tower to enemy and farm under inner one. Plus you need to learn how to farm under your tower. When you're losing really hard you need to change usual build and get some tanky items, because there is no point in building damage - enemy will have more damage than you anyway (because he has more gold).

If you're toplaner and you're behind, you can push your lane, so enemy toplaner will have to stay there and team can with 4v4 (5v5 you probably wont win because you're behind, but in lower elo everything is possible).

Many players are not giving advices in game, because most players prefer to ignore them or even report for that.

mvargusJun 3, 20152 votes

YOu have questions, I can try to answer.

Was my experience of 5 games the norm of what I have to look forward to every time my team is losing?

I've only played a few more ranked games, but I've really only had 2 where there has been a lot of toxicity, and the latest one was rather muted as I think the player who went toxic knew that he hadn't played well, but just wanted to try to blame someone else. (I ignored him.) I do know that games that don't go well often result in a player getting a bit salty in chat, but it doesn't happen every time.

Does the attitude of players get better in higher ranked games or worse?

I've played with players from diamond to bronze, although my highest ranked matches were during my placements when I had a few games with low golds. I have found that there are some toxic players at every level.

What advice do you have at getting better without dealing with the nerd rage?

I advice first that you ignore it as much as possible. YOu don't have to mute, but just say nothing when someone does start to rage. The other part is to choose a very small pool of champs to play in ranked and practice them quite a bit. Your five ranked games had you play 5 different champions. If you concentrate on just 1 or 2 you'll play better and be much less likely to cause someone else to rage.

Raven RedeemedJun 4, 20152 votes

-If you can find a friend around your level, it's often more fun to duo que because you know there is one person who will not be too salty and isn't going to troll (assuming you picked the right friend). -Also, don't worry too much about the individual games. If you put in the time you almost certainly be making progress so just have fun. It is a game after all. -Last don't play the blame game and don't worry if people are blamming you. Everyone makes mistakes and that's fine. Just work with what you have. Good luck!

FHMarshyJun 3, 20151 votes

Yes, more or less. The losing team will in most cases have at least a few players who just rage non stop and blame everyone else.
In higher ranked....Depends on how high the rank is. Nothing really changes until Plat where it gets quite a bit nicer.
Mute them = best way to deal

dEAdbUsJun 3, 20151 votes

Can't agree about Plat and higher. My experience is different.

FHMarshyJun 3, 20151 votes

But you are only gold 5.....

PisdovJun 3, 20151 votes

{quoted}

So before I begin... I fully admit to being a noob and still have a lot to learn. But last night I was excited to try my first five ranked games... All turn out to be losses. The loss wasn't awful but how people treated each other was incredibly awful. Every game resulted in either myself or my teammates being verbally abused to a hardcore nerd rage level that to me is inexcusable.

I want to become a better player and I really enjoy this game along with the competitive nature. However if it means every game I have to deal verbal abuse to myself or anyone else on my team... I doubt I will play for much longer.

That being said I wanted to ask a few questions to the more experienced players.

Was my experience of 5 games the norm of what I have to look forward to every time my team is losing?

Does the attitude of players get better in higher ranked games or worse?

What advice do you have at getting better without dealing with the nerd rage?

well, ranked isn't where u go to practice. u should be comfortable playing each role, and have a least a few champions mastered. ranked is exactly that, it's ranked competition. would you want to play any competitive game/sport with a handicap in the form of a teammate who doesn't practice or prepare? that has a lot to do with why people rage. most people have to rely, at least in part, on their teammates. unless you're skill level is way beyond your division, you aren't going to be solo carrying every game.

i don't know if the attitude gets better, highest ive been ranked was silver 1

practice in normals and practice cs'ing in custom games. if the raging bothers you, mute them. if it upsets you, and you don't mute them, it's really your fault at that point. i've been gaming competitively online and offline for 20 years, and people raging has always been a constant. it is not going away.

dEAdbUsJun 3, 20151 votes

Anyway good luck mate. If you need any advices - reply this message, I'll anwer.

1nsaneM1ndJun 3, 20151 votes

Thank you!

ShogunaiJun 3, 20151 votes

Sorry about the sour experience so far, maybe play with some friends first to learn with or duo with someone. You can add me an I'll play games with you, teach you things along the way as well, There always something to learn an I'll learn along with you as well.

YormaughmJun 3, 20151 votes

I kinda have no business responding to this cause I don't play ranked (basically for the reasons you're talking about.) But people in here might be able to corroborate what I have to say.

I have played the game for years and recently I've been watching lots of streams, from all different elos, and the thing I've noticed is that the raging never stops, but the way the other players react to it changes.

It's weird but at high elo (high gold/plat) raging happens pretty often but nobody reacts to it, it's almost like the people just chew out their teammates and continue to play like normal and half the time go on to win the game. At low elo, the moment raging happens the game is over because everyone concentrates on that and completely stops caring about the game. It's as if plat players all collectively realize that everyone in that elo knows fundamentally how to play the game so whenever someone communicates with the team (rage or otherwise) the team realizes that the person must have some idea what they're talking about to have risen that high, and though they might be an asshole about it, it's at least worth considering what the person had to say. Either that or they've risen through the ranks of so much rage that they're simply immune to it and play like it isn't happening, I swear I've seen games where even the person raging continues to play like normal and they go on to win, but this never happens at lower elo.

My only theory for why this happens is that players who have reached high elo simply know win conditions better. For any given scenario they know what has to be done by the team at large to win the game and what their role in that happening is. They may not like the way the game has unfolded, which is why they rage at their team, but they know that since the game has unfolded this way, there's really only one thing they can do about it and now they're forced to do that thing if they want to win, even if they're unhappy about it.

At low elo every player simply thinks "only I can carry us." So the moment they start losing, or someone on the enemy team gets fed, the game might as well be over in their eyes. They have no idea what win conditions are and how to adjust to the flow of the game so they throw tantrums because they can't be the hero.

Singing LarkJun 3, 20151 votes

For dealing with rage:

Play lots of norms first and friend anyone you've have fun playing with. Ranked is filled with trolls, especially low ranked (cough b5 cough) so you're better off practicing in norms or even customs with a friend.
At some point, when you feel ready to play ranked again, try to duo-q with someone who's around the same skill level as you. That way you can guarantee that at least 1 out of the other 4 teammates of yours won't be a troll. Even better, make a 5 man team.

Not level 30 yet, so I have no clue on your other questions.

WillHealForHonorJun 3, 20151 votes

just mute them.. np.. and if ur bad then train in normals.. it can be hard to get up the ladder if u started poorly

WillHealForHonorJun 3, 20151 votes

and dont pick teemo if u dont like to get raged on..

Dunkrius2gJun 3, 20151 votes

S.S.D.D. Gotta deal with it and hope that they get banned while you lose the -20 LP.

Junsui AoiJun 3, 20151 votes

"Was my experience of 5 games the norm of what I have to look forward to every time my team is losing?"

The norm... kinda. But like, you can be the stable rock for your team. Examples: Guys, lets just move on. We can still win this. Hey, its not cool to talk to him like that. Dude, just mute him, you don't need to hear that.

And of course, muting for yourself if needed. (please do)

Also: that attitude happens when you're winning too. And I've had losing game where everyone is super nice to eachother as well. Negative experiences just stick out more. It's human nature to remember the bad.

"Does the attitude of players get better in higher ranked games or worse?"

I've seen ranked and I mean, I've even seen someone flame sneaky soooo. The only difference is how people react. Don't give the flamer something to latch onto. Ignore them, and if you must say something, address it to their victim, making sure they know that they're not fighting the enemy and their own teammates.

"What advice do you have at getting better without dealing with the nerd rage?" Mute all. There's a lot of people who do that. Communication at lower elo's doesn't really work, so you can just ping and you won't have to hear useless chat.

Otherwise, just keep playing ranked. If you lose one, stop. Go do something fun. You play differently when you hit a losing streak. You're more likely to tilt, more likely to give up. Ranked really is a whole different ball game. You play bots to learn a champs kit, you play norms to see their mechanics, you play ranked to see their playstyle. Just keep doing ranked. Don't flame. Don't respond directly to flamers.

If you want to play some, add me and I'll give you some tips for playing ranked. I helped a friend duo his prelims just recently. Somehow we got him silver 5 lol

bunny1102Jun 4, 20151 votes

Admit mistakes, communicate. There will always be people upset over a loss but this can be minimized if people accept their part in it and acknowledge that they contributed to the loss. Most times when I'm upset is when someone is 0-5 or worse and is complaining. My biggest triggers are when people are blatantly not communicating with the team, intentionally feeding (and I am saying that as a real league of legends players standard, not riots 0-20 standard). If you are 0-2 before 5 minutes in the game, you need to talk to your team and figure something out.

If you are in a lane and are repeatedly getting ganked ask your jungler what you can do better to facilitate ganks.

If you are the jungler and you are unable to gank communicate to the respective lane why a gank is unfavorable and what they can do to help.

90% of arguments stem from the following situations:

Person not willing to cooperate.
Person afk or threatening to.
Person who is intentionally feeding. (Note again here this is intentionally feeding to the community standards and not riot's automated 0-20 system standard)

Being better at the game is not the only way to have a pleasant experience, pretty much communicating intelligently and not throwing blame around is the main way to have a decent game. Personally after receiving small chat restrictions I have limited what I say in the game. I try to say the minimum or nothing at all which is a shame.

Spicy RiceJun 4, 20151 votes

Playing ranked is like stockholm syndrome. Its terrible, and psychologically destructive, but it is freakin addicting.
There are good teams that dont rage, and bad ones that do. Bad are more common than good, but that's what happens when people go online. Very few keep their himan decency when they are anonymous.
From what I've heard from my diamond/plat friends, attitude is pretty much the same, but more people who rage less.
As to getting better, practice practice practice. For me, I get better due to the pressure of ranked games. For you, it might be you learn better in a lower stress environment (draft norms). Focus on your gameplay alone. If you have to, mute your team. Watch replays of pros and try to find what they are doing that you aren't. (My favs are Wingsofdeath and Trick2g. They both are informative and try to explain what they are doing to win.

Add me in game, you seem like a fun.person to play with (if you can handle playing with a silver scrub :p)

VazEzrenJun 4, 20151 votes

As others have mentioned the climb up the ladder rarely gets better. However, from what I've seemed to notice, people in the 4th and 5th divisions of their league(ie: Gold 5-4, Silver 5-4) typically tend to be the most notorious for raging. There's also a lot of people who instalock easy/low skill cap champions like master yi or katarina, then they take all their team's kills and get an ego and pretend like they are the team(mostly a lower rank problem, higher rank players typically know how to counterplay these choices). Just mute them and if they're offending you/ being complete jerks then report them after the game.

There are definitely good players out there though, one's who don't or rarely ever rage and those are the kinds of people you should try and make friends with. When you play with friends your overall experience of the game will be much much better. Not only do you have people you can count on to remain level-headed but if you play with certain friends enough you'll adapt to their playstyle and you guys can make split second decisions without even pinging. Playing with friends also allows you to become more experienced, you can learn from them or through teaching them. I play 1v1 and 2v2 matches with a lot of my friends, and whether it's win or lose we always learn something.

I'm only Bronze 2 myself (Silver 5 last season), haven't really been trying to make the climb yet this season, I also main support and my secondary role is top. If you want though feel free to add me in game, I can help answer any questions you might have or play some rounds. I mostly play normals though, lot less ragers there. My friends and I typically just play for fun too, so we don't get pissed off when we lose.

Best of luck! -Vaz-

DragonfaceJun 4, 20151 votes

Best advice? Grit your teeth and bare through it. Ignore the trolls and ragers, if you do bad, don't let them bait you into raging. Just let it go. You'll get better.

MrElyJun 4, 20151 votes

My tip as one in a similar situation: mute. Just mute anyone who seems slightly negative. It is awful in there.

ChromeFluxxJun 4, 20151 votes

I think ranked has only gotten to me about 50 times. I've cried about 10 times (i never cry. ever. i usually have 100% control over how i present myself, or how i feel.) and then about 4 months ago, i've matured past that. i used to be a heavily toxic player. like those people that flame you for going 0 / 2 in lane. however, i would try to make concise arguements over why you're bad at league xD the only time i'd get toxic is when people respond with something stupid like "stfu fag" i'd take heavy offense to this and try to make a comeback that usually just instigated more comments like this. Basically, i didn't know to have a barrier. I went into ranked with no condom. So with this in mind, i think i am qualified to say that no, the verbal abuse doesn't really stop. People will call others fags, trolls, noobs, homophobes, trash, garbage, etc. But they'll be smarter about it. And it honestly does decrease with differences in elo. no it doesn't stop. No there won't ever not have a high chance of having that one guy that instigates everyone, but people in higher elo's learn to deal with it.

Basically, Don't stop playing ranked just because of how you see the community. Stop playing ranked because you don't like the environment. If you can create a barrier that's good enough to make you say "eh, that doesn't matter" when you see someone respond with "stfu feeder n00b" (to underexaggerate it); Then there is no reason to stop playing ranked.

For an example, You remember when you first started playing league, and while you enjoyed experiencing new champs, and your first victory meant out of the tens of bots matches that you lost, you finally did something right; you were afraid to go into normals at first because everyone expected you to be on a better level than you were. Eventually after you started going 10 / 10 instead of 0 / 20 you thought "you know what, i don't have to be good to be able to enjoy normals" "if people don't like me, that shouldn't affect where i choose to play" This is the same as ranked, even if people don't like you, or are complete idiots, that doesn't mean that what they say is important enough to distract you from your gameplay. Don't look at the chat every time someone says something. If you find yourself having a problem with that, then practice specifically only using 20 messages per game. then reduce that to ten. This is about as much communication you need in one ranked game not including pings. Legit.

Tl:Dr - read it all. there is no Tl;Dr

nomeensnoJun 4, 20151 votes

{quoted}

if it means every game I have to deal verbal abuse to myself

One should never deal verbal abuse to themselves

NoMonkuJun 4, 20151 votes

I will say ranked is the worst environment when it comes to abuse. You can even experience it in normals, but usually those individuals are dedicated ranked players who are as they put it "relaxing" or "chillin" by playing normals or are banned from ranked. Anyways, your best option is to mute and report. RIOT has put into works new systems to punish negative behavior, so hopefully it will work its way out eventually.

I say you will deal with rage at ALL levels of play, no matter how high you go. Sure maybe at top/top levels you won't see it as often mainly because people spectate them more often(making them look bad and not as likely to be picked up on a team) but outside of that certain individuals will always lash out at their teammates when they aren't playing well, like that will somehow make you play better lol. Honestly if people raging at me made me play better, I'd already be in Masters lol.

Anyways, if you want to get better play in normals. Ranked is a HORRIBLE place to try and practice on getting better especially if you don't think you are decent enough yet. Back in S2 I was nervous about playing roles I didn't like so I tried to get at least mediocre proficiency w/ 2 champions in each role, choosing champions that weren't top tier so bans wouldn't affect me in most situations. I played a few games to familiarize myself with them and when I was happy with what I could do, I moved onto the next champion. Once I had enough confidence I went into ranked and from there you learn where you "belong".