The Lament of a Support Main

So, before commenting, please understand this: I have experience in every role, and can perform to some degree in each role (my weakest is jungle, but I can still capitalize on objectives and play to a minor degree at least) however my favorite role in the entire game is definitely support. I have a fondness for either locking down enemies and making the lane easier on my laner, poking enemies out so defensive laners can more or less free farm or aggressive ones can easily all-in to get a kill or two, healing or enhancing so they can work to their best capacity, and capitalizing on locations, positioning, and ward placement to lock areas down based on the pace of the game. Setting the game up and maneuvering things so my team can capitalize and push for a win just feels rewarding for me, and I do that best from Support. But there's a problem with this that I've noticed... It is so hard to climb from a hole without abandoning everything I enjoy about the role and being a jerk.

So, get this: Let's say you are in a position where your team just isn't doing well. As a support, you can influence the flow of this by helping lay positioning, offering advice on how to approach mechanics, keeping areas scouted, etc. However if you have a team that refuses to listen to you, or outright blatantly turns on you simply for trying to be helpful no matter how you phrase it... Or even worse, a team where things go bad early so they start raging, there's very little you can do, and it starts feeling less like you're trying to control the enemy, and more like you're being your team's 30-minute therapist. And the fact of the matter is, that just doesn't always work, so the only way to pick up from that is to scale damage and carry. And that feels horrible to someone like me who wants to control the field and set things up. I know there are other roles that can feel this, especially junglers, but it feels like once your team hits that "red zone" where people are so adverse to working together that they will only hear attempts at diffusing as you trying to control them, you become powerless. And what's worse, whenever you try to play a non-mage support, it feels like people actually blame you for not playing the game how they want you to play. I don't want to play as a singular individual attempting to blast through five enemies while arguing with four "allies." I want a team game, like this is supposed to be, where I can do my job of controlling the field and ensuring things go right. When did support become a mid laner that's not allowed to farm?

My point is this: The state of support does not feel like "support." Once the state of your allies hits critical mass, there is legitimately nothing you can do to turn the game in the right direction without being a hyper carry, it seems, not because you aren't doing the right things, but because you are a team-based role without a willingly functional team. And as a support player who actually wants to play the game and help others to succeed in a fun, productive, and enjoyable way, that hurts. I'm not expecting that power should be put in the support role to make it another carry (that is actually entirely the opposite of what I'm asking) nor am I saying necessarily that the game is flawed at it's basis (there are plenty of times where I get a team that gets past the fighting, starts paying attention to what's going on, strategies, and executes those strategies to great effect with me applying the pressure both map-wise and mechanics wise to ensure it operates smoothly, and that feels amazing as a support!) I'm just asking that, perhaps, the next time you're playing a game, and everyone is fighting each other instead of the enemy team while your support (or jungle, or anyone for that matter) is trying desperately to pull things back together and get the game on track, you take a moment, take a breath, and see what's up. Because if even one other player begins playing along, things don't feel quite so hopeless for the one that's trying to get things to work.

Who knows, you might even get a win out of that horrible situation?