There's no shame in admitting you got outplayed

L Psy Kongroo··31 votes·2,422 views

It's a simple fact of life that there will always be someone better than you. In fact there will always be hundreds of people better at what you're doing than you. Despite what your parents told you, you're nothing special, and in all likelihood you never will be.

This being the case, when you're playing the most popular online game in the world, where the number of players is in the millions, there are always going to be hundreds or even thousands of people who are better at the game than you. They might have more time on their hands to practice, they might be more determined to win, they might have a lot of experience with MOBA-type games, etc.

The point is they exist, and there's a good chance that you'll end up playing against them, maybe even every day. So when you find yourself getting stomped by your lane opponent and cast around for a reason as to why you're sucking so bad, just remember that it might not be that you're as trash as you think you are. Your opponent is simply better.

And here's the important bit: there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. As long as you realize that you're not God's gift to League of Legends, there's always room to improve. Whenever I play, I play with one policy in mind: if I come out of a game and can't think of anything I could have done better, then I re-watch the game and find one. http://www.replay.gg/ is great for this, but there are other more reliable programs available too. I watch the game over and over until I find a mistake, either mechanical or strategic, at which point I think "ok, I'll work on that next time, here's how.........blahblahblah".

IMO there's no such thing as a "perfect" game, one devoid of any misplay or mistake that could be improved upon. It's part of being human that we make mistakes, and part of what makes a human intelligent is our ability to recognize that we aren't perfect, that others may have knowledge that we don't. And if we care at all about what we're doing, it is our duty to find and correct those mistakes, not in an effort to BECOME perfect, but rather to STRIVE for perfection, even knowing that attaining it is impossible.

So if someone on your team is dying a lot in lane, it's important to realize two things:

  1. That bad games happen, and no one is perfect
  2. That you're no prize yourself. Everyone has someone better than them, many in fact.

And it is a poor excuse for a person who blames another for being inadequate when that individual is simply trying to learn how to become better. That is all.

42 Comments

Xeruon8 votes

I absolutely agree, however; too many people blame their mistakes on:

  • FPS Drops
  • Lag
  • Playing against OP champions
  • "Why r u tryharding lol?!"
  • Their Grandma Exploding
  • Trash Teammates

In other words, you're not the next Faker, grow up and get your head out of your ass for two seconds.

L Psy Kongroo1 votes

{quoted}

I absolutely agree, however; too many people blame their mistakes on:

  • FPS Drops
  • Lag
  • Playing against OP champions
  • "Why r u tryharding lol?!"
  • Their Grandma Exploding
  • Trash Teammates

In other words, you're not the next Faker, grow up and get your head out of your ass for two seconds.

Agreed, already addressed that here: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/I287ckPY-the-1-cause-of-feeding-aside-from-trolls

Desolas Arterius2 votes

I chuckled at the grandma exploding excuse. 10/10

But I agree. People will always make excuses for their poor plays. That's what separates the good from the bad. The good are willing to learn from their mistakes and improve on it, while the bad shift the blame onto others and refuse to change :)

tophit4 votes

When I get killed because of lag or something I can't control, I wouldn't even want to mention it to the other team just because it's such a generic excuse.

Surr20plz5 votes

If ekko pressed R you weren't outplayed.

RavenMagus14 votes

If he then actually hit you with the damage, then yeah you probably were

aqours fanboy7 votes

If I hop in hit you and run, and you foolishly chase around not looking at where my clone was, you just got schooled, my boy.

warpenguin5552 votes

It is if he ults back into his stun and kills you after stunning you

warpenguin5553 votes

I actually think that getting outplayed is kinda fun as long as it feels like you got out played. I just tend to laugh at my stupidity for getting baited into the outplay.

DiamondLeonis3 votes

There is getting "outplayed" and there is getting killed by somebody who spams more mobility then what you are playing. That is not getting "outplayed" at all, that is actually having the decency and honour to NOT play something that is broken.

"outplays" are based around champs that are BALANCED to begin with, not an Ekko killing a Velkoz for example. Ekko clearly has more options and better mobility so its not an outplay.

An "outplay" is when one is in an INFERIOR position but still manages to win. I'll use an example from my last game.

Zed gets greedy and tries to kill me Zilean with his completely broken mobility. I stun bomb him under the tower and then exhaust him and sidestep his skillshot while the tower slowly kills him.

THAT is an outplay because I was in the inferior position. Assassins cannot really make outplays because they have better stats and mobility then most other champions.

That is like a Sovereign Class Starship in Star Trek, destroying a Miranda Class. Its absolutely no big deal because the Sovereign is superior in pretty much every way to the Miranda. If the Miranda beat the Sovereign, that would be an "outplay."

L Psy Kongroo2 votes

{quoted}

That is like a Sovereign Class Starship in Star Trek, destroying a Miranda Class. Its absolutely no big deal because the Sovereign is superior in pretty much every way to the Miranda. If the Miranda beat the Sovereign, that would be an "outplay."

Whoa, calm down with the nerdspeak, I barely understood what you said. [zombie-brand-mindblown]

Astôlfo2 votes

the salt is real

EmollientNut03 votes

I'm fine with admitting my mistakes, problem is when either your teammate flames you for it, and the guy on the other team that killed you calls you some mix of stupid and retarded. Kinda tough to want to admit faults when so many people are consistently being assholes.

FioraWillCarry2 votes

[{quoted}](name=L Psy Congroo,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=yRoiwKtj,comment-id=,timestamp=2016-09-14T20:10:06.446+0000)

So if someone on your team is dying a lot in lane, it's important to realize two things:

  1. That bad games happen, and no one is perfect

If you do this in ranked games, you should not be playing ranked. There's no excuse to die 7 times in lane during a ranked game. That's not a bad game. That being a dumb noobshit.

You can do this in Norms when testing the limits of a champion you're learning. I have no problem there but you should already know the champ you're playing in a ranked game enough not to die repeatedly before the lane phase end.

  1. That you're no prize yourself. Everyone has someone better than them, many in fact.

I don't care how much better you are than me, you're not killing me 6 times the in first 15 minutes. In teamfights, maybe but not in lane.

L Psy Kongroo3 votes

{quoted}

If you do this in ranked games, you should not be playing ranked. There's no excuse to die 7 times in lane during a ranked game. That's not a bad game. That being a dumb noobshit.

You can do this in Norms when testing the limits of a champion you're learning. I have no problem there but you should already know the champ you're playing in a ranked game enough not to die repeatedly before the lane phase end.

I don't care how much better you are than me, you're not killing me 6 times the in first 15 minutes. In teamfights, maybe but not in lane.

Dying 7 times in lane is, by definition, having a bad game, on the premise that under ideal circumstances it would not take place.

Regardless, you obviously didn't read the whole thread. Sometimes you get outplayed. It happens, and it's fine. Logically if you get outplayed by someone once, it can (and probably will) happen again. And the more it happens, the more likely it is that it will happen the next time. So dying 7 times in lane is not uncommon if you're against someone better than you.

FioraWillCarry2 votes

[{quoted}](name=L Psy Congroo,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=yRoiwKtj,comment-id=00010000,timestamp=2016-09-14T21:17:23.744+0000)

Dying 7 times in lane is, by definition, having a bad game, on the premise that under ideal circumstances it would not take place.

Regardless, you obviously didn't read the whole thread. Sometimes you get outplayed. It happens, and it's fine. Logically if you get outplayed by someone once, it can (and probably will) happen again. And the more it happens, the more likely it is that it will happen the next time. So dying 7 times in lane is not uncommon if you're against someone better than you.

I just played a game where I died to a Leblanc. Know what I did the rest of the laning phase after that one death ? I stayed under my tower and farmed there. I barely passed the middle of my lane until teamfights started much later in the game. Wanna take a guess how many times Leblanc killed me after that ? None. Despite her being much stronger than me at all points in the game, she only got a single kill. We got the mid inhibitor eventually while my tower never fell. My contribution to my team was not feeding her like I'm sure many others would do. She had little impact in the game after her uneventful laning phase. Because I didn't die 12 times to her like a dipshit retard, she wasn't able to roam about killing my team at will and they were able to carry comfortably.

I'll say it again, I don't care how much better your opponent is than you, if you die 7 times in lane during a ranked game, it's not you having a bad game. It means you're a dumbshit noob that should not be playing ranked. Such players such be playing bots.

siilentdeath2 votes

worst excuse people use is "oh the lag". If u are having issues with your internet DO NOT PLAY a multiplayer internet game where your teammates will rely on your presence to win and compete. if u lag out or d/c alot that's going afk. intentionally I might add because the player knowingly played on a bad connection and fed due to lag they are 100% guilty. if people read the summoner's code they would know that players are responsible for their own hardware and internet connection. so come ready to play or do not play at all. in 5+ years I have only had 4 games ruined by server crashes and those losses were forgiven.

Tobias Brackner2 votes

This this this.

Sometimes you get matched up against a better team.

Sometimes your lanes get matched up against better laners.

Sometimes you get matched up against better laners.

Learn and grow, don't QQ

Xeruon2 votes

But hey, it's the boards. The only place where League QQ is even worse than Reddit.

EbonyBladeJ882 votes

I've had many a game where I've been outplayed, and I don't deny it in the least, to my team or the enemy team. Once it's said and done, I just try to recognize my mistakes and learn from them as best I can.

Hollow Miracles2 votes

Thanks for the life lesson pal. No offense but I tell myself I'm a worthless piece of shit everyday, I don't need to hear it from someone on the boards too. I come here to find some laughs or hear some interesting stories, not listen to somebody try to reconcile the fact that none of us will ever mean anything.

As for accepting mistakes, that would be a great thing to do in a perfect world full of kind strangers that want nothing more than to help one better themselves. But this isn't a perfect world, far from it. A vast majority of the people I face in this game choose to bm by spamming mastery/emotes or spewing egotistical shit in /all chat. I'd say one game in every fifty pits me against a humble opponent. I always try to be friendly or at the very least silent in games, but nothing tilts me harder than idiots who claim to be gods because they outplayed me. For many people that anger can increase exponentially over the course of the game when the players who are superior to them rub it in their faces, rather than being respectful or even supportive.

In my admittedly short two years of playing this game I've come to understand that sportsmanship is a rare and precious commodity within this community. The gratuitous amounts of anger and blame the players bring to every game makes it feel near-impossible to improve. How can you be expected to get better at a game when everyone else in it, enemies and teammates alike, are screaming at you for making mistakes? Allowing yourself to admit to misplaying or being outplayed is just asking for people to belittle you. For a group numbering in the millions and continuing to grow every day, you'd think there was some amazing community that promotes growth and encourages playing the game to have fun. From what I've seen, however, most of the people you meet are intent on tearing you down to make themselves feel better.

The worst thing, however, is that I've seen many posts like this before. People saying that "bad games" happen. They do, of course, but the people you're trying to persuade don't care. Those who want to be toxic will be toxic no matter what you say to them. It's not like they're just being mean for no reason, they do it because they want to. Better to save your time and move on with your life.

Wyrmblade2 votes

What annoys me is when zed naruto running across the map and deleting a Vel'koz in .1 second is considered an outplay while that Vel'koz putting an E under the shadow he's going to return to and comboing him isn't.

Assassinating a squishy immobile champ isn't an outplay, it's hitting a cripple in the head with a baseball bat. A magic cripple, but he still can't really do anything about it.

Astôlfo2 votes

Both of them are outplays

Wyrmblade1 votes

Then it's also an outplay when I just eat a carry away from them on Tahm.

Astôlfo2 votes

It is. What of it?

Wyrmblade1 votes

Then the term is meaningless.

Astôlfo3 votes

The first two instances you listed are undoubtedly a lot harder than the third. All three still count. But eh, whatever complaints float your boat.

Nami in Bush2 votes

I got outplayed by Master Yi when he right clicked me and I didnt dodge his auto attacks

Mordepool1 votes

Ya bud 100% agree. So long as the person claiming the outplay isnt obnoxios or falsely claiming an outplay im good

Rockm Sockm1 votes

None of what you said applies to Dynamic Que.

Matches decided at champion select and games that are 99% going to be a snowball either way isn't called outplayed.

L Psy Kongroo2 votes

[{quoted}](name=Rockm Sockm,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=yRoiwKtj,comment-id=0004,timestamp=2016-09-14T23:11:32.589+0000)

None of what you said applies to Dynamic Que.

Matches decided at champion select and games that are 99% going to be a snowball either way isn't called outplayed.

No game, no matter how one-sided it may seem at the outset, is decided in champion select. The only exception is if one or more players decided to deliberately troll and throw the game. People give up WAY too easily. It's true that the game is hella snowbally atm, but that doesn't mean a game is decided in champion select. It just means that the team who can't snowball well has to try extra hard to win.

MorgManBasher1 votes

[{quoted}](name=L Psy Congroo,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=yRoiwKtj,comment-id=00040000,timestamp=2016-09-15T00:01:26.355+0000)

No game, no matter how one-sided it may seem at the outset, is decided in champion select. The only exception is if one or more players decided to deliberately troll and throw the game. People give up WAY too easily. It's true that the game is hella snowbally atm, but that doesn't mean a game is decided in champion select. It just means that the team who can't snowball well has to try extra hard to win.

When your teamate picks Kat into an enemy teamcomp filled with CC, I would generally say that's GG unless you are lucky and the enemy team has downsyndrome and somehow doesn't fear/silence/stun her into the ground.

Any game is winnable if the enemy team is terrible and you are just straight up better, but that implies you don't belong there. Some games are lost at champion select, especially when your dumbass team picks a full teamcomp with 0 CC like master yi, kat, vlad, etc...It sounds good with all the area of effect but you have 0 ways to hold them in place, engage, disengage. If you legit make a teamcomp with no CC, you deserve to lose and I get games like that even in high plat/diamond.

Chizzah1 votes

I won 90% of my lanes last night and proceeded to carry but I'm not the best af carrying so we still lost in most of my games. My last game I had an epic amumu jungler and my friend who plays top carrying like a boss. I was Annie mid vs Lux mid and got stomped into the ground like I was nothing.

I for the love of God do not know how the majority of her snare caught me but in hind sight I should have gotten that move speed ap item and boots first. Anyway the one game where me doing good in lane would result in a win I ended up losing and needed to play like a second sup just trying to peel with stun Tibs.

I got outplayed hard. But I'm bronze. So its not that hard to do lol

MorgManBasher1 votes

Should of just went tanky tbh Abyssal first in losing lanes or get the MR and go straight into Rylais and yes rushing boots against lux is pretty standard.

Chizzah1 votes

I actually went Abyssal first and boots second but like I said I got outplayed heavily. I'm good at dodging generally but every one of her binds found me. I was lagging a bit but still though got outplayed. Fak that Lux

TyroneWatermelon1 votes

Mashing buttons and doing something the enemy can't react to or do themselfs is not outplaying.

Astôlfo1 votes

Like...?

Maximum Morde1 votes

Tldr

NineTailedMystic1 votes

I'll always say it was my fault or I played poorly and look at what I needed to do, but I'll never admit I got outplayed. It was my poor play, not their good play.

Catastrop1 votes

It's not that people can't accept being being outplayed. It's them not accepting it unless it was flashy. Frankly, I blame Riot for this mentally, outplays are glorified as flashy Lee insecs or a on point mechanics from a Vayne. When in reality, it's also simply knowing more about the game and using that knowledge to outplay your enemy. This is usually using extremely basic concepts however, like just waiting for a cd or knowing that the enemy just burned majority of their spells so they're next to defenseless. It's not flashy, it's not exciting, it's just plain gameplay but an outplay nonetheless. Unfortunately it doesn't meet their standards for an outplay so people just cry about champions being OP/No skill/whatever else shit excuse.

LXII1 votes

If I get styled on that's fine and I'll often compliment the play. If the 0-5 Irelia tps to me then kills me instantly because she has a singular Sheen now.... No.

Lauchmelder1 votes

I never outplay people. And I never get outplayed by others.

The opportunity to secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.

  • Sun Tzu

By quoting that I want to say: outplaying someone is not my skill but an enemies mistake. Getting outplayed is my own fault.

However I can have an effect on my own survival by acting and reacting to my enemies.

If you get outplayed you played the situation wrong.

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