Team Wanted to Open Mid
Hi everyone, I hope you enjoy the video. Forewarning, it might inspire you to not ff @15 just because your team is losing. My team had 4 votes to surrender before 20 because swain was "unkillable". Can you guess who voted no? One or two people wanted to "open mid". I said hell no... we can win this.
Is this vid clean? No... we all make mistakes in our gameplay. But that's not what matters. What matters is that you LEARN from your mistakes and don't keep repeating them. You lost a fight doing this or that strategy? Ok... don't use that again or fix what pieces you were missing when you used that strategy. Try a different one instead and maybe you'll get rewarded like we did.
Get vision, look for picks, and focus on playing SMART instead of on who to blame for being in a losing situation. It's one thing to say... hey bot, we need you to group and help defend our mid inner tower next time ok? It's another to say, bleep you bot don't sit there afk farming. Sadly, too many people don't see there's a difference and report both as toxic and react negatively to it. Let's work together and improve the community... so people start recognizing the difference between helpful feedback and flame/toxicity again.
It's ok if someone makes a mistake. It's ok if they have a bad kda... as long as it's for a good reason. If bot lane is being camped and tower dove... get down there and help them as mid and jg whenever you can. If you aren't in a 1v2 top... tp to counter-gank. If you can't do that or it won't happen in time to help... punish their team by getting top and mid tower... instead of flaming bot. You can be doing more to help your team as a 1/7/0 player sometimes than a 10/2/0 guy who just chases enemies past their towers and trades kills 2v5 while getting nothing else done with the map. You should play to maximize your TEAM strengths while minimizing your opponents. Instead of focusing on kda... focus on MAP PRESSURE. Is your 1/7/0 guy requiring 3 opponents to stop him splitting? Great. Then group 4 and win 4v2 on rest of map while enemy spends a million years chasing him down to kill him for the 8th time. I say this... not as a reflection on this specific game, but to highlight what's important and the MENTALITY that let us win this game.
My previous match had the same potential as this one... but my teammates refused to work together and only focused on themselves and blaming me. Instead of... oh we have a 4v3 or 4v2 all mid game, let's group and push... it was "screw stupid top" for not teleporting to help us - never mind I'm 1v3 for 2 full minutes and trading kills while pressuring enemy tower. And when I did group, they positioned like crap every time, got deleted, and left me 1v5. Sure I made mistakes that game too. But I learned from them and adapted my play. But unlike this game, the team didn't get past the blame game to focus on PLAYING and IMPROVING. We never could agree on a strategy and commit to it as a team because everyone ended up playing for themselves. Because some people were incapable of adjusting from a strat that was only feeding, and others were and DID adjust... but it doesn't work if only 1 or 2 do. Everyone has to get on board and work together.
So next time you are having a bad game. Instead of checking out and deciding what you do doesn't matter, keep trying your best. Adjust your play to give your team the CHANCE to carry you. Focus on improving and on helpful feedback - not flame. That doesn't mean it's fun hearing... you need to give up a ton of cs and just farm under tower so you stop dying 1v1 or 2v2... but that's not flame and it will help. Work together.... use vision... and adjust your strategy to max your team's strengths while minimizing your opponents'. And who knows... maybe you too can have not an ugly game like my last one... but an epic comeback like this one.