Taking a Step Back From the Game: Why Apologizing Can Win Games

Water of Eden·Apr 6, 2014·15 votes·274 views

I'm not going to sit here and rage and say that my team is full of trolls and I should be Gold Tier. I make mistakes. Sometimes I look back at my own games and cringe. Why didn't I go help Shyvana in top lane? How could I miss that minion? Could I have prevented that gank?

Sometimes, however, I rage at my teammates. I've been working really really hard on stopping. I know everyone makes mistakes and raging at your teammates makes them perform worse. We've all watched the Teamwork OP video.

So I was playing Renekton top lane versus a Jax. It's a decent matchup early but Jax outscales Renekton once he gets enough farm. I lost my tower at 15 minutes because I had gone back with 150 health and had teleport down. And those ungodly Jax ult passive strikes melted my tower. I started raging at our Aatrox jungle. Why was he doing red when he could have gone and covered my lane for about a minute? So I harassed him. I'm not proud of it.

Anyways, I looked at our time stamps and Aatrox had actually been disconnecting on and off for a solid 6 minutes. I was giving this jungler crap when he was underleveled because of something that wasn't his fault. I apologized. I realized I had been on tilt and some earlier losses had put me in a bad mood and I was performing worse than normal. I had much lower cs than average as Renekton. I usually hit 160 farm at 23 minutes, but I hit that mark at 34. So I apologized in team chat, told Aatrox I knew he was trying his hardest and my underperformance in top lane wasn't his fault. Aatrox said it was okay and told me we all have bad games and thanked me for apologizing.

Then we started wrecking teamfights. Once Aatrox caught up, he could dive their Jinx with his knockup, ult, proc Blade of the Ruined King, and melt her down. We won that game easily once our teamwork became much more synchronized.

I've also noticed something else. When you don't rage, you win games much easier. You can also come back from a losing game. I've played a couple of games without saying anything in teamchat. If I'm about to type something in teamchat, I ask myself if that's going to help or detriment the team. If it's the latter, I delete it and shut my mouth. Or fingers. Errr. You know what I mean.

Try it for a week. See your elo climb about one tier or more. It works. Tell me if you've had a similar experience.

24 Comments

Chaotic134Apr 6, 20145 votes

I love this post because it demonstrates that being better at the game takes not just your skill improving but your attitude improving as well. It's easier to play a game well when you're not enraged because the calmer you are the more focused you can be. I've raged at myself a lot (as stated in your other post) but I do rage at my team sometimes and I'm usually Satan incarnate when I do that. Usually I regret it right after the game when we lose.

Water of EdenApr 6, 20143 votes

At the end of the day every Summoner is a person that deserves to be treated with respect. Everyone (unless they're purposefully trolling, which happens less than you think) wants to win. And is the ban really worth going full out on a teammate that is underperforming?

Remlap1223Apr 6, 20143 votes

Isn't that basically what Riot puts in their little tip bubbles in the loading screen? Keep telling stories about this. When you hear something enough times it loses meaning, but putting it into context will definitely help getting the players who truly want to improve their behavior some motivation.

Water of EdenApr 6, 20141 votes

I think context gives a clearer idea as to what you can do when you're having trouble. And who takes those tip bubbls seriously?

Water of EdenApr 6, 20142 votes

I also wrote another post about how harassing your support takes away from your team. I don't know how to permalink it, but it's in the same category as this.

trontimApr 8, 20142 votes

I just love this post, nothing is impossible for both team, you may lose all the tower and down by 20 kills for nearly a whole game but 30 sec of team fight can turn a lose into a win.

Sir ArmaMalumApr 6, 20141 votes

You mind if I add this to my post here? Got a little section on posts like this. :)

Credit will be given of course!

Always good to see positivity posts, thank you for the share!

Water of EdenApr 6, 20141 votes

That post is one of the things that helped me be a more positive player. I would love if you added this post. :)

Sir ArmaMalumApr 6, 20141 votes

XD, it's the ciiiiircle of life! lol, I'm really glad to hear that!

Water of EdenApr 6, 20141 votes

Spread that positive Karma

Water of EdenApr 6, 20141 votes

Can I add you in-game? :)

Sir ArmaMalumApr 6, 20141 votes

Sure! I warn I probably won't be able to play much, and when I do I won't be able to voice comm (loud apt always #collegelife) but I'll accept nonetheless XD

dbSOULApr 6, 20141 votes

I have to commit that I love this post and it is really sad that everyone is "Smack talking" to everyone in a team chat. It makes everything so much harder and put so much pressure on everyone including yourself. I totally agree with you. To be honest, I had smacked talk to other people because I am in a bad mood and always losing to an opponent. I am not proud of it, in fact, I should've not said that. The worst feeling play League of Legends is that the opponent always makes fun of you when you are actually worse than them. I had been playing Bot lane as ADC every game so far and always get harassed by the opponents. I am not happy and sometimes even argue with my roommates because of that. I think League of Legends should do something about people who smack talk a lot.

Water of EdenApr 6, 20141 votes

Harassing the enemy team is a reportable offense under verbal abuse. Often times people who are smack talking the enemy team are also smack talking their own team. Just mute and report them post game.

ArtoriusIVApr 7, 20141 votes

I main jungle. and am naturally driven towards strategic play over mechanical intensive play, prepare for bias.

When my team gives me flack in game I dismiss it, maybe they are right(and many times after the game when I thin back to their comments, they brought up valid, if skewed points that I take into account later on) but in game, I am focused, and I am doing what is right, when people yell at me for not ganking, or not holding their lane or for stealing kills or for not jumping into 2v3's that I feel are bad engagements and letting my allies die etc, I shrug it off. But then after the game I think to those things, and whether or not those people actually had merit to what they were saying, should be thought about, or acknowledged as a flaw in my current play. This is because of presentation(mostly) the difference in "bad jungler, no gank" and "Can you gank here, you have't been bot yet and we need it" is HUGE. even "Need a gank" is better.

When I am not playing jungle, I see a lot of players complain that the jungler is losing them the game, I even think this many times. when I see a good gank open in my lane, and them near enough to gank, but they decide another lane is more important and then my lane losses, but that is another thing. The difference in what I do there, is I keep it to myself, then I think about it after. there have been many games I have been in with what I thought were bad junglers, but they just played jungle differently then I do.

This difference in playstyle does not mean they are bad, it just means they think differently then you do. I know I personally see global objectives as having more priority then my life does. If I might be able to save a turret for even 5 seconds, I will try. If I fail, I know for next game I can't get away with it, but I think nothing else of it. I will continue to solo dragon as an ally runs past, in hopes I can get the global gold, because their death is less meaningful to their team then dragon is to mine. This gets me a lot of "WTF Udyr" and "Report Eve" in my matches, but that is what I prioritize. These personal choices are things no one else can see or hear me thinking, and the comments I receive are a result of the toxicity league of legends is plagued with in game. On the same token, I have never been banned, so either people agree with the little explanation I put into team chat, or they don't actually take the time to report me, who knows, not I.

tl dr people play differently, this is good, try to learn from it. Listen to your team, but don't let it throw you off your game

side note does anyone think there is merit/place for a "What is the junglers role, and how can this manifest" thread?

Sir ArmaMalumApr 7, 20141 votes

~~on the side note, as in a guide of sorts for "directing people on 'how to play'" or a "respect your jungler this is what he has to deal with" thread?~~

Just saw your post, looking at it now.

Water of EdenApr 7, 20141 votes

I think I'm going to write a thread about that this week when I get the time. This week has been complete chaos. #collegelyfe

OneDarkHorseApr 7, 20141 votes

I completely agree with this post. Just earlier today it was my first match of the day and the team wasn't getting on me as much as they were yelling at each other. I just thought "no wonder we are getting creamed. There is no communication, and if there is it is negative". So I think it goes even beyond just what you are saying to specific summoner's but the team as a whole. Thanks for the uplift with this post!

JhinsaneMidlaneApr 7, 20141 votes

I find that I rage at myself more then teammates. Same effect.

#Note: Apologizing to yourself doesn't work.

Water of EdenApr 7, 20141 votes

Making mistakes is okay. I would be lying if I told you I've never copied a strategy from a player that was clearly better than me.

HazeyInDaHeadApr 8, 20141 votes

You know whats even more important than apologizing for being a douche?

What helps keep your team together through a mistake?

When you make a bad call that hurts you or the team whether its that really bad tower dive enemy fb-double kill or the horribly timed dragon fight that you pinged like crazy to do... apologize for THAT. Admit it was a bad call and you were wrong. In team chat.

Its a ripple effect. Everyone loosens up because you said what they were thinking and didnt want to rage or make you afk cuz of flak, etc..

Now they play more confidently and almost no one rages. Sure things get worse and more mistakes are made. but the negativity is gone because you took it on yourself.

Being Silver V, I say sorry about that situation a lot.... lol

Water of EdenApr 8, 20141 votes

So I played a game last night as Xin Zhao jungle. If you've ever played Xin you know he has ridiculous cc and huge burst early game despite turning into a tank late game. Anyways, my team managed to 4 man dive bot tower, kill the ADC, the support, and the jungler. Then we rotated to dragon and took it. At 12 minutes. In a bronze game, that's extremely rare. I think maybe it was because the support was my duo and we had all been nice to each other prior. Sometimes it's communicating better than the other team that wins games as well as individual skill. League is a TEAM game. Honestly, that 4 man rotation put us way ahead in gold, boosted our morale, which is extremely important, etc.

It also made it so that we trusted each other more and followed up in teamfights. Once in the late game, a fight broke out in the enemy jungle. Their Veigar tried to stun us, but I dove in with Banshees Veil and Audacious Charge, used my ult, melted Veigar, then continued to pick up the clean ace. Early game plays can make or break communication in a team.

OblongOtterApr 9, 20141 votes

League is a mental game just as much as it is a mechanical one, if not more. You need to be mentally in top shape to make good decisions to win the game. And when people rage it just wrecks everyone mentally. Thank you for making this post to try and fix this, I +1'd it.