Interesting Post Game Experience
I just got out of a low elo solo que game. Being a low silver player I'm used to my fair share of negative attitudes, trolls, afks, flamers, ect. I generally just treat these type of games as extra practice and rather than focusing on my teammate's poor play, I try to improve my own so that hopefully I will be able to carry these types of game in the future. Well in this last game I was playing support and after a mistake by me and a really nice play by the enemy to capitalize on my minor positioning error I gave up my first death. Keep in mind that this was fairly late in the laning phase and we were doing quite well up to that point.
Well as soon as I died my adc started belittling me and didnt stop for most of the rest of the game. Honestly he probably typed out 60 or so separate messages into chat. Even playing hundreds of game in bronze and silver I had never experienced flaming like that. I thought about typing back, but ultimately realized that would only hurt the team, and that if i didnt maintain my self control it would be a guaranteed loss. So I turned the other cheek and waited till the post game chat where i told him, hey vayne you did well but youre attitude is really harmful for the community so im reporting you. When he received that criticism he went berserk. something along the lines of: stfu morgana im reporting you for being so bad, how are you so bad, ect. ect. ect. It got increasingly violent as he went and it was clear he was just trying to hurt my feelings rather than give me any type of useful feedback.
I feel it necessary to include that we won this game with me going 6/5/19. Im not saying I even played well, Im sure i made hundreds of mistakes that game, my point though is that I wasnt trolling, feeding, or anything like that, I had a positive score and we won the game so to me the reaction was unusual. Anyway in this situation I would typically just exit the post game chat, but for some reason I decided I would try to make him understand why his actions really hurt the team and why I felt it necissary to report him. I responded to his frantic comments calmly and patiently and eventually he calmed down as well. He said he knows hes an extemely toxic player and has a hard time controlling his anger. I gave him some advice on how I stay calm and how at the end of the day you play the game to win and being a good teammate is the first step in improving your record in solo que. We talked for a while and I felt like I had really gotten through to him when I left the post game chat. A few minutes later I recieved a friend request and a message from that same player. He said that he was a 15 year old kid and he thanked me for taking the time and being patient with him. He said the advice wont just help him with the game but that I had taught him a lesson about life.
Im sharing this experience because we've all dealt with ragers like this in our games, and alot of us give it right back to them without realizing who were even speaking to. We need to realize that the community contains players outside of our personal demographic and that we have the opportunity to positively or negitively influence the younger members of the communities lives. If I read this and this didnt just happen to me I would have said it was stupid, Leagues just a game, people dont let it effect their lives. But this made me realize that to younger members of the community who might not have the best home life league can be alot more than just a game. Not all ragers are like this kid and alot of them wont realize their faults or change their actions. However, if you respond to them in a positive way theres always that chance that we can remove one more toxic player from this community and to me thats well worth my patience. As a wise man once said, be the change you wish you see.
Sorry for such a long post and I really appreciate if you read the entire thing. I would love to hear if anyone else has had any similar experiences and best of luck to everyone out there on the fields of justice!
