Maybe Your Team Lost Because the Other Team Simply Had a Better Game?

GavilanSalvaje·5/18/2014, 12:41:42 AM·14 votes·1,929 views

I'm pretty sure we've all had games we lost where one of our teammates was blaming our deficiencies for losing him the game.

Why is it that people continue to blame their teammates, make excuses (e.g. "We had an AFK"), or claim the opponents are "hackers"?

16 Comments

RiotRiot Baconhawk5/27/2014, 6:31:35 AM9 votes

This is something I feel really passionate about.

When I find myself thinking "oh man this must be a smurf" (my most common excuse), I realize afterward I'm just playing badly.

Edit: (or they actually are just better than me rofl)

Self-awareness and honesty go a long way.

RiotEvilSpider5/27/2014, 7:52:45 AM8 votes

I agree with Riot Baconhawk here. Lashing out at anyone doesn't help (if you know of a time that it did, please comment!).

If you are going to lose, lose gracefully. Trust me, I have a lot of practice at losing on Summoners Rift.

Sir ArmaMalum5/18/2014, 2:32:31 AM3 votes

It happens because it's just easier to blame someone else than yourself.

It takes awhile before people realize (in anything, not just League) that admitting your own mistakes and improving off of what you learn from them is the whole point of doing anything. Even if someone else isn't doing great, that's just an excuse to do better yourself and make up for it. Whether that'll be calling the shots, doing better in your lane or roaming and helping them out.

For every loss there's a win, and for every win there's a loss, and for every match there's a lesson. =)

At least that's my own philosophy

Mattarias5/27/2014, 6:44:44 AM2 votes

I never blame anyone, or anything (Well, unless we had a legit trolly intentional feeder...) because I know it's always a combination of things.

Sometimes, hey, they're just better. GG, Well played.

JaFaR Ironclad5/27/2014, 5:13:25 PM1 votes

Yeah, it always seems to me that the last party anyone blames in defeat is their opponent for playing well. (They'll even blame themselves first!). Even in my most painful defeats, I've found that congratulating at least one player on their team for a game well-executed has actually, more often than not, led to some pretty amazing conversations.

This could be a fun discussion on the psychological/sociological level. Lyte and the Player Behavior team, want to pitch in?

Silverthane5/27/2014, 6:19:52 PM1 votes

afk players make me sad....premade ppl with an afk buddy of theirs...is just evil. no one is gonna report him and they wont surrender at 20 even after the enemy team is fed to bits.

anyways on a more relevant note yeah i remember i got rekt by riven top when i was playing mordekaiser. i was so sad and angry because he was my best champ and main and i couldnt fight back vs riven because i would lose every trade. i was so bitter lol ever since that game i stopped doing mordekaiser top. what made it worse was that riven was acting smug and being a jerk lol.

Unpop5/27/2014, 8:07:06 PM1 votes

I'm pretty sure that things come down to a few key factors. I've been thinking it boils down to a morale issue and how one deals with being on the losing side of a game. This is a game that will have a winning team and losing team. Sure it sucks to be losing. Positive outlook despite an afk, troll, feeding team member can help. More often than not, I've come across people that have zero clue about that bad morale does for entire team. They'll rage and blame everyone, because it's easier for them to handle a losing game that way. It's not right, not in the least.

I Main Swain5/28/2014, 1:35:23 AM1 votes

ive found this is most often directed at adc and jungle. jungle, obviously, because they claim they didn't gank, or had bad ganks, etc., whether or not they are true. adc is a worse problem imho. any adc who gets behind, especially really behind, is practically useless and would actually serve better leaving the game, that's how bad it gets. they just flat out cant survive any damage, and cant deal out any damage. on top of that, since they are behind, they cant get any of the kills, and they cant get any cs bc allies get them all, so you just stay behind and feed and feed and feed. needs looked at rito.

sry got sidetracked. I agree with this entirely. ive had dozens of really great matches where my allies and/or enemies were really nice and understanding, shared advice, calmly corrected faults/accepted constructive criticism, etc. this has made for some of my best experiences in the game, even when the match is going horribly for one side. I myself need to work a bit more still on recognizing faults and seeing when I was just outplayed. im normally good with that but I will still occasionally pretend I lagged or call for a nerf or blame an ally. anyway, this post got my 1-up :D

Linna Excel5/28/2014, 4:50:39 AM1 votes

I'm pretty sure we've all had games we lost where one of our teammates was blaming our deficiencies for losing him the game.

Why is it that people continue to blame their teammates, make excuses (e.g. "We had an AFK"), or claim the opponents are "hackers"?

In the sporting world, more games are lost rather than won. What that means it isn't particularly that the other team beat your or was playing exceptionally well, it was that you were making a ton of mistakes in your game and where basically handing the game over to them.

AttilatheStun5/19/2014, 8:43:27 AM1 votes

I understand where you're coming from, and I agree that you should always be evaluating your play and figuring out what you can do better. However, some games really are unwinnable. If you're playing bot and mid and top lose hard and your jungler either refuses to gank for them or can't pull off a successful gank, there probably isn't much you can do, no matter how hard you carry or how much you roam. Furthermore, while people do come up with a lot of B.S. excuses, I think having an AFK is one of the few valid ones, as winning a 4v5 is pretty much impossible unless the other team just does terrible.

PerformingCircus5/27/2014, 6:48:16 AM1 votes

I mean, I agree..

But when people do have an AFK, they have an AFK. 80% is not 100%, and as such, its sort of harder to pick up an extra 20%'s slack. Even if your AFK is your support, that's an AFK Sona Crescendo.

And sometimes you'll have teammates that don't listen to their team...that's an issue.

CupcakeTrap5/27/2014, 5:00:06 PM1 votes

You will lose about 50% of games. Expecting anything else is insanity.

Therefore, unless you learn to have fun while losing, you're not going to have much fun playing LoL.

I know I'm in the losing 50% when my team starts yelling at each other about whose fault it is and I'm not able to settle them down. I kind of want to see what MMR a team of Intermediate or possible future "Advanced" bots make it to. I bet it wouldn't be 0. And I bet a large part of the reason would be that bots don't stop in the middle of teamfights to type about how stupid their teammates are.