The Mindset Of Negativity and Its Impacts on Team Members: A Case Study done by Science Nerd458

Hello and thank you all for gracing me with reading this little article.

       Negativity is something every League of Legends player has come across, whether they themselves have flamed or someone else has. Let's be honest, we all despise the negativity. As an currently unranked, previously bronze 1 (yes I know I'm a noob. )  player, I find it all too common to see teams in complete chaos with at least 2 teammates arguing over something, usually just insulting each other's gameplay or calling them bad. Normally I am usually really laid back and just play for fun, but sometimes I find that I start to flame too, for no good reason. Let me set context. I take a break from the game for a week, come back with an easygoing attitude and play. Someone feeds, eh I don't care its cool. Someone flames, I get irritated, and log off. For the next few days repeat this process, and by the end of about 4 days I am just as bad at flaming as anyone could possibly be. Being a nerd, I wondered why this is, that is, if "one (or more) bad apples really do spoil the bunch." And so I decided to do a study on how negativity affects teamwork, and also the other players mindsets around you. Fun fact, I actually got banned from using this account online for a while during the time performing this study. This happened during 20 of the games in which I was the person who initiated the flaming to see how others would reply and how it affected their chat tendencies and gameplay. Sorry to all of those who might've been in those games with me while I flamed, as I hope it did not affect you too much in the end, and that through it the awareness of flaming's impact can be raised.

The Study

       In this study I played a total of 40 games over the last 12 months ( I wanted it spread out so I could factor out seasonal moods as well, along with the tensions during the election. I assume I need not say which one) . In these 40 games, I randomly selected 20 games in which someone else flamed, and no one flamed him back, and I selected 20 more  games where I intentionally flamed to invoke responses and have other teammates flame me back. Note that I was still playing to win. I recorded the wins and losses for each of the games.


       In another aspect of the study, I observed how my friends reacted to flame, based on the amount flame they received over time (for example getting flamed a lot a day ago and during the next, seeing how they reacted to flame again, or if they themselves were more likely to flame.) They were not informed of the study, and their reactions to flame or their own flaming will have no bias. Three distinct people were viewed.

I told them each to take a 3 break from the game, and then play again as they had before, and once more viewed their reactions to flame or instances in which they might flame, and recorded the results. I charted the flame level in terms of 1 to 5, with 5 being high levels of flame. Note that all of these friends are "low elo' being silver 3 or lower.

THE DATA

The following is the data referring to the games in which I participated in, in which 20 games someone flamed but no one else did or responded to the flamer, and 20 more games in which I flamed and elicited people to flame back.

wins and losses are out of 20 games for each side

.............Flamer but no one reacted.......l..Intentional flaming with people reacting back Wins : ..................8..............................l.......................................5......... Losses :..............12...............................l......................................15......... Win/Loss ratio:.......40%.........................l....................................25%.........

The next data is the reactions my friends had after increasing exposure to flame.

Key: 1 = no flame from the friend / at peace while someone is flaming. 2 = no verbal flame, however irritated. 3 = less than 4 verbal retorts to the flamer, 4 = frequent flaming, or frequently arguing back to the flamer 5 = nigh unto incessant flaming/ arguing back with the flamer the whole time, almost disregarding the game at hand

...........................Subject1.......................................Subject2..........................Subject3... Day 1...................... 2.................................................... 1 ................................... 2 Day 2..................... 2 ................................................... 1 .....................................3 Day 3.................... 3 .................................................... 2 .................................... 5 Day 4................... 4 ...................................................... 3 ................................... 4

3 day break:

Day 1....................... 3 ................................................... 1 ................................... 2 Day 2....................... 2 ................................................... 2 ................................... 2 Day 3 ..................... 3 .................................................... 2 ................................... 3 Day 4 ..................... 5 .................................................... 2 ....................................4

THE CONCLUSION

        While facing toxicity it is best to ignore it. In this study, if left alone, when someone hard flamed you sitll had a 40% chance to win the game. however if the other get soaked in, the game is almost certainly lost with a 25% chance of winning.  As hard as it might be, if you want to win, just igore the flame and encourage your other teammates to do so. 

         It also seems that one bad apple does have a high chance of ruining the bunch. There was a positive correleation between the subjects exposure to flame, and thier tendancy to flame as well. Although there were instances in which the levels did not rise each day, the general trend was upward. The more they were exposed to flame, the more they themselves found flaming to be the normal. If you are feeling irritated or are just upset with how your own games have gone, or are irritated by other's flaming, take a little break. Just a 3 day break nearly reset the subjects to their original tolerance of flame. Find something else you love and do that, and then come back, not only will you flame less, but you will set up yourself and your teammates a higher chance of winning, which is something we all can say is a good thing. i hope you learned something from this, or at least can use this to help prepare people against flame. Thank you for reading this, and i wish you all well on the Rift. 
                                                                                                                                               - Science Nerd458