"Future focus"

It's easier to throw than to carry. To win more, you need to stop your team from throwing.

But Graff, I can't control my teammates!

This is why people think ELO hell exists... but they're wrong. People focus on whatever catches their attention, including your communication. If you can draw your team's attention to the right things, they'll make better decisions and throw less.

There is only one question that matters: "What do we need to do between now and blowing up their nexus?" Anything else is a distraction from what you need to do NOW in order to win. The past is only useful for figuring out what to change in the future.

How in the blazes can I get my tilted teammate thinking like that? Do I have to sugar coat everything so I don't hurt my teammates' precious feelings? -.-

Nope! It is about phrasing, though: Are you emphasizing the past, or the future?

• If you're thinking of saying this...

  • ...try this instead:

• "Our Vi built offense. -.-" - "Vi, we need a tank now."

• "Nasus keeps pushing without wards and dying."

  • "Nasus, wait until we have vision to push."

• "Trist keeps jumping in to the fight"

  • "Trist, save your jump to escape with."

• "We clumped too tightly and they wombo'd us."

  • "Stay spread out so they can't wombo us."

• "Holy crap, graves is fed."

  • "We need to burst graves to win teamfghts."

• "We needed that dragon."

  • "Drag in 1 min."

I don't believe you; this won't make a difference.

You don't have to believe me; you can see for yourself. Play a few games and pay attention to what your team was talking about. Then come back here and share what you found.

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edit 4/30/2017: Substantial reformatting and rephrasing (notably, future talk => future focus).