Why I, in most situations, personally choose not to surrender a losing game

I've seen a bunch of threads arising with people stating that people should stop with the "never surrender" mentality towards a game. Let me tell you, from a gold-level lower elo perspective (Silver 1 in ranked, mid-high gold MMR in normals) under what circumstances I absolutely will not surender and why, and when I will consider (not guarantee) surrendering and why, in both normal and ranked games. I'll be short and sweet and use lists. :)

Normals

When I will not surrender:

• If I am learning a new champion, I will play the full game, regardless of whether the enemy team is stomping us into the pavement 42-11. I expect to lose the game from the start, and despite playing to win, I know that I don't have any mechanical ability on my champion. I could be feeding, but if I KNOW the game is lost, there's less pressure to win, and I therefore have much less fear taking HUGE risks just so I can learn combinations and mechanics on the champion. It won't win the game, but the experience with the champion is very valuable to me and will help me in my next games.

For example, them having a super fed Nasus and Sejuani when I'm playing Zed let's me practice diving the back line and seeing if I can somehow get away with a kill. If our team is way ahead, it doesn't take any thinking or prowess to pull this off, and it really doesn't teach you anything if you can mindlessly jump in and AA>Q>W>AA>AA>AA>AA>AA popthey'redead.

• If we're losing, but not by a massive margine on a champion I know, I play the game. Realise that you get better faster when you are slightly behind and are playing against players better than you. Being moderately behind as well. Being super hella 53-2 behind, maybe not so much, but in general, being behind is beneficial to your mechanical ability and to your decision making.

I've found lots of stomp games boring when I'm really fed. It's entertaining deleting people, sure, but I don't learn anything and it's not really much fun overall. Basically, all objectives are totally free - we all know at any time we can go get Drake or Baron or a tower without a question because we're so fed. There's no decision making or strategy involved, it's just kind of a "meh, let's just get baron now and do something else" mindset rather than a "Good job, they're down for X seconds, quick before they respawn, get the dragon or they'll show up and we'll get rekt."

When I will surrender:

• Disconnects and AFKs that don't return in a reasonable amount of time (unless we're far ahead) generally take away a lot of the learning aspect of team play, which is essential, so I don't feel like it's worth the time practicing in an atypical environment.

• Trolls (sometimes) give me reason to quit, because it just kills the game for all 9 other players, but if we are generally super far ahead and can win the game anyway despite there being a troll, watching him get angry at the fact his trolling/feeding wasn't discouraging us is always sadistically satisfying.

Ranked

When I will not surrender:

• "GG" at five minutes. Boy this one pisses me off. No game is lost in the first five minutes. If the enemy Nasus gets two kills, it's not game over. If our ADC goes 0/4/0 in the first five minutes playing Vayne against a super aggressive lane opponent, it's not game over yet. The overall mentality may change as the game continues, but I will never, not even for a moment, even consider surrendering in my mind until a good, solid 15-20 minutes.

• Losing by a small-moderate margin is fine with me. I'm learning, the team (should be) learning, and objectives and strategy really begin to shine over kills. I find when that when I personally get ahead I can get cocky and cost our team towers and objectives, and I know for certain I'm not alone; if I can cost us valuable ground when I'm ahead, so can enemies when they are.

When I will surrender:

• **Trolls/AFKs/DC's **(past a reasonable point of return) aren't my style. See above.

• Stompfests I will concede in ranked, because the intention of ranked, unlike normals, IS to win the game. In normals, practice is of utmost importance. In ranked, practice is important, but the ultimate goal isn't to try new things, it is to kill the nexus. When we have a "second time Ryze" and an 3/13/5 Ashe, I would probably vote to surrender because everybody is miserable, though I would NEVER start the vote myself, because I do still feel like there is value in practicing.

The TL;DR of my post is that most of the time, you're right, I will not vote to surrender. There are very few cases where I will. I don't care what bad you say about the "there's still a chance for a comeback" quote, the fact of the matter is in lower elos especially, there is ALWAYS a chance to learn and come back from a bad situation. And even if there is no comeback, there is ALWAYS learning involved with losing. There is not, however, nearly as much (though not zero) learning involved when you're super fed and fear nothing; you can more or less do whatever you want and win. When you're behind, or playing people better than you, you learn the most, and that is why I choose to vote "No."

You may disagree with me, and that's fine. To each their own. I'm not trying to start an argument, but you need to stop treating people who vote "No" like they're bad people or trolls or trash. Stop and consider they may not be aiming for victory in the first place, but a learning experience in how to best play League of Legends.