@Players: Try this, I'm pretty sure you won't regret it

I would like if you guys try something for a couple of days, a dozen of games. Something I've been doing since a while, something that made me enjoy my games more and even perform better.

As a player, I've never been the rage type guy, more like the silent&sarcastic guy. So for instance, when one of my team mate would screw up, I would either say something harmless but useless or be silent about it. And then I recently told myself that maybe I can do more than that to help. It came to me naturally to think about something simple but that would be worth the try.

Basically, it's just about being more human and empathic. 3 words came to my mind, gratefulness, forgiveness and cooperation.

• Gratefulness is all about acknowledging your team mate's nice work when it happens, especially when it comes to ganks or any kind of help. When you're glad someone gave you blue buff, ganked for you, let you the kill, pinged something important to you, etc., thank him/her. It doesn't have to be complicated, it just needs to become a reflex. Soon you'll notice people are more likely to keep assisting you when you acknowledge the good moves they make.

• In the same state of mind than gratefulness, forgiveness is about to inform the other player that you're not mad/pissed at them for failing a certain task. A gank gone wrong, overcomitting, getting greedy and getting killed etc. It's not always necessary to tell them not to do that again, most of the time a simple "it's alright man let's just be a little bit safer next time :)" is more than enough to make mistakes something people can learn from rather than a sign of weakness. People even thank me on a regular basis when I act like that. They seem kind of relieved that I don't take things too much in a negative way. And since they know I'm chill, they have less stress and perform better than if I would just be toxic. I know it can sound cheesy and only good on paper, but you guys have nothing to lose and honestly, I think it's just gonna make your games more enjoyable.

• Cooperation, while a little bit different than the 2 main aspects of this thread, is primordial to make gratefulness and forgiveness tools that make your team united and better. It's as simple as pinging, asking to ward, telling when your ult is gonna come back, asking help to set up an ambush using sweeper, help to kill the scuttle crab, etc. Don't be shy to ask, remember you're playing with people like you who want to win like you do. Finishing your sentence with a "please" and/or smiley face shows that you're asking as a friend, someone who doesn't try to be the boss of anyone but someone who's just trying his best to win the game. Also, at the beginning of each game, I ask everyone how was their day, I can compliment someone's skin, ask their opinion about item choices for this game... It can sound stupid but it kind of relax everyone you know? Like when you play with complete strangers, you can have this anxiety of playing with rude people or trolls right? By sharing your good mood and showing that you want to have a good time, it pushes people to do the best they can.

So, in short, showing a little bit of kindness throughout the game makes you a human being, not just another "pixelated moving character" in the game and people appreciate to know that.

Please take note that this is irrelevant when talking to a troll, since most of them are immune to kindness and have a lack of social abilities and/or sh*t to give about you or the game.