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Follow this 1 simple tip to reduce your stress in ranked! Trolls hate it!

Hyrum Graff··41 votes·9,668 views

Clickbait jokes aside, the secret is this: Remember why you're playing.

#Reasons why I play unranked:

I want to have fun. Doing crazy builds or learning a new champion is fun.

#Reasons why I play ranked:

I want to have fun. Winning is more fun when I know my opponents were trying their hardest.

#Not on this list:

I want to climb, so I need to win

Remember when you started playing LoL? Does this sound like you?

"I want to start playing LoL so I can get to [gold/plat/diamond], so people will respect me and I'll feel accomplished and good about myself."

No, of course not! You started playing becuase you thought the game would be fun. And it is, when you're playing to have fun.

Winning is fun. The feeling when the enemy nexus explodes and you know that the enemy team was trying their hardest, and you beat them anyway, that's what we play for. If you're playing to climb, it feels like that troll in your series is ruining days of hard work. If you're playing to win, the same troll is only ruining a single game.

Edit since I'm linking this:

I'm not trying to tell people that there's a right or a wrong reason to play ranked. If you want to play ranked to climb, that's your call. I respect that. We shouldn't get rid of it.

I'm saying I believe ranked is less stressful when your motivation is to win for the sake of winning, rather than winning for the sake of climbing.

My personal experience has held this up, too. I have an account on which I'm playing to climb***. It's just as fun to play on that, but it's also much more frustrating and stressful than playing on my main, when I'm just playing to win.

######*The point of it is to see how high I can get a certain pick. I currently expect to peak around gold 3, though most of that will be me getting better at jungle, which I suck at.

41 Comments

disregardable9 votes

Actually, the very first reason I started playing because I wanted a distraction. When I realized how impossible and frustrating it was (after my first game), I played because I wanted to understand and get better at the game.

It was never about fun.

Hyrum Graff7 votes

[{quoted}](name=The AFK Farmer,realm=NA,application-id=cIfEodbz,discussion-id=hZkBQUit,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2015-01-07T19:15:00.251+0000)

Actually, the very first reason I started playing because I wanted a distraction. When I realized how impossible and frustrating it was (after my first game), I played because I wanted to understand and get better at the game.

It was never about fun.

I'm interested in what you play for now? Same thing?

I'd say that your mindset, wanting to understand/improve, is also a healthy one, as long as you remember that a troll is stopping you from ranking up, not from actually improving or understanding.

disregardable10 votes

Now, I play for a sense of accomplishment and also progress. Something my real life sorely lacks.

NinjaToad9925 votes

That's not depressing at all.

Adeyemon2 votes

I do not see why this has so many down votes; Every person plays for a different reason.

Hyrum Graff1 votes

{quoted}

I do not see why this has so many down votes; Every person plays for a different reason.

FWIW, me neither. I upvoted them, way back in the day.

Budupops3 votes

bronze logic kappa

Daaaaang3 votes

I started playing a couple years ago when some WoW guildmates were playing it. Being my first MOBA, I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't really get the game, so I didn't enjoy it, or have fun (as you know how much fun it is being new to the game playing against diamond smurfs until level 30). It wasn't until I got good at the game that I wanted to play ranked.

When I first started, my reasoning was to play games with my friends and have fun. I feel like I've enjoyed most of what "fun" I'm going to get out of the game, however I personally get enjoyment or "fun" letting out my competitive side. So.. at it's core - I play normals to have fun/practice/try new builds, and I play ranked to test myself and push how high I can get knowing my opponents are pulling everything they can to beat me.

Winning is fun. Winning in ranked gives me a sense of accomplishment. I've accomplished things in my life, in my education and my career.. but accomplishing difficult tasks while allowing my competitive side out.. that is why I play.

Black Star 12993 votes

Thank you for saying this.

A healthy mindset will guarantee wins more often, make one less toxic, and make league overall a fun game.

(Not that wanting to win is bad, it's still a good mindset, but when trolls come, it really breaks easily)

Seriously, it's a video game, what is there to it if one's doing not thinking about fun? Don't make it another stress that people already have too much of.

lDontLiftIcarry3 votes

I started league with years of moba experience from AEON of strife original Wc3 dota/Chaos Heros experience under my belt.

this game did what others did better. Sadly over the years the balance has been complete shit and I wondered "what if I stuck with dota and played alot of dota 2 instead of only learning like 3 dota characters and then never bothering to learn any others at all"

If ashe didn't suck she'd be drow

Drow ranger master race. Tons Of skill.jpg Uangerbruh?

...anyway. My best online friend Paul invited me to alpha of league of legends 2009 area. We've been friends since early runescape years way back in.. what was it? like 2006? 2005? God its been a long time. we played alot of castlewars together and did pvping etc..anyway...

I downloaded. Played through the tutorial which was on a single lane map like hollowing abyss except smaller basically. I was confused about the controls because there wasn't turnrate and it had been so many years since I played a moba I was obviously rusty but the quick responding controls was just a huge refresher. My computer back then barely ran this game at 60fps because I had come from games like broodwar and wc3 and soulstorm and L4D that didnt require good comps to play.

I played nearly every single day Even days I was sick as a dog Even days I worked 12+ hours a day and was completely exhausted I still played 1-2 hours a day (1-5 games)

IT was fun it was exciting. The balance wasn't an issue everyone was learning, there wasn';t broken as shit mobility creeps. there wasn't some champion that was impossible to play against when fed outside of maybe olaf or original katarina.

There was alot more counterplay that most people thought back then despite riot not really thinking about counterplay and just making new champions they thought were cool. Before mobility creep and percentage damage ruined champion design the game was simple and fun.

Aram on Sr was a fun exciting idea. Dominion was cool. the 3v3 map was cool. It was cool. I've put over 8k hours of my life into league over the years. Thats around 160 days I think.

I wouldn't take a moment of this back even if you told me that 3 years from now the balance of league would be shit and I'd hate it with every bone in my body. I'd have called you a liar and told you to go away and let me have my fun.

Many years ago after getting very good at support paul and I made a ranked team with a few other friends, Idr the username of our ranked team. Something about each of our favorite champions First letter of their name or something. Obviously my letter was A because I played alistar like a god as a support. Over the years I've played every role and learned it well enough to make it to high diamond playing any of them except ADC, I only ever liked playing MF or twitch or ashe and all of them are outdated so I'd be shit. I don't like the new broken ADC's. The only FOTM i play is j4 and I've played j4 since his release so I'm no abuser of some imaginary FOTM where j4 is stronger than lee sin somehow...

Anyway.

I joined for fun. I still play for fun. Ap janna, yeah I still play it to this day... But when I play ranked I play to win. Theres not much left to improve on when I know I can get to high diamond playing anything I want when I want. So I enjoy myself.

I lose a bit of faith in the community when I still see players struggling to cs even in 2.4kmmr+ or lane correctly etc. It makes me sad as a MOBA player to see such poor mechanics make it so high up on the ladder.

Makes me wish for the older ranked system that punished people who weren't playing their best much more serveraly on the pairing system was more balanced back then (no more 300+ mmr under you and on your team BS like this new system does...)

TLDR: what does the fox say?

slippykitten3 votes

I play for the sole purpose of destroying other peoples reasons for playing. I am the destroyer of fun.

Grimspeake2 votes

i tried to play once years ago, i died a bunch in several minutes and kicked my computer tower before i had quit my first game. but alas i had returned maybe a year ago now? ghosts was garbage and black ops 2 was to easy. i couldnt return to my native runescape game either, jagex ruined it turning it into a WoW knockoff. so i was forced to find a new game and this was it.

Grimspeake2 votes

i will however say i came here to win, i dont like to lose i am super competitive, it just sucks that i barely win because i suck though.

Smitty Manjensen2 votes

I don't get what is so wrong in wanting to win a game by playing serious? I play serious all the time and I like to win which is fun for me, what is exactly so wrong about that? Your mindset is like I can't have fun if I don't try retarded builds or doing stuff which is not optimal for winning.

Rinky Dinky9 votes

That is in no way what he said at all in any way shape or form.

Reading Comprehension OP.

Snowplosion1 votes

The problem is that is a game. It is built to have fun.

Sneak Dog2 votes

Games don't have to be fun, they only have to be compelling.

Hyrum Graff1 votes

I play ranked seriously, too. I play because I want to win against people who are trying their hardest, not because I want to climb. As a result, when I lose a game or get trolled (which doesn't happen very often), it doesn't bother me as much, even if it's in my series, because my series are just like any other game to me.

WingsofGulgazor1 votes

that's all well and good and you can have fun that way bit what happens when you lose or are losing with that objective in mind? It becomes unfun. This way is fun whether you lose or not and playing this way ironically will make you win more games by not raging as hard and not yelling at your teamates to make them tilt.

TI Spartan2 votes

This is so true and i should think about this before every game.

Gunpoint2 votes

I started playing because I saw a picture of Teemo and envisioned myself whooping the ass of a huge burly knight like Garen. My dreams came true.

Rueian1 votes

Is it bad that when i started playing ranked that quote was actually me... and here i am... JUST now getting gold, 4 years later. Still no respect, and i dont feel accomplished.

Hyrum Graff1 votes

{quoted}

Is it bad that when i started playing ranked that quote was actually me... and here i am... JUST now getting gold, 4 years later. Still no respect, and i dont feel accomplished.

I don't think it's bad. Honestly I think if you care too much about winning (which usually comes from wanting to rank up), it stresses you out to the point where it hurts your gameplay.

Rueian2 votes

[{quoted}](name=Hyrum Graff,realm=NA,application-id=cIfEodbz,discussion-id=hZkBQUit,comment-id=00030000,timestamp=2015-01-07T22:03:18.378+0000)

I don't think it's bad. Honestly I think if you care too much about winning (which usually comes from wanting to rank up), it stresses you out to the point where it hurts your gameplay.

And due to conflicting interest between players within any given team, people will yell at eachother.

Konidias1 votes

I picked up this game because the previous game I dedicated most of my free time to was rife with cheaters and nothing was being done about it. I wanted a competitive game I could play that included decent ranking and very few to no cheaters. LoL is that game.

I play to win and rank up... which is why I jumped directly into ranked the moment I hit level 30 and I've played maybe 2 normal games since. I feel like playing on Normal mode is just a waste of my time because I'm not playing against people who are seriously trying to win, and also because it doesn't affect my ranking at all.

soylent shipment1 votes

Winning normal games actually affects your ranking. There is an invisible MMR that measures your skill level based on wins+win/loss ratio and matches you with people of corresponding MMR. You may not see your normal rank but it's there and it increases when you win games.

Konidias2 votes

{quoted}

Winning normal games actually affects your ranking. There is an invisible MMR that measures your skill level based on wins+win/loss ratio and matches you with people of corresponding MMR. You may not see your normal rank but it's there and it increases when you win games.

Incorrect.

Normal has MMR to help balance the matchmaking in normal games, while ranked has MMR to balance matchmaking in ranked games.

They are not the same, or else it would be easy to abuse ranked by bombing out of a dozen normal games to artificially lower your MMR, and then go into ranked to get matched against lower elo players, crush them, and climb ranks with ease.

You could literally bomb normals to get bronze MMR while you are diamond ranked, and then go play a ranked diamond games against bronze players. That would be insanely broken.

Get Rekkkt1 votes

honestly i started playing ranked so my bot lane would actually go adc/supp, id have a jungle instead of 2 top laners and MAYBE not get people dumb enough to walk under a turret full life chasing someone with one hit to have them get killed by that one hit person under the tower

#truth

The Ellimiist1 votes

The truth is 90% of people who play ANY game are not playing to improve. They go into the match with the mindset that they are executing a strategy not learning one.

Sanguine Law1 votes

Don't get me wrong, I play it for fun, but the main reason I keep coming back into the game is for the competitiveness of it. Yeah, it gets frustrating sometimes, but then I remember my ranking doesn't really mean anything , as long as I'm learning and improving after every game.

soylent shipment1 votes

"I want to start playing LoL so I can get to [gold/plat/diamond], so people will respect me and I'll feel accomplished and good about myself."

This is the exact reason why I started playing League of Legends.

Bandaged Bandit1 votes

plus with matchmaking Everyone wins about 50%. that means every time you lose, you are just going to get a win for it later. and every time you win you will have to lose in the future. that is the truth of matchmaking if you are at the correct elo.

there is absolutely no reason to be upset if you lose.

acepil0t1 votes

I just stay relaxed and sometimes even forget I'm playing ranked, since I play normals just as often. I just do it for fun, and a loss won't affect that. It seems to work too because I have been winning more games from behind and having more fun doing it.

pcfmYiJC8R1 votes

I started playing for fun (Normals) I started ranked because I wanted to play in a competitive scene and see where I can go.

Normals is for fun Ranked is for competitive

Sure you can have fun in ranked but not at the risk of losing. If you don't care if you win or lose don't play ranked play normals.

Hyrum Graff1 votes

{quoted}

Normals is for fun Ranked is for competitive

Sure you can have fun in ranked but not at the risk of losing. If you don't care if you win or lose don't play ranked play normals.

No offense, but I think you kind of missed my point.

I play ranked to be competitive, because I want to win, because winning is fun. I play ranked to have fun by winning.

What I'm saying is, Winning is the end goal for me, not ranking up, and that makes ranked way less stressful, especially when I have teammates who do poorly, or trolls on my team. Because it's just one game.

If I were trying to rank up, and I got a feeder in my series, I would be upset because I'm going to have to play a lot of games to get back into series. But I'm not (as) upset, because it's just one game, the same as any other.

pcfmYiJC8R1 votes

rather you are trying to rank up or not people get pissed that they have to sit through a 45min + game they lost at 10 minutes due to afks or trolls intentionally feeding and on top of which their team refuses to ff at 20 so they can waste your time as much as possible.

That's what ticks me off.. then when you get multiple games like that it gets to the point you want to be toxic just to relieve stress.

This happens in normals and in ranked.

Sorry but I don't care who you are a 3 vs 5 for 45+ minutes while your team is refusing to ff and the enemy team is prolonging the game just to see how many times they can kill you isn't fun for anyone. What's worse is you have to stay active in that game or you get flagged by leave buster.

This Game/Community is all around troll and sets you up to be toxic eventually. There isn't one person who has played this game f6 months let alone a year that hasn't been toxic at some point rather in game, in skype or even just in their head. If they say they haven't they are straight up lying.

That's what makes this game not fun. the game itself is fun, the community sucks.

Hyrum Graff1 votes

{quoted} There isn't one person who has played this game f6 months let alone a year that hasn't been toxic at some point...even just in their head. If they say they haven't they are straight up lying.

Here's the thing: "toxicity in your head" doesn't exists. That's just called being angry. And you're right, everybody gets angry. But it's not toxicity unless you're typing it on your keyboard, because that is when you start ruining other players' experiences. That's why it's called being toxic, because you're spreading it to others.

Everyone gets angry. Not everyone turns that anger into toxicity.

pcfmYiJC8R1 votes

Toxicity in your head doesn't exist? If you're thinking of porn you get horny, if you're thinking of food you get hungry, of pretty much anything you react to that. So why would not getting mad at someone in game not make you react and be toxic?

So yes, you don't have to type a single word to be toxic, you can be toxic by feeding, afking, trolling, etc.

Kieweefication1 votes

Yeah, no. When I do anything I do it because I want to be as good at it as I can be. When I played Starcraft I wanted to be diamond, I played many games and I eventually got diamond. The game changed (I disliked the new mechanics) and it made it harder to keep up so I gave up and started playing League.

When I started playing guitar I self taught everything, I wanted to be the best I could be. I learned scales, modes and music theory from the internet and practiced daily to increase my fretting strength and understanding of the instrument.

When I started snowboarding I did it for the feeling of flow when I linked perfect carved turns or threw my first BS360 in front of my peers. Imagine another guy standing next to me whenever I was about to land a trick and trying to push me over when I popped off the kicker? That's League...

I want to be diamond in League. That feeling when I know I destroyed the other guy because I played better than him is amazing. I don't get mad when I 'lose' a game if I was able to play to a high standard and attempt to carry the game. I get mad when I 'lose' a game due to the incompetence of my team mates and their level of play was so poor that I was never allowed a chance to carry the game.

The difference between League and Starcraft is that I knew as soon as I was good enough, there were 30-40 wins between me and my league that I could go and get when I was ready. In League, when I'm ready I have to play 200-300 games because in 100 of them, my team won't allow me to win even if I play well.

If the mute button wasn't there, I don't think I could play this game in ranked.

The positive part is when I eventually do reach diamond I know that I beat 9 players in every game I played to get there. It'll feel amazing.

God God1 votes

You're right, I did start playing league because it was fun, that is why I played normal's and other games mode. I play ranked because I want to advance in the standings. You honestly think playing 5/10 games with feeders or trolls is fun when you're try to move up?

Hyrum Graff1 votes

Playing games with feeders or trolls is never fun, period. Consider this:

Playing 8 games without feeders or trolls in order to get into your promos and get 2 trolls who lose you the game.

For you, this ruined all 10 games. For me, it only ruined 2 games.

That's the point.

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