Climbing and toxicity for the upcoming season.
So I would first like to say I have been playing league of Legends for just over two years now. I'm plat 3 currently and hope to climb even higher in the new season. Today I'm addressing the issue of toxicity my story from it and how I came from silver to Plat in a single season. So let's begin...
I'm first going to mention that the league community hasn't been created bad because of the people it's been created bad by the environment of the game. Video games are supposed to be frustrating only through this can we learn more and feel extremely rewarded when we do win. However this game steps it up by throwing the element of many other people complicating thing's and often feeling that you have lost games because of specific players actions often before the game has even started. My last opponent was a teemo support... So before you hate the players, hate the game then accept the challenge of overcoming calm down and try again. Now that being said our minds don't adhere to that knowledge, we are built as human's to perceive life as "above average" individuals. It was once said “If you’re incompetent, you can’t know you’re incompetent. The skills you need to produce a right answer are exactly the skills you need to recognize what a right answer is.” I'm not going to preach on about the concept of working on yourself, not flaming your teammates, and raging at the thing's that can't be changed because psychologically we all do this and through this game directed in the right light we can untrain our minds into doing that.
Finding your strengths through duo que
It can be said at least for me that my strengths lie in my play calling, awareness, predictions of outcomes (short term), and patience. This has made me the support player I am today. Now finding these strengths often comes in duo que where I can play with a player that flames and yells at me for 45 minutes on Skype and im able to assume that everything he didn't critique I must be good at. Adc's are the worst (even in plat) anyway's through some duo que games and tournaments on teamspeak I have been able to learn communication and teamwork on a higher level. It's also good to note that by playing every role you will learn that your personality literally changes as you play the game often allowing for disconnect through players. It's good to have one champ for each role every season to learn the mindset of that role so you can be more accepting as a player when they make mistakes you may of made before.
Re-learn the game
I did this right after I started out as is the only reason I have climbed to a half respectable ranking in the league community. The trick to this is to play the worst champions or/and least played champions in the game (yes in ranked no cheating). Do it for a couple games and you learn to play as the underdog from the very start and learn how to be creative in formulating a win. I did this back in season 4 only a few months after discovering the game and found I became a much better player because of it. While it's hard to explain many players pick the "overpowered" or in meta champions and get greedy and "lucky" all while making mistakes yet still seeing a positive win rate. When you play a underpowered champion you learn several dynamics of the game you first wouldn't of seen. An example of this is when i was a Galio main in the mid lane during season 4. I would play games against full ad comps and suffer severely or play against tough mid lane matchups and have to learn not to feed and what farm was worth giving up because of a melee animation and limited mana. Through playing the game as if it hates you it becomes easier to translate this into when you losing or getting outplayed because you have done it over and over on purpose before. I'm not saying don't play Galio by the way while he is not in meta currently im interested in bringing him into next season and having some fun with him. To give another example is what happens when you train your brain into a way of thinking that is flawed and won't improve you as a player. Remember before the yorick rework anyone? Dark times indeed as this trained me to be a worse player in many regards. With very little skill and the power to break the complicated dynamic of the game he was indeed a flawed a frustrating character to play against and I failed to learn how to play properly because my kit allowed me to do nearly anything and come out in most situations ahead. The balance between the two was old poppy where again you had to be bullied early game like Galio. However as the game progressed you became stupidly unstoppable with both summoners securing the fate of an opponent (even in a 1 vs 5) whether they liked it or not. By playing many champions you see the game from a different angle so if you are in a lower division like much of the community is and looking to improve put some time aside to learning the frustrating lessons of this.
To conclude as im sure the attention of some is drifting let me just say this...
League of legends is a game of utmost complexity that for some is to much to fully grasp. Like one massive moving chess game between five players combinations can be seemingly endless and often underappreciated by the community. To say that my success came strictly from what's talked about is not completely true, I value my intellect of games like these and have become quite good not only in league of legends but in chess and games of similar strategy. I would also as strange as it sounds adhere most of my success to philosophy as this has helped me expand my conscience and help climb over building blocks that held me back in the past. Need some inspiration here it is https://www.youtube.com/user/AtheneWins
Good luck to all on the Rift in the new season!
My summoner name is Pett299 and im a plat 3 thresh main. Feel free to add me at any skill level and I would love to help or climb with you!
