How to deal with bad teammates

It is frustrating to play with an unskilled player that feeds. Yes, it is an issue. Yes, it sucks. Yes, they are harming our team's chances of winning. Yes, they are bad.

But we have to make an important distinction regarding these players. They are not doing it to us on purpose. They might have no idea what they are doing wrong, for several reasons.

1. They might simply be bad and not know how to do something important
2. They might be upset / on tilt from losing in the current match or in a previous match

It really isn't all about us, they aren't thinking about us, they are thinking things like, "OMG why can't I survive this lane?!?!" and, "WTF their jungler is picking on me!!! T_T"

They aren't trying to ruin our game, they just want to have fun and win, just like us. But they can't, because they don't know how to play, or they are too blinded by tilt.

When this happens, it is up to us to give them guidance. They need their eyes opened about what it is that is causing them difficulty. In all likelihood, they are just as upset as you about their doing badly; they want to play, not die. So how should we go about opening their eyes to what they are doing wrong?

"Git gud," and "You suck" do not count. We mustn't just say that and call it good, "my job is done here." Or pat ourselves on the back for it. It is not helpful, and it will do nothing to improve how they play. They still don't know (for example) that they need wards before they push so they can detect and escape incoming ganks. Or maybe they don't know about the zones of safety in each lane.

So we tell them they need wards, now what? Did they just flame us? What a jerk! Right? They deserve to be told they're bad and to git gud now, right? Wrong. When a player is on tilt or doing badly, they become insecure and defensive. They will interpret anything and everything they can as an attack. This means that any advice you give could be heard as, "git gud m8" or "uninstall."

So how do we deal with this? I find it very tempting to just write them off as a jerk and flame them back. It is very satisfying, after all they were mean to us right? Also wrong. It may feel satisfying, but it still won't help us win. So here's the trick:

Finding the most passive (not passive aggressive), and un-blaming way of giving advice.

And this is really hard to do. But here are a couple of tricks:

1. Avoiding using "you" when giving advice
2. Avoid swear words and other choice phrases that are inherently negative.

Another trick to winning their trust and make them more likely to listen to us is to compliment them when they make good choices and plays, this way they see that we are reasonable and appreciative of their efforts.

I still get mad, even doing all of this. But it helps keep the games more fun, and increases my chances of winning. And it contributes to making League a much more fun game / community to participate in. I implore you to try it out, and to try to have more patience for the baddies you find yourself playing with.

Because everyone wants to have fun in a game, and nobody has fun when we in-fight with our teammates.

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