Boards›Player Behavior

"It's only normals, who cares?"

Mal the Red·6/11/2016, 7:07:21 PM·36 votes·3,053 views

A major contributor to toxicity that I rarely see touched on is the differences in mindsets between people who play league.

One Mindset is the one who plays to win. The other is the one that plays to experiment, regardless if they win or lose.

Both are how said people have fun with League and both should be accepted.

However, When two people of different mindsets are matched together, the one who wishes to experiment will draw a cross with the one who plays to win the very moment the experiment fails.

Which brings me to the topic quote.

I am usually of the Play to Win variety, yet I play Normals because I cannot stand the long queues and longer champ selects that get further drawn out when some weak sauce dodges because their main got banned or picked by the other team.

In my last game the last surviving team member intentionally gave the enemy carry a Pentakill after the lot of us got wiped.

When I remarked about how that'll only make it harder to win, they retort with... You guessed it... "It's only normals, who cares?"

If I didn't care, I wouldn't be so mad about it.

55 Comments

71883083DEL16/11/2016, 9:35:32 PM11 votes

Dude, it's a normal. I personally don't have the 'who cares' attitude to normals, but I look at it as an opportunity to improve as a player, not to say 'who cares' but to learn about my tactics as a carry and how to effectively maneuver, because when I am in a normal game I am engaging in myself and trying to get better so I can win competitive games. I don't think that going onto the boards after a toxic user fed the enemy carry, and posting about how what they did was wrong; I would rather report them and move on with my day as any other person would. If someone is not having a good day, you one-offing them and saying 'they are toxic, report draven' is not a good solution.

I don't flame chat when something doesn't go my way personally, that's just me though.

Purple Death6/11/2016, 7:10:32 PM9 votes

I really dislike people who say that, even if they do not want to admit it they want to win too. Nobody enjoys losing. Normals is not a time to troll yes you can experiment but dont go full retard and see if you can dive 1v2 with vayne for the sake of "Experiments". We all know that is a complete load of crap.

Edit: 7 points I'm a superstar!

Elisheva6/11/2016, 11:11:21 PM6 votes

To be fair, it doesn't matter if you lose in normals.

Ladayen6/11/2016, 8:34:05 PM5 votes

I play normals right now because I didn't play much during season 4 or 5 so I'm super rusty and was never terribly good to begin with. Sure winning is nice but realistically the simple fact is I'm not at my best and a loss is more then possible. When I get a champion pool I feel comfortable with I'll play ranked and see how I do and really tryhard.

Even if I'm doing well it's very possible someone else is in a similar situation to me and is simply trying to play better and isn't ready for ranked at least on that particular champion.

Getting upset over a loss when most people are simply trying to improve is rather ridiculous. I'd much rather everyone finish the game a tad bit better of a player and with a smile on their face.

AraMoOse6/11/2016, 7:59:18 PM4 votes

"What we've got here is failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach. So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants. Well... He gets! I don't like it anymore than you, man."

Either you can accept that others play for different reasons than you do, or you can accept that others won't accept that you don't play for the same reasons they do. Either way, you are left with the same conundrum. Be the better man (woman) and learn to respect people who's point of view is different from yours.

Now excuse me, I need to go listen to Guns N' Roses

Swiftstrike46/11/2016, 7:24:55 PM3 votes

Normals are for trying new builds and new champions. I have the mindset that normals are good for practicing and establishing good habits.

I am not too critical of players playing off-meta champions in normals. I am critical of players engaging in counter-productive actions in-game when playing a normal though.

I usually choose fill when I play normals, but I can't stand playing ADC if I have an off-meta support. It pretty much ruins my game experience and I have to deal with it in early laning. I am not a good adc, it is my least played role probably, but I do understand the basics of the lane since support is my secondary role.

I don't really express much criticism in game unless no one peels or tries to help me. It is totally fine if you want to play support Pantheon or Darius in a normal, however I do expect you and other champions to engage in good habits and protect the ADC.

One of the main reasons I play only Sivir when I ADC because I have spell shield. I don't have a lot of trust with my random support and she allows me to be a wave clear bot if the lane is lost. If I played other ADCs that are highly dependent on the support I would probably almost never play the position in a normal.

People learning support in a normal are probably VERY bad at the position if they don't play it regularly. And if you play this game regularly you have probably had to play support in the past through either pick order or getting stuck with it in blind pick.

The Table6/11/2016, 8:53:57 PM3 votes

"It's only normals, I can intentionally feed. Who cares? It's a normal"- 0/20 draven with 6 tears

B6WS TSW996/12/2016, 12:41:07 AM3 votes

most ranked maniacs are the "experimenter" type in normals, you will understand why once you play ranked a lot

redniwediS6/11/2016, 7:46:08 PM2 votes

As an experimenter I'll often say that dreaded phrase. Fortunately for us both I only say it to help make a bad play take less of a toll on the team's morale. I do like to experiment, but to get the best results from it I have to be playing at my absolute best.

That said there's nothing on the line when it comes to a normal victory. You get a little bit more IP and a few extra mastery points, and that's it. You can play to win without acting like a loss has a heavy impact on you.

To put it simply experimenters need to actually try to win, and "winners" need to stay calm when someone does something that hurts the team. Normals are a place for learning after all, and I'm a little tired of team members yelling at me for answering questions about my champion from the enemy team...

Maximum Morde6/12/2016, 2:22:12 PM2 votes

It's it's only game, why you heff to be mad?

ZT Xperimentor6/12/2016, 7:28:05 PM2 votes

Those that just 'play to win' should play nothing but ranked or watch the 'pro' games. A video game is for fun, if you're taking it more seriously than if you put your life savings on the betting line, you need to reconsider your life.

Spec oups6/12/2016, 2:11:09 PM2 votes

The point of the game is winning it.

Ranked games are there to "tryhard", meaning that you will focus your attention on winning the game using mostly strategies that have proven to be efficient, in other terms, using the current meta to win. Your mastering of the current state of the meta will be shown by your rank, and this will prove that you have understood the current game's mechanics to a certain degree accordingly to your division.

Normal games are different. In normal games, your main goal will not reside in winning, but finding and experimenting new ways of winning. It's a sandbox ground meant for finding new ways of playing. On top of this, it also means that you will find friendly matches. Friendly matches are about winning, do not misjudge their meaning. But their main reason to exist aside from being a testing ground for new strategies, is to bring players together for amusement ; in other terms, it is not a demonstration of particular mastering of the game.

If you go play normals, it is like you're going to play in a friendly match of football. Everyone's invited, we play for the fun, and at the end there's a nice meal for everybody. In LoL, it means that you will pick a champion that is not meta and/or at a non-meta role and/or with a non-meta build, start the game and try to win your game with the new rulesets you have imposed by the choices you have made before. While you respect the only rule of the game regarding playing style, aka. destroy the nexus, you're fine.

What brings so much misinterpretations and lack of understanding between each player mindset is that these two concepts are indeed not differenciated in that queue. There is no "Serious experimentation queue" and "IDC I just want to have fun" queue.

What could fix this drastically is creating two separated queues for each playstyle. But there is another and smarter solution : introducing a system that matches players who have the same goals. In Halo:Reach's matchmaking, there was an optionnal mini-form you could fill before starting to queue, with your playstyle, how you communicate and your goals for the next games (winning or having fun), and you were more likely to get matched with people sharing your choices in the form.

Importing this into LoL could extend waiting times, but since it's optionnal, you could leave the form empty and you'll get matched faster, with either people who want fun or people who want to experiment new strategies (this also opens the possibility for players who leave the form empty to get more punishment if they flame, because they could have filled the form and not get matched with people they don't like the mentality of, instead of leaving it empty and complaining after).

TheSlogs6/12/2016, 3:48:34 PM1 votes

You just need to understand that people have different definitions of fun. Personally I am guilty of calling people "tryhards" in normals. We all need to understand that we wilkl have our disagreements, and we have to not get salty about it.

leagueofAtrain6/12/2016, 5:10:14 PM1 votes

Honestly, I think they need to make a casual queue and competitive queue. If you are trying to test your skills with a new champ or trying something very experimental, then casual q should be your place. If you want to be competitive, then competitive q should be your place. Casual q you shouldn't be allowed to complain about people feeding or being dumb. But, in competitive q should be a privilege, like if you are being super dumb and feeding then would be be banned for a day or something, not as discipled but just as a filter for the people who want to take a game seriously.

On a side note in ranked. I hear a lot of people say "this is only bronze, what do you care?" or somewhere along those lines. Like being in bronze means that the community should totally disrespect your drive to get better. This is probably mostly due to the cancer that is smurfing. But, I still feel like there should be someway to catagorize your preferences of play style. Like you can mark your account with I like playing certain champs and i like playing with certain champs, so the queue system could at least attempt to match you with players that you fit with. I personally hate off meta picks, but some people dont mind them so much. I will literally ban lux every time i see someone wanting to play lux support. Others people don't mind having the lowest winrate support in their. just a thought.

Finally I don't think Riot has a good way of players to give each other good positive feedback.

Demallia6/12/2016, 5:48:16 PM1 votes

As a new player to the game I just have to say that your "want to win people" can't separate a troll from a new player. Do you have any idea how many times I just been told to uninstall the game or been cursed out. I'm trying to learn, but I can't do that with the constant hate I get from these people who want nothing but to win. I can't learn much from bot games cause smurfs win the game before I can do anything, and bots on my teams make me have to play differently.

Pars Fortuna6/12/2016, 6:08:49 PM1 votes

I have to admit, I know what you're saying, but it's only a matter of perspective really, and there's plenty of those.

I, for example, see normals as an opportunity to practise regardless of whether I'm with a new champion, or with a main I've got 200k with. Of course I prefer to win rather than lose, especially considering that I will have contributed to the victory, and therefore my practise is paying off because I'm a good player and helped my team win.

As such, I don't quite understand the entirely dismissive attitude of "it's only a normal", or the obsessive "win win win!" one. It's just a game. Play it and win it if you can. It's pretty simple.

LeegIsASin6/12/2016, 6:17:19 PM1 votes

bump

Project omen6/12/2016, 7:16:35 PM1 votes

Personally, I play normals when I don't want to take the game seriously like I do in ranked. So, unless I'm experimenting, I usually don't try my best and really don't mind if I win or lose.

Pacattack256/14/2016, 4:05:22 AM1 votes

League needs to add a sandbox mode for experimenting - I agree with OP but I feel like if I really want to see if a build works I have to do it on normals and it ends up being 'it's only normals - who cares if my full AP sol doesn't work as expected, it should still work somewhat' ... that was a horrible HORRIBLE game ...

woelmuis6/11/2016, 9:30:52 PM1 votes

To me playing normals is not about winning, it is about becoming a better player. A loss often teaches more than a win. Experimenting may be more effective to learn the game than try-harding a one-trick. It gives you more tools to work and win with. Normals are a foundation to ranked. As you learn how to win, you can play more effectively in ranked, which is after all the end-game of league of legends.

HooliganGunner26/12/2016, 4:36:29 AM1 votes

The way I see it is the "Play to win" players should only play ranked when they want to play to win. The "its just a game" players need to stay in normal where they can't ruin the game for us play to win players. Lol at the giving them a penta kill. It's a normal game, clearly you are gonna lose if the adc got a quadra, that 300g from not being a dick and giving that person their penta isnt gonna make the game that much harder to win. That is unless you gave the adc a penta 10 minutes in

dark100dark1006/12/2016, 5:08:07 AM1 votes

Normals is for practicing. You should play to win, because it makes no sense to practice loosing, but you can try champions 1st time, or try different combos. The result can be a loss obviously.

arrowhead21k6/12/2016, 6:14:10 AM1 votes

I don't see the problem. If you want to play to win then you should play ranked. If you want to just experiment then play normals. Two different game modes for two different mindsets.

WolfBV6/12/2016, 7:18:41 AM1 votes

Then just report them for intentionally feeding.

JRobin316/12/2016, 7:43:57 AM1 votes

Experimenting isn't the same thing as deliberately giving over pentakills... Just saying.

GrReaper966/12/2016, 10:56:11 AM1 votes

Honestly that perfectly fine. Unless they are trolling, experimenting in normals is well.... normal. As long as they try their best and learn something new.

Shaco is coming6/12/2016, 10:58:37 AM1 votes

People who say "normals don't matter" are quite braindead imbeciles in my opinion. Most of them are in bottom of bronze and silver anyways. Thing is, yes in ranking way it doesn't matter, but if I waste 50+ hours trying to win a game, to get acceptable amount of IP and XP, it does matter. I don't join the PvP queue to troll the fuck around for entire match. I don't care if you play off-meta, just don't troll.

If league's IP and XP rewarding system worked off personal scores, I wouldn't care neither about win or loss, but since I get 40 XP and IP every game I go 'S' rating and lose, is BS.

roflcopterssssss6/12/2016, 1:17:03 PM1 votes

I do everything in normals and ranked, try new shit in ranked, try new champs in ranked, because it's just a game

BastionKross6/12/2016, 2:26:43 PM1 votes

Before season 6, normals were generally for practice, or trying new builds or champs, or just having fun. Ranked was for winning.

However, Dynamic Queue has driven a good amount of the ranked "I want to win" soloQ population to normals. Dynamic Queue has also allowed a good amount of "I want to have fun" premades out of normals and into ranked. When those two mentalities mix, all hell breaks loose.

Stars Shaper6/12/2016, 2:39:57 PM1 votes

My instance on the matter is that if ppl want to do random things without the intent to win then they can go vs AI and do w/e they want, even going full mana regen Zed.

In PvP you are supposed to be a team player and trying to win, Normals are more relaxed and shouldn't be taken with a tryhard mind set but that doesn't mean you can be drunk/high/comatose or just wasting other ppl time.

This is a competitive game because the intent is to kill the enemies and win against a team, not drinking some tea with random ppl.

Edit: The phrase "It's just Normal" should be reportable as much as "gg ez" because it's a sentence used to justify a person lack of will to help team or playing decently and not intended as some ppl might interpretate.