Boards›Player Behavior

Don't flame flamers back as a way to "defend yourself"

Zardo·3/28/2019, 4:04:16 PM·11 votes·8,433 views

We all know league has a decently toxic playerbase. We know these people will snap and flame for no good reason whenever they feel like it. Flaming them back isn't the answer, it simply causes more problems than it solves, since not only do you waste time by typing and having them respond to your response, there's always that chance that you make them int/troll/afk. Instead, I would recommend doing 1 of the following:

Just say "mb" or accept blame, even if it isn't warranted. A pro player called TSM Zven does this when he plays, he says "mb" even if it clearly wasn't his fault at all. This makes the flamer feel a little bit better and doesn't really cause any conflict.
Mute or just don't respond. If the flamer realizes that their flame is having 0 effect, they will be more inclined to stop.
Blow it off. I've found that when I things like "lol" or ":P" after someone flames, they're less inclined to flame again. I don't know why, I just know it works.

There are many more ways than just what i've listed, but this is what i've found to work. So many games are lost because 2 or more people are too stubborn to just stop bickering between themselves. You can't stop them, but at the very least you can make sure you don't become one of them.

12 Comments

Mcsquzzy3/28/2019, 6:25:03 PM3 votes

We don't want to hurt these snowflakes who only like to flame but can't take flame.

R107 Games3/28/2019, 4:47:43 PM2 votes

We know these people will snap and flame for no good reason whenever they feel like it.

Not all flamers are like that

Hotarµ3/28/2019, 4:13:02 PM2 votes

Yeah, basically. Everything in this post is exactly how people should act in negative situations instead of trying to "finish" arguments and ruin the game for everyone else.

So many games are lost because 2 or more people are too stubborn to just stop bickering between themselves.

Couldn't have said it any better myself.

ChrisBrownze3/28/2019, 6:13:00 PM2 votes

Ya you forgot to include, "take it like a bitch" in your advice paragraph.

Morbys3/28/2019, 6:47:58 PM2 votes

People wouldn't have to flame if ranked wasn't so broken. Its absolutely absurd that you HAVE to carry 90% of your games to rank up, and its even worse with this new season. You have to pick a specific set of champions in w/e roles to hard carry just to get to anywhere. And even then it isn't guaranteed, just ups your chances.

karolmo3/28/2019, 7:34:03 PM1 votes

How to counter flame:

/mute all

fixed it for you. Much easier than anything else and actually quite effective!

Eleshakai3/28/2019, 4:56:39 PM1 votes

Prettymuch.

This kind of fits alongside it too - I made a post years ago now offering attitude advice for ranked:

https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/tips-tricks/tg1cxnOB-advice-for-enjoying-and-succeeding-in-ranked-play

Two of my points were:

"2) Never criticize other players, under any circumstances. The reasons for this should be obvious, but I'll briefly explain my reasoning. If someone is playing badly... and I criticize them, I don't see any positive outcomes. At best, they ignore what I said and keep playing as best as they can... but far more likely they'll either reply to me criticizing something I've done wrong and starting an argument, or possibly even just give up entirely and start playing even worse. But just as importantly, League of Legends - unless you're a pro on a team making money - is just a game, and while it's still important to do your best(since you should always give everything your best), there's no reason to start insulting others over a video game in my eyes.

My mistakes matter, nobody else's do. If I make a mistake, I will write a quick 'Sorry guys, my bad!' and move on. If someone else makes a mistake, I will ignore it - if they apologize, then I will tell them it's no big deal. Whether or not it is a big deal! This ties into the second rule well, but it's important enough to make a note of it on its own. People will rarely 'call someone' on a mistake they've acknowledged themselves, and people will rarely flame someone for taking responsibility for an error. And probably the most important thing to avoid is getting your entire team involved in flaming each other. You want people focusing on the game, not what that asshat toplaner called them or where that support thinks you can shove that ward(hint: by this point it's probably not going to be 'by baron'). As a final note on this one, by telling someone it's not a big deal, you can quickly switch their mindset from 'oh crap I screwed everything up' to 'oh good, we can still win this'. Morale is important... maintaining it is key."

Jennifer4203/29/2019, 12:27:49 AM1 votes

i agree on the first one. flamers usually flame because they wanna shift their mistakes on someone else. (or at least their brain wants to do that) nr 2 doesnt seem to work. i remember when i was in a normal with a premade and someone flamed him so he muted that person, game lasted forever, i didnt mute the guy yet he continues to flame my premade and "talk with him" for 40min straight. usually they also start to int if they realize noone pays them attention.

Jimmy Rustles3/28/2019, 5:19:34 PM1 votes

Just say Thanks for the feedback!

They always either zip it or flame you way worse, which means you get to see them chat restricted after the game

OneMustFall3/28/2019, 5:54:09 PM1 votes

{quoted}

We all know league has a decently toxic playerbase. We know these people will snap and flame for no good reason whenever they feel like it. Flaming them back isn't the answer, it simply causes more problems than it solves, since not only do you waste time by typing and having them respond to your response, there's always that chance that you make them int/troll/afk. Instead, I would recommend doing 1 of the following:

Just say "mb" or accept blame, even if it isn't warranted. A pro player called TSM Zven does this when he plays, he says "mb" even if it clearly wasn't his fault at all. This makes the flamer feel a little bit better and doesn't really cause any conflict.

Mute or just don't respond. If the flamer realizes that their flame is having 0 effect, they will be more inclined to stop.

Blow it off. I've found that when I things like "lol" or ":P" after someone flames, they're less inclined to flame again. I don't know why, I just know it works.

There are many more ways than just what i've listed, but this is what i've found to work. So many games are lost because 2 or more people are too stubborn to just stop bickering between themselves. You can't stop them, but at the very least you can make sure you don't become one of them.

In concept, this sounds like a nice idea but it doesn't work from my experience (Aside from muting and not seeing your teammate flame). I've see players say "My B" to other people and the person who was flaming them ramps it up even more because now he's got that other person to admit fault. Now it turns into "Don't ever play "role" again" and "You're fucking awful.". I've seen people not respond (Mute) and it doesn't stop the flaming, they just take it into all chat and spend the entire game telling the other team how much the person they're flaming sucks. Using phrases like "LOL" or ":P" will definitely lead to them flaming you more and usually now your team will think you're trolling and start flaming too.

Not trying to hate but in practice, usually the only thing that shuts up a flamer is someone else who is carrying telling them to shut up and play. Even that doesn't always work. But in my experience that's the thing that works best.