Negativity Holding Back Otherwise Good Players

Pachyderm·8/21/2018, 12:36:54 AM·8 votes·5,818 views

My most recent game was rather rough, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't contribute to our loss. Unfortunately, we were set much farther behind when our Akali mid-laner decided to start flaming everyone on our team, tell the enemy team that we were inting, and spam the surrender button. The worst part is, she was mechanically the best player on our team, hands down.

I have to ask; why do so many players hold themselves back by letting the smallest things tilt them? Why do they start flaming their own teammates rather than encouraging them and trying to find a way to work with what they have? How can someone possibly expect to win when they're proving to be a far worse enemy to their own team's morale than the other team could ever be?

A penny for your thoughts.

28 Comments

Laughing Fish8/21/2018, 12:39:51 AM9 votes

There are people who are fully convinced that the game is already lost when they start flaming, and who don't believe it is making a difference. Since they declared the game already lost, flamed and cost the game, when they lose after flaming they consider it confirmation

Jamaree8/21/2018, 12:37:51 AM4 votes

If that isn’t a question I don’t know what is.

NekoniClaws8/21/2018, 11:29:48 AM3 votes

I don't flame but I will hit FF, quite readily.

Players have different sets of game knowledge- for example you might think this looks OK: https://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/NA1/2848045394/234492135?tab=overview I'm Leona, I messed up early-game, but I'm happy to try and claw it back, their team is full AD so just play around me, right? All good. I'm sure my team thinks so. I popped FF at 20 minutes. I haven't managed to get my team online.

I was about to become USELESS. Garen was getting Cleaver. Cleaver > Lethality > Percent health > Merc Treads, 3 ignites and I was Garen's Villain. NO CC outside of me. My team had NOTHING to play around. Game over.

If someone FFs early, I like to know their perspective. It's not always a quitting attitude. Flaming's still not OK though.

disregardable8/21/2018, 12:43:25 AM2 votes

Why do you want to keep playing with a shitty team that's going to lose when you could just move on?

Blenos8/21/2018, 1:48:13 AM2 votes

Because it's not a team, it's random people struggling to cooperate and which ever one manages to not feed wins 80% of the time

Edit: It's only a team sometimes in plat and diamond +

sleepysithlord8/21/2018, 1:03:04 PM2 votes

People hate losing. So when their teammates are feeding, and they are trying to carry, their comes a point when their mental breaks. They decide that they don't wanna be held hostage any longer by their trash team and want to go next.

Then, their feeding teammates have they balls to vote "no" on the ff and selfishly demand that the person playing well carry them. Know, they are in a situation where they played really well, feel like they are going to lose even if they keep playing well, want to go next, and are being held hostage by their selfish and garbage teammates.

You can see how this would all add up to your mid laner flaming the shit out of you for holding them hostage

Phoenixdust8/21/2018, 12:54:15 AM2 votes

Funny you ask how can "Negativity Holding Back Otherwise Good Players", yet the thing what held him back was not the negativity, but the team (and YOU)….

Lemme c da money8/21/2018, 9:27:30 PM1 votes

Flaming in these cases seems to start when the flamer thinks their team has passed the point of no return and a loss is inevitable, so they take the only opportunity the game allows for them to air their grievances and highlight how they've been wronged. Not agreeing that it's the smartest strategy out there- that just seems to be where that type of flamer is coming from.

A Bare Magician8/22/2018, 4:34:34 AM1 votes

The simple and most true reason I have come to is that its insecurity. The akali player feels that they should be winning due to how they are playing, that their team should be better etc. All the feelings of should bes and shouldn't are matters of insecurity in themself.

Losing a game makes them feel lesser, or worse about themselves and their time spent on the game, it feels ruined by others because their life is dictated by their beliefs of other people. They have to solidify their ideas in that its not their fault but everyone elses fault instead due to insecurity within themself.

If someone is actually happy with themselves, with their play and accepts the facts that they may lose or they may win then they will not ever flame anyone. The reason being is that they base a part of who they are as a person, their identity within the game. When that identity is devalued as in losing games on league, they feel as if they themselves are becoming devalued. In response they become defensive, blaming and negative in an attempt to convince themselves and everyone else that it is not their fault, and that this should not belittle their personal value whatsoever.

Its an entirely natural human trait unfortunately and it comes down to the very basics. If people could instead find value within themselves for other reasons aside from winning such as knowing they did their best, trying to find any single flaw they made and work to improve it, trying to teach and further team mates game knowledge in a calm manner rather than a hateful one then the flaming from these people would not happen.

I believe Riot has known this and is trying to change the incentives ie. the honor system/loading screens but most honors are recieved from winning and playing well as that is the main concern of the game and of the people in it. I could go on and on about it but simply put it is that the person is not happy with who they are unless they are winning, and then they get defensive to protect their feelings on the matter. Their sense of security in themself comes from winning the game, and their priorities are skewed. In reality its actually pretty sad, and I simply feel pity for the people who are in that state of mind so far that they feel the need to belittle peoples lives/value in a painful attempt to protect their own shortcomings.

I won't lie in that I myself have had these shortcomings or insecurities and have raged at games although not very often, and it is something that I am consistently trying to better myself at not only in league but just life in general. Not getting upset by expectations and reality is a lifetimes worth of work for anyone. I hope I shed some light on it and I apologize for the massive wall of text.

BurakkuRozu98/22/2018, 4:50:39 AM1 votes

As someone who does flame, and criticize my teammates "plays", we do it because we want to win, but the way they play, shows they want to lose. No I don't flame if I'm doing complete dogshit because that's my fault, unless their jungler has been camping lane and 3/4/5 man diving. However, if I'm pointing out your mistakes, telling you not to do them, ping you off, and you do the same thing that's making you die 5 times in a row, how do you expect me to feel? The reason why a lot of toxic people, you can see a lot of this in high elo, FF15 is because the game is basically over. Patterns repeat themselves. If your teammates are running it down early, chances are they will do it mid, and late. If your front line decides to itemize damage while getting completely destroyed in lane and then running it down afterwards, yes we want to ff. We want to ff so that we don't have to waste time in a lost game when we could be using that time playing a different one with an actual chance of winning. If the same thing happens, /ff go next. It doesn't waste everyone's time, both the winning side and the losing side. The reason why all the little things will get players riled up, is because the current meta is a heavy snowball one. Getting one or two kills in lane could potentially end that lane if the guy plays it right. Also, if your morale is controlling whether or not you should try to win, you are probably a 4FUN player. If you want to win, however much someone is flaming should not affect the way you play. Even when I get annoyed at my top and jungler running it down for 50 minutes, it doesn't affect my performance in my next game because I play to win.

Have you ever thought about why people actually flame? Unless they are just toxic trash, flamers generally want to win, while everyone else is just running it down. Every mistake counts. My two cents.

GodlyBane8/22/2018, 6:41:59 PM1 votes

I hate to admit but i used to be like this, not to brag but yes, comparitively in cs, and k/d/a i am the best (In ranked anyway). And i used to flame a lot, ive calmed down now because i know that every game that goes normal (23-29) or something like (35-29) is always winnable, and i can carry it. But if a game goes (4-21) I get very angry because im the one with those 4 kills most of the time and it feels bad knowing that this is not your elo, but it cant be helped, so instead of flaming, i just say something like "LoL is a shit game" and then i just mute all afterwords... im not proud of saying lol is a shit game, but im not exactly lying when i say that. Hey atleast i dont tilt anyone on my team anymore.

mlm olo mlm8/21/2018, 3:09:35 AM1 votes

Why did you allow their negativity to hold you back?

Percentages8/21/2018, 6:42:50 AM1 votes

There is this thing, called the MUTE button... major derp factor...

Mc Truck8/21/2018, 12:43:32 PM1 votes

Flame and tilt are not synonyms and one does not cause another. Don't misuse "tilt", it's getting obnoxious.