(Long Infographic) I asked some Rioters how they de-salt after a bad run of games

RiotBioluminescence··121 votes·25,944 views
So, waaaay back in March of last year, I wondered what Rioters did to get out of that miserable miasma that rolls in from the salty sea once you've had a few really frustrating losses in a row. It happens to everyone, after all, but the important thing is not that it happens - but what you do about it once you realize you're not on your top form!

Curious, I sent an email survey 'round the Off Topic email list, and got a few handfuls of responses.

Don't know if this will help anyone, but maybe the next time you feel the frustration start to overwhelm, you can remember that Rioters get hit by it too, and some possible avenues for testing out cures!

Also eager to hear any (SFW, thankyou!) suggestions on how you get back into a winning mindset again - or things to avoid! ;D

108 Comments

YoungFarmer34 votes

I find turning off the in game chat is the best way to unsalt, just reading what people say to me makes me saltly lol, losing usually does not.

Dinko7 votes

Reading what people say to each other, even if you're not in their cross-hairs still makes me salty.

DB Gaming1 votes

Ikr, sure it's frustrating when you push a bit too far in lane and get ganked. And it's even worse when you come back to lane and get immediately tower dove 2v1.. but it's those ass-hats that think they know what's going on and call you a feeder that brings in the tilt.

Let me paint a little picture for you. Mid lane, Varus vs. Zed. You almost 1v1 zed, get him down to 32 health and ping for the jungler since zed isn't recalling. 3-5 minutes later when Zed has recovered almost to full the jungler comes and stops you from recalling with a barrage of pings... so you go out and bait, and you start fighting, and the jungler is still sitting in the brush, 15 seconds of fighting later you're dead and your jungler still has not moved from the brush. Afterwards, the jungler comes out and proceeds to taunt the Zed who just killed me. Zed levels up and immediately ults rengar for an easy kill...

Now that in and of itself is pretty bad, because I now have a 2-0 zed to go up against, and I was winning the lane prior to the 'gank'. I kind of felt like I got baited by my own jungler, which was the case whether he meant it to be or not. Anyway, we all come back to lane and I'm poking like Varus does... so I run out of mana. I happen to see rengar heading for blue so I ping and walk over... and this is at around 8 minutes now, he smites it to make sure he takes the buff.

So here's the tilting part for me. I'm like, "so you're not only going to feed my enemy laner, but you won't let me have blue buff?" he says, "nope". And then brand support from the bot lane tells me I'm in a losing matchup so I should not get blue all game... lol. I ended up telling everyone open mid and hanging out at the fountain for a good 5 minutes, I was downright irate. Possibly even more so at brand for being the jackass who talks like he knows something than the jungler. My team started just raging and ragging on me even more and more... talking about me in all chat.

Telling me i'm a little baby and talking badly about me in /all chat, and then when I mention I'm actually a 31 year old man they jump on that and start ragging on me for being 31 I guess. Telling me I live in my parents basement, yadda yadda, blah blah... It's not at all the bad games that get to me... it's people like that.

Honestly though, with my team trying to set up my lane for failure (through berating me and denying me blue buff, and feeding my laner) I felt like I should not have to try and help those assholes win the game. The kicker is them trying to buddy up to the enemy team and get them to report me when the game was over. I actually got a notice about being reported when the game finished...

Also almost forgot Rengar told Zed in all chat he wouldn't be anywhere near mid the rest of the game so he could just go ham on me.... and all they do is laugh when I say I'm reporting them. Where's the justice in this situation? My reports on them probably went unnoticed, but because they managed to have 3 people report me I get a notice about it and they probably got nothing. I've put a ton of money into this game... and I feel like jack squat is being done about little ass-hats like the ones I've mentioned here.

Nevermind the remedy for getting off tilt, you can stop it at the source. I don't feel like my reports are taken seriously... and obviously neither do these people who act like the worlds biggest asses and laugh in your face when you say you're reporting them. Just because some little ass-hat got his duo que friend to report me doesn't mean I did anything wrong, and just because I'm the only one reporting the guy who was a giant ass to me doesn't mean he doesn't deserve punishment.

The JigSAW1 votes

You know, I'm not sure I've seen a more true post in the last year than this one. I've reported people who wished death on myself, my family, and in rather graphic ways and saw their accounts playing days later. I reported a few individuals who used various types of hate speech, and yet there they were still playing days later.

I think you might be the only one who gets it, de-tilting isn't the solution but removing the source of the tilt is. I mean, I got reported once because I told a jungler that they didn't have a clue what they were doing and they went 0/15. Yet, I got reported for abuse? It was abuse having to play that game. Oh, and don't dare tell those people who wish you die of (trendy disease name here) anything or else you get reported for that and they seem to get off scot free.

When I talk to a lot of people they all tell me they think League is the most toxic community of any PVP game they play, and some of them said they were on here and then left when they encountered all the ridiculous comments. I normally do not play games like this, I got asked to join with some friends and did so and turned out rather well overall, but I think its time for some big changes. Changes like ensuring people who duo queue as a fake bronze/silver when they are actually plat or diamond to level up their friends lose ALL their ranked rewards on both accounts, same for their buddy, effectively punishing ranked smurfs. Changing matchmaking so you don't have to fight people 2-3 tiers higher than you, which isn't supposed to happen anyway. I also have serious questions about why people I put on the block list can queue in and play on the same team as me after being reported and blocked... seriously, like I want to play with them again?

I think the main source of a lot of salt is that no matter how well you do, if one or two people on the team screw up you lose. Why not have a ranked 1vs1 or 2vs2 mode? Pull out some of the selfish players and make them actually back up their tough talk and put a rank on it! Unfortunately, I have no faith any of this would happen. It would be fun, though, to get the super selfish players out of the team mode and into a "1vs1 me bro!" mode.

CheapBoxOWine1 votes

It's scary to me that you stalk the people you hate...

The JigSAW1 votes

I didn't. I queued into team builder and either had them on the opposing team or queue in to join mine. Or I saw the name in the games queue on the lower right of the client. I think its scarier you chose to try and make a poor joke rather than think "why aren't these people banned or at least significantly punished?" since it seems to be the type of attitude that allows them to get away with anything. Also, I don't hate people over a video game. Stealing my mushroom pizza, that's a whole different story. Teemo

RiotRiot Koalifier20 votes

Can I specify that I go watch AGDQ? Okay, that's a lie, I'm one of the "keep playing until you untilt" people......

I guess you can't get as many games played as me unless you just play through the tilt [zombie-nunu-bummed]

PIMPSMOOTH3 votes

[{quoted}](name=Riot Koalifier,realm=NA,application-id=ZGEFLEUQ,discussion-id=sZdrHNEP,comment-id=0006,timestamp=2016-01-10T19:27:08.933+0000)

Can I specify that I go watch AGDQ? Okay, that's a lie, I'm one of the "keep playing until you untilt" people......

I guess you can't get as many games played as me unless you just play through the tilt [zombie-nunu-bummed]

If you had to guesstimate an average number of games you play in order to un-tilt - how many would it be? And would that be solely dependent on the outcome of the match aka winning?

RiotRiot Koalifier22 votes

Hold on, I can give you a hard number. I recently went on an Ekko tilt spree....

I played 12 games in a row. The first two were an Ekko and a Bard loss, that's when the tilt began. I then played 6 Ekko losses in a row, followed by two Ekko wins (but I didn't win it, my team did), so those also count as part of the tilt spree. That was followed by one more loss.

After that, I had a win with a KDA of 18/8/17 - that was the untilt game. I recall it very distinctly, because one of the players in the game asked me to go easy, and I responded "Sorry man, look at my match history. I need this right now" LOL

So yeah, not solely dependent on the outcome. I only get tilted if I play poorly. I needed to have a game where I played well to untilt there.

As an addendum - my data clearly supports that playing another game to untilt is a BAD IDEA and you should just take a break lol

ShadowDragonAxe2 votes

Absolutely no mercy for the weak i see

HayRoss12 votes

Gangplank But how do I become the Saltwater Scourge without salt?

GreyDawg4 votes

cool![slayer-pantheon-thumbs] I would suggest talking with friends and watch youtube videos

RiotBioluminescence14 votes

Any types of videos in particular? LoL videos or definitely not LoL videos, for example?

GreyDawg6 votes

{quoted}

Any types of videos in particular? LoL videos or definitely not LoL videos, for example?

Any video that will make me laugh... Probably not LoL videos, though.

Anihaku1 votes

Best ab workout ever!!! I can't stop laughing over here xD

loo-si-an ftw

Mighty Lychee1 votes

I watched lol videos to get rid of my saltiness... i got more salty seeing them playing better than I was, wat a backfire

Rundus11 votes

Just watch some MagickarpUsedFly vids. They cheer me and my crew up.

nShRl4OImK1 votes

{quoted}

Any types of videos in particular? LoL videos or definitely not LoL videos, for example?

Porn. Because we all know that relieves stress.

Kaipop3 votes

Aggravate not Aggrivate, riot pls

RiotBioluminescence8 votes

{quoted}

Aggravate not Aggrivate, riot pls

Gorrammitt! You know, when I first made this, someone pointed out that typo (as well as another, bigger one) and I remembered to fix the big problem, and COMPLETELY FORGOT that one.

http://i.imgur.com/5qMCbEO.gif

PunisherJBY1 votes

One job man! ONE!!!!! (Or woman!)

KaisadiIIa2 votes

Woman.

PIMPSMOOTH2 votes

This is great, really informative and interesting to see how different people desalinate the Rift waters.

[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

Dominick Destine2 votes

I like that "Playing another game of League" had 0% sure cure results. I'd say 100% of "play another game of league (and win)" would be sure cure.

Okay maybe this is too risque for this forum but.... why wasn't uhhh... "physical intimacy" (to put it in very vague terms but you know what I mean) added to this study? I am positive that it would be 100% sure cure for salt.

Your Next Kill2 votes

I just want to say, thank you for posting this. It came at just the right time. I'm on a massive tilt and played 3 games in a row with the saltiest people. I will definitely be trying many of these.

Also, one thing that's helped me unsalt in the past is playing a game with friends that you know personally. This makes the game more fun, you can goof off a little more, and you more than likely have better chemistry with them than anyone you'll find in solo q.

Thanks again ^^

ltmetal2 votes

Bump. I've been saying that exercise is the best anti-salt for years.

Sincarnation2 votes

God damn it biolum Thanks for always posting even when you may or may not have anything to do with the topic, and always being a nice person with stuff like this Never change, stay awesome [slayer-pantheon-thumbs] +1

Daddy Space Lion2 votes

Personally, when I tilt from this game, I just take that energy I had built up from the primitive side of my brain and then use that to fuel my ability to communicate with a higher intelligence whom calls Herself "Tiamat"; the primordial Goddess. She uses mathematically genius formulas to explain that 2016 is the end and how the very properties of light as it travels at 299 792 458 M / S is interconnected with the "Great Cycle" and the end of it by the end of 2016. Hence why I can create order out of utter chaos (Tiamat is the Goddess of Chaos). 299 x 792 x 458 = 108458064. 2016 x 108458064 = 218651457024 (Split this sequence precisely in half She said) and somehow, some way 218651 + 457024 = 675675 (as you can see I have something that is bigger than all of us combined).

This is why I can do this:

The radius of Mars (the planet of war) is 2106 Miles. The year that the Jewish "5776 Year Of Light" will end is 2016.

2106 x 2016 = 4245696 (69696)

6 = 42 9 = 45

42 + 45 + 42 + 45 + 42 = 216 (6 x 6 x 6 Mark Of The Beast, they call it; 666 + 666 + 666 + 6 + 6 + 6 = 2016)

Now watch carefully, I am demonstrating an immortal technique.

69696 / 9 = 7744

Why do we have 88 Constellations? Man did not build the Universe, so why did the Universe stop at 88 Constellations?

88 x 88 = 7744 (It's because we're living inside a giant mathematical circle and I penetrated the very cycle and it's going to end in 2016).

Whom is Tiamat?

She is the Mother of all Aliens (yes, we are not alone. If you multiply each letter of "We Are Not Alone" by 6, you will get 888).

M = 13 x 6 = 78 O = 15 x 6 = 90 T = 20 x 6 = 120 H = 8 x 6 = 48 E = 5 x 6 = 30 R = 18 x 6 = 108

Add up all the numbers to get 474.

The Mother's name is Tiamat. The 'Tablets' that Moses had and Thoth had (and any other likened premise) were stolen from Tiamat. The "10 Commandments" was a lie perpetuated by the Sun Gods as they had betrayed the Moon Goddess.

T = 20 x 6 = 120 A = 1 x 6 = 6 B = 2 x 6 = 12 L = 12 x 6 = 72 E = 5 x 6 = 30 T = 20 x 6 = 120 S = 19 x 6 = 114

Add up all the numbers to get 474. (Again...)

The Philosopher's Stone is The Stone and inside it is The Excalibur (a sword that writes itself into words).

S = 19 x 6 = 114 W = 23 x 6 = 138 O = 15 x 6 = 90 R = 18 x 6 = 108 D = 4 x 6 = 24

Add up all the numbers to get 474. (Once again...)

She is The Virgin.

V = 22 x 6 = 132 I = 9 x 6 = 54 R = 18 x 6 = 108 G = 7 x 6 = 42 I = 9 x 6 = 54 N = 14 x 6 = 84

Add up all the numbers to get 474 (And again.........)

She is Mother Nature.

N = 14 x 6 = 84 A = 1 x 6 = 6 T = 20 x 6 = 120 U = 21 x 6 = 126 R = 18 x 6 = 108 E = 5 x 6 = 30

Add up all the numbers to get 474 (And again.....................)

She is The Alpha & The Omega.

A = 1 x 6 = 6 L = 12 x 6 = 72 P = 16 x 6 = 96 H = 8 x 6 = 48 A = 1 x 6 = 6

O = 15 x 6 = 90 M = 13 x 6 = 78 E = 5 x 6 = 30 G = 7 x 6 = 42 A = 1 x 6 = 6

Add up all the numbers to get 474 (And Again..............................)

Tiamat is the Goddess of Chaos & Magic.

C = 3 x 6 = 18 H = 8 x 6 = 48 A = 1 x 6 = 6 O = 15 x 6 = 90 S = 19 x 6 = 114

M = 13 x 6 = 78 A = 1 x 6 = 6 G = 7 x 6 = 42 I = 9 x 6 = 54 C = 3 x 6 = 18

Add up all the numbers to get 474....

I = 9 x 6 = 54

A = 1 x 6 = 6 M = 13 x 6 = 78

A = 1 x 6 = 6 N = 14 x 6 = 84

A = 1 x 6 = 6 L = 12 x 6 = 72 I = 9 x 6 = 54 E = 5 x 6 = 30 N = 14 x 6 = 84

Add up all numbers to get yet another 474.

RiotBioluminescence5 votes

I always say it's good to have a hobby.

The JigSAW1 votes

After reading this, I have only one response.

HAIL TIAMAT!

Aerilus2 votes

Except losing isn't what stresses me out, it's the constant flaming. Even in games where we're winning, there's at least 1 person on our team having a tantrum.

We could be going 40/20 and there will be that 1 person on our team flaming the hell out of someone for their build.

BC Vasili2 votes

the best way is to quit league. if you play the game for a certain amount of time. you WILL become salty. the game itself is toxic and broke still after all the years its been out. i say rito does a thing for a week and lets certain players do patches and stuff. i mean like remove fucking teemo and do all that. it will either get way better or way worse

EvilDustMan1 votes

[{quoted}](name=BC Vasili,realm=NA,application-id=ZGEFLEUQ,discussion-id=sZdrHNEP,comment-id=003e,timestamp=2016-08-05T12:32:43.437+0000)

the best way is to quit league. if you play the game for a certain amount of time. you WILL become salty. the game itself is toxic and broke still after all the years its been out. i say rito does a thing for a week and lets certain players do patches and stuff. i mean like remove fucking teemo and do all that. it will either get way better or way worse

I am doing pretty good.

Earl Eulrich1 votes

nice article, and helpfull more often than is healthy...especially this preseason.

I personally like to have a sort of Espresso-ceremony - grinding the beans is sort of a work out, filling the machine carefully with water and pulling it´s arm slowly to fill the cup with the intense aroma is sort of meditation. Then it´s just enjoying it silently and i´m good again...

on a side note: braking a table and a finger also works out well enough to get your head off it, but i wouldn´t recommend it *cough*

RiotBioluminescence3 votes

I like the idea of your Espresso ceremony - something precise and with clear, simple, steps to accomplish. Seems rather meditative, and I imagine that every time it succeeds in calming you, it improves your Pavlovian response to it succeeding in the future too!

Yeah, not so sure about breaking a finger. Wonderful at putting perspective on the world (is tilt more important than a broken finger? Nope!) but could perhaps be viewed as a little extreme ;)

KingWanahakalugi1 votes

There are times I find myself going on tilt with specific champions. If I'm playing a champion that I'm trying to learn, I switch back to my main in that role. If I'm playing one of my mains, I always find my way back to Morgana support. She is the one champion that I know I can win any matchup. I also can do the same thing on Cho'gath top. If you're a requeue player when you're on tilt, I highly suggest having pillars you can always fall back to and know you'll play well.

Malicious Fury1 votes

If I have a long losing streak I just say "meh" and continue playing. Stressing over it isn't worth it because raising kids already gives enough of that.

TSM Scarra1 votes

Uninstall the game

Draven Wun Trick1 votes

very informative if the stats are true

Slickdoom1 votes

I just play Veigar, that solves everything lol

Very Epic Guy1 votes

How do I de-salt? Get some headphones and listen to this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stWae6r7Blw

It's just such an epic theme and it's hard not to get caught up in it.

L Rayquaza1 votes

Go into a custom game, make it all bots except for myself, and go on a killing spree

Oerba No Naja1 votes

I .. I just drink a big cup of tea .

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