There are no trolls. There's only you.

Scary Shrimp·10/14/2014, 12:46:34 PM·28 votes·4,775 views

What do I mean when I say , "There are no trolls. There's only you?" .

You just played a horrible game. Top lane fed. Mid lane fed. Bot lane fed. Pretty much all your teammates sucked. Fucking trolls right? Top went like 0-15 or some crazy score. Jungler was decent maybe. You didn't do so bad yourself, maybe 2-4 or something. But what does this have to do with anything?

League is a game where you're not always going to have bad games. There's good games and bad games.

For every game you've had a "troll" there was probably a game down the line your team steamrolled the enemies.

And these trolls? Most of them aren't even trolls. Just players having a bad game. Perhaps the enemy is better then them. Maybe the enemy got away with like 10 hp. Shit, just maybe their jungler was amazing. Much more amazing then yours. Isn't that possible?

To see someone who purposely goes ad Brand, or purposely picks Anivia and walls away teammates , or a Janna who saves enemies every game is too much of an exaggeration. Now people who do that are indeed trolling. (of course I did see it more often in lower elos LOL but it was still rare)

But how do you win with bad teammates? The same way you win with good ones. Don't make mistakes.

The same way your bad teammates threw easy games, your hard games were made harder by you. I'm sure there's someone on your team that could have carried you. But the inevitable happened. You didn't do well. You didn't minimize your losses. Instead, you blame it on the teammates who fed.

In order to climb, you have to stop making mistakes. Every obvious cs you miss is a shame on your part. Every skill shot you know you could had hit is a shame. League is more then just winning your lane. It's about winning the game.

There's people I know that lose lane all the time but yet make up for it in team play. What if these same players started wining their lanes and kept doing their team plays? They'd fuck shit up.

.Don't be the guy who thinks every game has a troll in it. They don't . You are like a gambler with an addiction. The gambler only see's his chances of winning. You on the other hand is the opposite. A loser. A loser is someone who only sees his chances of losing.

Everything you can do to improve your odds of winning will make "trolls" appear less often.

Just remember that you are the constant, everything else is a fucking statistic. You won't win every game. But minimize your losses and increase your odds of winning. So that the scale tips in your favor and you by chance can win 6/10 games. Maybe even 51/100 games. You'll start somewhere.

Notes: I was in bronze once.

56 Comments

7ha7guy77710/14/2014, 5:53:20 PM14 votes

there's at least 1 troll in LoL, Trundle

Hoodzilla10/14/2014, 1:28:57 PM8 votes

Yes. People seem to be under the mistaken impression that people who play badly are doing so deliberately. This is almost never the case. Once I hit level 20 or so, I stopped seeing it. I had to make a fresh account at level 1 to see anyone trying to troll, and even then it was rare.

For clarity, I'm not a fantastic player. I haven't played much more than 200 unranked games, but I've done great in some, and awful in others. I remember one game as Jayce top I went 0/9/2. My team was upset, sure, I was disappointed in myself as well. I'm sure I got reported (our mid told me as much), but nothing came of it. That's because it isn't against the rules to have a bad game.

When you see a teammate run AD Zilean Top and buy five Ohmwreckers, THAT'S cause for concern. When you see a teammate having a bad game, stop assuming it's deliberate, and think of the times you've had bad games.

Keep this story in mind too, to drive the point home that you can't know what's going on behind your teammate's screen. When I played WoW, there was a hunter in my guild who was on point most of the time. He posted high DPS in almost all his fights, learned the fights quickly, and generally did very well. However, the rare times he didn't, he would just stand there auto-attacking, reacting too slowly to the damage fields and attacks bosses would do. I brought it up to a fellow officer in a private message -- "What's with this guy? Why doesn't he just wake up and do the fight like he knows how?" I was patiently informed that this hunter had post-traumatic stress disorder, and would sometimes lose track of where he was and what he was doing. Naturally, I felt like crap, but it taught me a very important lesson -- there is a wide variety of reasons someone could be not playing a game very well. It doesn't necessarily need to be a psychiatric condition or a disability, and in fact, most of the time, it could be the player just having a bad day.

The sooner you stop assuming people are deliberately out to get you, the more enjoyable the game becomes overall.

Narasimha10/14/2014, 3:20:36 PM5 votes

Does that mean the bot alistar who literally only followed me throughout the jungle... Was me playing bad? And this was in ranked, mind you.

jimmylism10/14/2014, 1:19:24 PM4 votes

There are no trolls? http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/NA1/1581768283/220798174 I think 81 deaths on a bot game says otherwise...

GoldenLeSpoink10/14/2014, 8:35:31 PM3 votes

I am with you my brother! People in the comments are probably just hating because you spoke the truth. Keep in mind that he knows their are trolls, but odds are you aren't going to have one every now and then.

Atlas Mason10/14/2014, 1:41:29 PM3 votes

While I think this is will fall on deaf ears for the most part, it is the truth. Watch pro players and you'll see what he means.

owenstarkiller10/14/2014, 2:22:59 PM3 votes

This is a breathtakingly ignorant comment. When you have three players at once dance in the fountain get back to me on trolls. You are confusing "trolling" for "bad play". They are not the same thing. Go be sanctimonious elsewhere.

Remlap122310/14/2014, 3:51:37 PM3 votes

Jesus OP, have you NEVER had a premade troll game? EVER? Where the team intentionally feeds the other team and then pretends that you're toxic because they're "doing bad" and "friends" the other team after game and honors them? Or what about DrMundo's shoe shop? Stealth ward Teemo? And this whole snarky aside comment "I was in bronze once" isn't helping your case. I was in Silver once until I hit a huge stream of trolls in ranked. Now I'm in Bronze I with no hopes of getting out because someone decides to go Katarina support. This ain't Call of Duty where you can go on your 25 kill streak, and drop a tactical nuke to end the game. This is a MOBA. If you're team is trolling, it's a guaranteed loss. I've never won a game where someone intentionally feeds, or follows me in the jungle. You might want to think about that before you get on your self-righteous soapbox about how it's "all me."

Sammystorm10/15/2014, 6:44:55 AM2 votes

most people don't have the motivation to level a account to 30 just to troll so what trolling we do actually see is based on people being spur of the moment jack asses.

ThatWerido10/14/2014, 2:23:33 PM2 votes

You just played a horrible game. Top lane fed. Mid lane fed. Bot lane fed. Pretty much all your teammates sucked. Fucking trolls right? Top went like 0-15 or some crazy score. Jungler was decent maybe. You didn't do so bad yourself, maybe 2-4 or something. But what does this have to do with anything?

When something like that happens, it's either a 3 man premade trolling, or the enemy team is way above their level. When people say "omfg i get trolls every game", it's just an overreaction to a few bad games. However, do not forget that there are people who instalocks someone like Urgot and says in champ select that they're going to troll and feed the enemy team.

Legostrike10/14/2014, 10:34:52 PM2 votes

For every game you've had a "troll" there was probably a game down the line your team steamrolled the enemies.

Stop right there. Not true. At least not for me....

People keep telling me this, over and over, but please good sir, when I've found my best role (support) figured out when to ward and where, figured out the nuciances of my main champion (Sona) tell me, please tell me, why I've been on a ranked losing streak for the past three Elos? please, tell me.

Isthia10/15/2014, 2:18:26 AM2 votes
Sammander10/14/2014, 4:56:25 PM2 votes

Trolls are like Freddy Krueger - they can only hurt you if you fear them.

Chromatic Eagle10/15/2014, 4:30:21 AM2 votes

I've literally seen people run into the turrents repeatedly and get themselves killed.

I've seen people afk after a few deaths knowing they're screwing over their team.

I've seen people trash talk chat all game even if people mute them.

I've seen junglers outright tell people they won't gank for them because their lane got countered.

I've seen people spam /surrender even when our team had double the kills and are in the opponents' base.

I have been the player with bad games. I have been the player who just sucks. Trust me when I say I have also been the player who trolls.

Rew71110/14/2014, 5:45:38 PM1 votes

If someone gets a down vote for posting a comment and it goes bellow 0 then there are trolls.

Lozier3/14/2015, 5:50:32 AM1 votes

Zed was just pounding on our Cass Troll, we had no jungler. Luckily I had an awesome Thresh support (Goku1252) and we just demolished bot lane. Mid way through the game Cass D/C's without saying a word. Zed is annoyed and frustrated, he starts losing his cool. I'm calm about it and already knew something like this would happen. I know the Zed's just upset so y'know what? I'll go extra tryhard to win this game. ;) I had to set him straight though because he started raging at all of us.

me : ''It's fine Zed I'll carry.'' him : ''bad adc only 9-3'' me: ''Well Zed you're only 1 kill/ 1 death.. I mean you're not really doing shit. Talon over here had to deal with Cass isn't complaining or not trying his hardest to win lane. What's wrong with you?''

He finally made a decision and started trying to win this game with us, split pushing top while the enemy rushed us mid lane. We held our ground for the longest time and Zed was able to get their top Inhibitor. Because of some mistakes the enemy team did we were able to get baron and win the game.

''I'M CRAZY!!! got a doctor's note..'' - Jinx

Graiskye10/15/2014, 3:08:07 AM1 votes

The OP may be a bit optimistic, surely for my tastes, I see the world from a darker perspective.... but the kernel of truth in his statement holds fast. You/I are/am the one constant variable in all the variables that make up an LOL team. If you want to approach it from an optimistic and supportive direction, you may not win more games, but, and this is guaranteed, I guarantee it with cookies, you will have more fun, and be way stress free when the game is over as opposed to a raging nerd-ball of* 'UGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH the trolls IM stunk with every-game nnnnnnnnnnnooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo'*

As for improving ones game-play.....again it really comes down to the individual. If you cannot honestly look at yourself as a LOL player and see your strengths and weakness's, ask other people your friends your enemies etc...what they think of your play. Watch matches you played if you can, whatever you can do to examine your in game play. You must be able to honestly examine your own play, or you will always remain were you are, this is a training aid used by all proffesional athletes, they have to study themselves. This level of intensity is not for everyone, for many people it is ok to just be average and have fun playing LOL. Not everyone wants to be ranked, but I think we all still want to play as well as we can, to improve to our own best level, why ? Its more fun when you play well and help make killer plays or pull a smooth gank. There are different routes to get to the same point and I think the OP has some great ideas, so I will glean what I can from them and thank him for that. If you want to learn, really learn, you cannot be a** snobby learner**, there's nothing stupider(IMHO) than a snobby learner, life has lessons to teach us at any moment of any day or any night. You never know when the proverbial apple will fall(I refer to Newtons classic gravity inspiration). We have gotta be open to that, be ready to get bonked on the head by knowledge, there are far far worse things to be bonked in the head with. A pessimist showing his optimistic side. Have fun and play with honor LOL is a great game.

Sachiru10/15/2014, 9:11:53 PM1 votes

Id Like to Add, as a Very new Player, Fresh to MOBAs But with 12~ years MMORPG experience, I find It kind of a Harsh environment to learn in, for The following. Up till level 10, I was facing Mostly bots, Between The Beginner bots that My Friend steam rolled, or My GF and I had a challeneg on, it was a Unrealistic Learning environment, we Moved to Intermediate Bots Around when we started Steam rolling the Beginner ones, and all we found were Smurfs That Lashed out at us for One or Two Rookie Mistakes, Or When we Tried ARAM it Was either Steam Roll RAF abuser's or Get Mocked By a Smurf when we get a Champion we didn't Know. Ultimately We Had to Wiki Each Champion on My second monitor At every loading screen, But it was still a rough process, One mistake and if you have some one Smurfing with you, you were at risk of a lashing, what can you do though?

 we Gained a Bit of confidence In our "Skill" but when we hit level 11 That proved an illusion, Now we were getting Steam rolled every second game, and That's when we learnt what "Smurf" meant.

 I remember Taking a New Champion I just got to a 3v3 Beginner Bot Match, and the person My friend and I were matched with, ended the game in 12 minutes, and told us, that we Should have just Afked Instead, because we made the match last longer for him. explaining that he was a gold Rank smurf.


TL:DR is

New Players need thick skin, because they WILL get rained down on by their team, Some players give good advice, some times In harsh ways' and you need to take it with a grain of salt.

And Old Players Need to Remember, you were new once too. Not every one has the time or patience to learn everything from wiki's youtube guides and all, Some times the best way to learn, is to hop into a Match with a basic grasp of how to play your Champion, and your role, and Go Ham, learn from our mistakes so too speak.

All In all, I agree with the OP. If you lost a game, be it a easy win, or a Hard fought defeat, LoL Is a team game, And It's not one persons fault you lost, It's every ones, I always have thought that In PvP arena's and I still do, If I lose a Match, I didn't carry hard enough, or Didn't Communicate my Plan to win to my team, and Assumed that every one knew what they were doing.

P.S - don't Assume a new player will speak up and tell you they are new. Often times, when a New player Asks for help. They Get ignored, or told off. or Both. This is the Unfortunate Truth of the Internet.

P.P.S Sorry for the wall of text

Katsa10/16/2014, 3:51:54 AM1 votes

There are trolls, I just ignore them and win anyway :) I love doing that because it makes them mad enough to think what they're doing is stupid. Also won 4v5s because we had rage quitters. That makes them rage even more because they don't even get the win lol. So why not make people regret what they're doing by showing them that they can't stop you?

Camouflaged10/16/2014, 6:37:42 AM1 votes

What do I mean when I say , "There are no trolls. There's only you?" .

**You just played a horrible game. Top lane fed. Mid lane fed. Bot lane fed. Pretty much all your teammates sucked. Fucking trolls right? Top went like 0-15 or some crazy score. Jungler was decent maybe. You didn't do so bad yourself, maybe 2-4 or something. But what does this have to do with anything? **

I'm going to stop you right there. So you're telling me I was first pick and picked a Mid fizz and the 4th pick picked kat and ran and fed my mid lane 6 kills then fed top then bot all of that is just me having a "horrible game" totally bro I must really suck i ended up 7/7 all my deaths were from fed as hell annie and sion

MasticatingGrill10/17/2014, 8:32:32 PM1 votes

What do I mean when I say , "There are no trolls. There's only you?" .

You just played a horrible game. Top lane fed. Mid lane fed. Bot lane fed. Pretty much all your teammates sucked. Fucking trolls right? Top went like 0-15 or some crazy score. Jungler was decent maybe. You didn't do so bad yourself, maybe 2-4 or something. But what does this have to do with anything?

League is a game where you're not always going to have bad games. There's good games and bad games.

For every game you've had a "troll" there was probably a game down the line your team steamrolled the enemies.

And these trolls? Most of them aren't even trolls. Just players having a bad game. Perhaps the enemy is better then them. Maybe the enemy got away with like 10 hp. Shit, just maybe their jungler was amazing. Much more amazing then yours. Isn't that possible?

To see someone who purposely goes ad Brand, or purposely picks Anivia and walls away teammates , or a Janna who saves enemies every game is too much of an exaggeration. Now people who do that are indeed trolling. (of course I did see it more often in lower elos LOL but it was still rare)

But how do you win with bad teammates? The same way you win with good ones. Don't make mistakes.

The same way your bad teammates threw easy games, your hard games were made harder by you. I'm sure there's someone on your team that could have carried you. But the inevitable happened. You didn't do well. You didn't minimize your losses. Instead, you blame it on the teammates who fed.

In order to climb, you have to stop making mistakes. Every obvious cs you miss is a shame on your part. Every skill shot you know you could had hit is a shame. League is more then just winning your lane. It's about winning the game.

There's people I know that lose lane all the time but yet make up for it in team play. What if these same players started wining their lanes and kept doing their team plays? They'd fuck shit up.

.Don't be the guy who thinks every game has a troll in it. They don't . You are like a gambler with an addiction. The gambler only see's his chances of winning. You on the other hand is the opposite. A loser. A loser is someone who only sees his chances of losing.

Everything you can do to improve your odds of winning will make "trolls" appear less often.

Just remember that you are the constant, everything else is a fucking statistic. You won't win every game. But minimize your losses and increase your odds of winning. So that the scale tips in your favor and you by chance can win 6/10 games. Maybe even 51/100 games. You'll start somewhere.

Notes: I was in bronze once.

I like how you empirically state that because there really is not a troll in EVERY game, pretty much trolls simply do not exist.

When someone loses ten games in a row yeah it's probably their own fault. In which case empirically the troll is REAL. It is THEM. When someone this last season dropped a full tier, it was THEM not the teams they got matched with.