The all powerful mute button

Aykan·Oct 29, 2014·35 votes·11,283 views

I'm a guy who doesn't take derogatory and negative comments well. I usually would reply back, and in a not so nice way. However, I've found one thing helped me a lot.

Often people don't know how to use the mute button properly but I hope this tip helps. It's helped me a lot. I usually never mute anyone, UNLESS... and ONLY unless they say something which makes makes me lose my level head and want to type back. So that means no you do not mute everyone at the beginning of the game. For example, a conversation like this...

Player 1: GTFO my lane ping ping ping ping Me thinking: (What did I do? I'm only last hitting cs that he's missing out on anyway since he's at base) What I want to say: What's your problem? asshole What I do instead: Mute him and focus on game

Mind you, it's not that big a deal when someone says that but sometimes you're under lots of pressure and on top of that you have someone randomly cussing and swearing at you. Most people don't react too well. Anyway, If I said "What's your problem? asshole". I wasted time typing that which is completely irrelevant to the game AND I've just created tension on our team. Also, I'm not focusing on the game anymore but rather on player 1 and his doucherey-ness.

Another example:

Thresh: Wth are you doing? You're supposed to be doing ...and .... and.... Me thinking: (He hasn't landed any hooks. He doesn't even know how to trade. He doesn't even focus the adc in trades...) What I want to say: (ALL THOSE THINGS AND MORE!) What I do if he keeps continuing: Mute him and focus on game

If I said all those things, we would have just been arguing each other and BOTH our plays would have suffered greatly. I would have also added more unnecessary tension.

I gurantee you this will increase your chances of winning. I'm proud to say that even my last ranked game yesterday where our mid goes Zillean (I didn't think much of it at that time but I saw his history with that champ and he hardly played it, and oh boy when he did....he didn't exactly do too well). He gave first blood to an easily avoidable jungle gank. Our jungle was controlled by a decent lee on the other team right from the start. Our top starts cussing at him. I tell him to chill. He continues and so I mute him. Anyway few minutes in the game, our thresh is playing aggressively and he's at 40% health. They have the better matchup and are at 80% hp roughly. I do 1 "danger ping" on him and he tells me to "STOP ******* PINGING!" I got pissed. 1 Ping for your own good and you say that? I decide to mute him. Now, the other two people who are not muted are saying things and I decide to eventually mute those two as well. Mind you, I've NEVER muted my whole team before. I can proudly say that I kept a level head through it all.

This is all because of the all-powerful mute button. Becasue of it, we actually had a chance even though my whole team was broken. I was able to concentrate and I eventually had the potential to carry. Sadly though, from our top-lane's gameplay I could tell he gave up and I'm assuming there was world war II flame war in chat Anyway, I had the potential to carry but Nasus decided to splitpush top knowing that all 5 of the enemy members were at our base trying to close out the game. This just shows you that even in such a broken team like this, there is still potential to win as long as you do your best and the mute button prevents anyone from hindering your best.

Oh and one more thing, this was my last series game which would have determined if I advanced or not. I didn't. :) What can you do? You win some. You lose some.

38 Comments

Squeaky DreemurrOct 29, 201413 votes

All hail the All Powerful Mute Button. No really, I think this is a fundamental teamwork skill in League. Not everyone is going to attempt to work with the team, and giving those people any more of your attention than necessary can lower the morale and harmony of the entire team. Muting inflammatory team mates massively prevents me from tilting.

RiotSlumber JackOct 30, 20144 votes

Indeed! The amount of times I talk with chat-restricted players or those banned by PB&J audits who say "but, look at what the other person said to me (because I didn't mute them)! If only you understood why I said all of those awful things" is very high.

If someone's trying to get a rise out of you, say nothing; mute them; report them at the end of the game. Move on. Be happier B)

zane yalgirOct 31, 20141 votes

mean while 30 mins of your life are wasted on the one kid ruing the game why cant you realize you fucked up with the chat restrictions why cant you realize that the very root is the one jerk the decided to pick a fight. riot you presently have the the single worst policy i have ever seen in a game. wot runescape sc2 and so many more from ages past. kinda scratching my head and thinking to my self since when did a online game become pg and who the hell is the idiot forgetting all the crazies online.

p.s. that bs ban is how you picked the fight. dont provoke me and i wont provoke you

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while your at it you should cut the smoke and mirrors bs you have no intention of discussing anything all you want to hear "is rito we love you." guess what i dont love you ad im pretty sure its time to strat a summoner 11 to your profit margins so you remember the players agian

ItzonOct 31, 20141 votes

Indeed! The amount of times I talk with chat-restricted players or those banned by PB&J audits who say "but, look at what the other person said to me (because I didn't mute them)! If only you understood why I said all of those awful things" is very high.

If someone's trying to get a rise out of you, say nothing; mute them; report them at the end of the game. Move on. Be happier B)

Why not have an option for us to turn chat off all together?

God Mode EnabledOct 31, 20141 votes

Indeed! The amount of times I talk with chat-restricted players or those banned by PB&J audits who say "but, look at what the other person said to me (because I didn't mute them)! If only you understood why I said all of those awful things" is very high.

If someone's trying to get a rise out of you, say nothing; mute them; report them at the end of the game. Move on. Be happier B)

the fact that you cant defend yourself in this game without getting bans is ridiculous... you just stated that you don't even take what is said into context...

as your company has stated, the mute feature isn't something that players should be forced to use, so defending yourself whether or not it becomes what you would consider toxic is insane... its literally like you are sitting in an office chair, reading what the person who got harassed responded with, and just hit the ban button while laughing... that's being more trollish and harassing than the words that are being said in all honesty.

Nothing stops a player from making new accounts over and over, and as such, abuse will never stop.

But simply banning both people when 1 person clearly defends themselves is really sickening to know that you guys use that when dealing with people instead of actually looking at what was done, why the person(s) were acting the way they were, and putting everything as a whole into context.

If someone says my mother should go die in a ditch, do you really think im not gonna be like "hey how about you drop dead" maybe even add a mother f##### in there?

In the real world dude, that's not an uncommon, and sure it may be a little extreme, but when put into context, im sure you would act the same way.

You people at riot seem as a whole, incapable of putting yourselves in someone elses shoes.

This is a competitive game, shit talking and harassing are not the same

when someone says "the enemy has ganked my lane 9 times and you haven't ganked once" that's not harassment dude no matter how you cut it, that's raw truth, and if you honestly think that's harassment, then you guys are truly here just to further harass your gaming community by dropping pointless bans on undeserving people.

Now before you go smiting me, yes I have been toxic, and ive openly admitted that and have tried in more recent times to correct my behavior, but putting things into context, I genuinely feel like its more about people getting annoyed and just abusing the report features in a lot of cases ( not all, theres defenitly times I deserved to be reported, and im NOT proud of that fact, and its a reality im trying to deal with and be a better person ) but a lot of those cases, shouldn't be considered "toxic" in the context its used. really.

speaking truth and being toxic are way different

if someone calls me an ass hole, im gonna call them an ass hole back. That's not abuse, that's self defense.

Just because you guys sit in the seat of power, doesn't mean you cant be humans to, and be reasonable and understanding of a lot of the crap that goes on, between game plays, between behaviors, between the things you do see like chat, and the things you don't like blatant gameplay harassment that you apparently don't care about.

If someone in real life sits next to you, and pokes you in the face every second, and doesn't stop till you do something. Do you really think you will sit there all day letting them poke you in the face? hell no, at some point you will snap, that's human nature, you guys shouldn't be punishing the guy who gets poked in the face then eventually reacts.

This system creates such a giant pool of toxic behavior that only gets worse as time goes on

God Mode EnabledOct 29, 20144 votes

mute button? pft... im enjoying my 1,000th game of being on chat restrict due to how I talk back to people harassing me.

my problem is that I take crap way too far and cant help but type, and riot punishes me for defending myself against ridiculous abuse for no reason...

which only creates more rage... /sigh.... perma chat ban life

Mikal PikalOct 29, 20143 votes

Yeah, you 6 months ago was the target of this post :)

If you can't control your fingers then just mute...they can vent all they want about how terribad you are but not cause a blood vessel in your head to pop from holding back those nasty replies.

Bill GatezOct 30, 20143 votes

If my reply or message is going to be longer than 2 sentences, I just mute the entire team. I don't have time to explain every single thing in my head, so I would rather just focus on myself only.

Is it selfish of me? Probably

Does it work? Yes

UPfreelyOct 29, 20142 votes

I usually let people know before i mute them so they can ping instead of talk.

Hideous ZOct 30, 20141 votes

This is a good way to make people even angrier. Chances are high they are pinging anyway, and if they're mad at you enough to make you mute them, the chances of them stopping to think "oh hey I can't type to this person better use clear pings instead" is pretty low lol.

Just mute people and don't say anything. I will usually make one attempt at constructive comment (i.e. relax and focus on the game please), then mute if that doesn't work. Let them rage away in their own little world if that's what they insist upon - but chances are they will stop sooner if they think that no one is reacting than if everyone is muting them.

UPfreelyOct 30, 20141 votes

Correct but you still get cases where they won't communicate because they think you can hear them. Lack of communication is a recipe for disaster, I'd much rather have them be angry and communicate with me. Besides usually the anger subsides when neither party responds with arguments. Your logic isn't bad, but It just doesn't work for me.

TenSlashTenOct 29, 20142 votes

you one of those junglers that comes to a lane clears the 3 waves at the turret that laner could've got because he bought boots and is running up the lane while he's pinged you off that precious exp to hopefully at least stay within 1 level disadvantage of his enemy?

There are assholes in every game. But I'll telll you what. If everyone played logically instead of selfishly then most communities would be in a better place.

Thats one of the major issues with moba's over the years. Players don't think logically. they think selfishly. I certiainly am no saint. I think selfishly all the time. I might tax a few extra minions.

I might even take a whole wave. Hell sometimes instead of waiting for the laner to get back to his lane to shove the lane to finish those last 3-5 hits on the turret I'll shove the lane and take it myself.

I'm no saint. But its these kinds of things that seperate a solo queuer from someone who plays on a team regularly.

I actually used to do both religiously Within the last month I've started purchasing my VPN again to play in EU/KR area and I've gotten back in touch with an old KR team I had.

I've become quite selfish in just under a year because I haven't really played with anyone to consider them an ally/worth helping unless its a "need to win this game and this is how I do it" basis.

TLDR: MOBA community is selfish, costs us alot of easy wins because we're selfish =]

Champion SkinOct 30, 20141 votes

Well sometimes when I am champions with bad wave clear and I need to back it would sometimes be nice if the jungler "taxed" more and helped me push out the wave if the enemy died/got pushed out that is

1337n00bh4x0rOct 29, 20142 votes

Sometimes I want to just go on a tirade - like, do nothing but talk - at people who are clearly NOT being helpful. I lose a lot of time for it. Have you EVER, even ONCE, died because you were typing something stupid? Ever missed a kill or objective? I know I have.

I need to mute people more often. I really don't play very often (look at my matches, lol, I'm at like 52 games for the whole season and I play as often as I can) so a stray troll seriously ruins it. I don't get a "next game" that might be better. I get this one game tonight. Just one.

On the flip side, please don't be rude to people. I'd rather not mute anybody. :(

PhatdiamondOct 29, 20142 votes

Muting wins games. Here's times when I mute. Someone asks "why..." or says "this..." Two people bickering. People doing the typical post-death tirade. Honestly, 99% of chat is useless and unnecessary. There isn't enough time to type out complicated instructions. At the first sign of division, I mute all.

ChocmercOct 31, 20141 votes

Muting wins games. Here's times when I mute. Someone asks "why..." or says "this..." Two people bickering. People doing the typical post-death tirade. Honestly, 99% of chat is useless and unnecessary. There isn't enough time to type out complicated instructions. At the first sign of division, I mute all.

That is a very sad and ignorant stance to have. If you are muting people at the drop of the hat like that, it gives me the notion that you are afraid of / don't appreciate constructive criticism, and do not wish to grow from your mistakes. Granted there are plenty of people out there who fail to convey criticisms in a constructive manner, but there is learning to be had in everything, if only you keep your ears open. If someone is requesting clarity behind a play you made, or attempted to make, it is very possible that if you answer honestly, one or both parties gains to learn something. Turning your back to a possible source of knowledge / wisdom / lessons will hurt you and your teammates over the long run.

It all comes down to perspective. Seeing something from a different perspective, such as through a teammate's eyes, can be very educational. While not everyone can bring something useful or positive to a discussion, and several will take the opportunity to harrass or flame you, they could very well be trying to help you, or looking to learn for themselves something from your actions. A very important thing to note is that it is easy to misread someones typed message, due to lack of context and the fact that text cannot convey tone very well.

Often times stepping back from the heat of the moment and evaluating the message from an unbiased viewpoint will bring the true meaning from the message. I think we would all be happier players if we gave the benefit of the doubt to our fellow teammates. For truly, what do you have to lose from interpreting someones words in the best light possible? Sticks and stones as the old adage goes. For many, its just a simple issue of pride, of people behaving more as peacocks, worrying at each others feathers, or in a more modern example, having our precious "jimmies" in a precarious position, easily rustled. To continue the paradigm, we must surely lock our "jimmies" in a tamper-proof housing, or better yet, transcend these "jimmies" and move to a more secure, less volatile state of mind.

TheVishualOct 30, 20142 votes

Literally this is what causes people to lose a lot of games and be stuck in their own elo hell. Once you start raging you lose focus and can't play at 100% then it compounds and the game is over.

Best way to win any league game is to inspire your team to play their best... its a 5-man team and once you get past like gold its pretty much impossible to "solo" carry like in lower elo.

General VeersOct 30, 20142 votes

There should be an option to additionally mute /emotes (like laughs) and pings.

The ChinOct 29, 20141 votes

Yeah I'm pretty liberal with the mute button. If someone says even one little thing that rubs me the wrong way they get muted.

I used to let people know I was muting them. I'd say like "k muted" or something, but that'll cause about 10% of trolls to just straight up AFK so now I don't even say anything when I mute people.

TenSlashTenOct 29, 20142 votes

riot considers it midly toxic/BM to tell people they're muted so yeah.. don't do that...

The ChinOct 29, 20141 votes

Yeah, that's fair enough.

Based on in game experience I know that's not the right way to go about things.

RiotSlumber JackOct 30, 20143 votes

It's just not productive to announce to everyone that you're muting someone. Also, if you announce you're muting someone (perhaps because you think they're annoying) then that person only becomes more annoyed/offended. They'll probably report you back now that you've made a point of saying "I don't like you or what you're saying."

However, I've never seen someone punished just for saying "reported" before; it's usually accompanied by other patterns of toxic behavior.

ZyyyZOct 30, 20143 votes

It's just not productive to announce to everyone that you're muting someone. Also, if you announce you're muting someone (perhaps because you think they're annoying) then that person only becomes more annoyed/offended. They'll probably report you back now that you've made a point of saying "I don't like you or what you're saying."

However, I've never seen someone punished just for saying "reported" before; it's usually accompanied by other patterns of toxic behavior.

He'she may be annoyed/offended, but at least he/she won't waste time typing 10 inane lines that I don't care about nor can even see. I'd rather the person know i'm muting him/her so he/she will cease typing.

BismuthiniteOct 31, 20142 votes

It's just not productive to announce to everyone that you're muting someone. Also, if you announce you're muting someone (perhaps because you think they're annoying) then that person only becomes more annoyed/offended. They'll probably report you back now that you've made a point of saying "I don't like you or what you're saying."

However, I've never seen someone punished just for saying "reported" before; it's usually accompanied by other patterns of toxic behavior.

I like to announce that someone is being muted. That way they don't waste time spamming the chat and spend more time actually playing the game.

ByrnesOct 31, 20142 votes

I'm semi with the others...it is pretty important that my other teammates understand that I'm lacking verbal (er...written) communication with the other 1/5th of our team. Is there a good way to inform the others without causing a fit of rage from said toxic? Because if that person is barking orders and you're not receiving them, then you are now part of the problem too.

DeMenditeOct 30, 20141 votes

Agleed! I'm at the point where I mute everyone at the beginning of every game. It feels so quiet and pleasant.

Jeddy017Oct 30, 20141 votes

Then there are idiots like me who wish not to use the mute for 1 reason:

I'm interested in what is said in the chat because the chat box can be a very entertaining place,especially when everyone is joking around.

I know,I know,this is probably a dumb reason.But most games,the interaction between the players is where most the fun come from (for me at least).Hell,I even don't wish to mute those saying negative things towards me & my performance.I know the negative comments & toxic raging probably affects my mental state & overall performance,but I'm too much of a dumbass to make use of the all powerful mute button.

Using the mute button & mutes everyone at the start of a game would probably help me perform better,but that would be probably be boring,especially in the god damn laning phase where everything is about farming.

Please note:That I don't use the chat to rage at people.I know for a fact that I never told anyone "UNNSTAL N KIL YURRSEF BRONZ SCUUB".I try not to type too much,I'm not that fast a typer.I mostly just write a quick joke or comment (or a reply joke/comment) & move on.If anyone isn't performing well or is doing questionable,I say "Uh,Yi?"or "well then......",short neutral comments like that.I will step in to tell a rager on our team or their team to "chill" or "stop bitching".I mostly just peek at the chat & write something short,my main focus is the game itself after all.

But don't be a dumbass like me,mute the chat & play the game.

WankerooOct 30, 20141 votes

If you mute. You're a wimp. Trash talk is part of multiplayer games. So many thin skinned wimps.

Saint LatonaOct 30, 20146 votes

If you feel a need to trashtalk others, what does that make you? A weak willed person completely unable to be a decent human being. Nobody sane would ever feel a need to trashtalk and belittle others unless they are either 1) insane, or the most likely one 2) a child.

missinggraveOct 31, 20142 votes

Trash talk < Competitive Teasing. It's one thing to jab at someone for their mistakes and move on. It's another to intentionally try to make them feel awful, which in itself says something about you as a person. "So many thin skinned wimps." Yeah. Says something about you, but hey, poetic irony always seems to be at least a little bit funny to me at least. :)

Brenticus12Oct 31, 20141 votes

This is what I did when I was playing a ranked match as Thresh with Ashe vs Blitzcrank and Vayne. I knew Ashe wouldn't be able to get too many kills early game because of how item dependant she is (We did get first blood and a few early kills, but it wasn't enough) so I just told her to stay behind minion waves, away from the brush and out-cs vayne while I harassed her from between my minions. Thing was, she barely listened to me and I had to body block since blitz could easily pull her in. Because of this, I ended up dying a few times since I took the grab for Ashe. My teammates started raging, especially the top laner (Why is it always the top laner?).

The enemy team was sympathetic though, which was great. The blitzcrank actually noticed what I was doing and commended me for it.

My teammates though, they were still raging at me so I ended up muting them all except Ashe since she actually ended up realising why I died so many times and apologized for it.

Come mid-game though, because I had no one shouting at me through chat, I was able to concentrate on making good initiations and getting quite a few objectives.

We ended up losing though, but it was very close. We got their inhibitor first and took down both nexus turrets but we overextended and got aced. They then rushed our base and took it down :/

I did get reported by my teammatrs for intentional feeding though. Or atleast they said so and advised the enemy team to do so as well.

BakedLotionOct 31, 20141 votes

They can talk all they want, I don't care. Ain't that hard. Now that I think about it, I have never muted anyone in my life.

missinggraveOct 31, 20141 votes

Now if only there was a mute button for those who feel obligated to remind all of us sub-par players how awful we are. Thank you, League of Legends Community. (( I'm a bit bitter over a MULTITUDE of players that decided to be disrespectful due to a player not doing well in a game. Not me in every game, but there seems to be a growing number and that worries and angers me. ))

AetherKingdomOct 31, 20141 votes

Lol. People mute for extremely small reasons. like a couple of games ago morg: thresh stop suiciding me: maybe if you fucking committed we would do better morg: If i wanted to commit I'd play fizz me: WHAT THE FUCK, YOURE FUCKING MORG morg:muted. im so serious

HiemdolOct 31, 20141 votes

This is a really god point. Also along with muting people, like you said not typing things which will not, in all honesty, help the game is a great idea too. I started a similar strategy for myself and jumped from Bronze to Silver. I really found that not saying anything in almost any situation seemed to only help my win rate.

AykanNov 14, 20141 votes

Wow, didn't realize this thread would get this big. o_o I just wanted to share something that really helped me.

Sirin GioroDec 11, 20141 votes

+1.

But I have this mercy inside me, I feel like if I mute them I am not going to know of our future plans of winning the game together, but people say that if they're already flaming at you, they're probably talking about bullshit anyways.

Well, I just had an ARAM game where this Ryze just yelled at us about how bad our positioning was and "GG Jax fed". I muted this guy and concentrated on winning and peeling for the team and enemy's nexus, and we won. ALL HAIL THE MUTE BUTTON. PLEASE.

karkaniDec 22, 20141 votes

i don't know why but sometimes when i really am mad at my team, i froget to mute them so i don't get mad and they don't too So the mute button is great, and remember to use it on people harrassing you