Zen League, A Guide to a More Peaceful Game

I'm a Silver IV so take what I say with a grain of salt.

I rage out on video games too much, and there are times where I'm sure I had a ban incoming. I decided to take some steps to improve on that because after all, it's just a game and it should make us happy....right? But anyway, here's a few simple things I work on, followed up with why I think they are important.

1. Limit your communication to pings and "GJ".
2. If someone is raging on you, reply with "Thanks for the info, I'll work on that"
3. End every game with a GG, WP All. Even that game.
4. If enemy team is cross-taunting, reply with "nice one".

So to expound on these some, ideally I limit my communication with my team to pings, because even constructive criticism can be taken the wrong way and lead to a rage out. It's equally important to give your team a good job when they do something that you ask, it keeps the game positive. Getting into a pissing contest with someone for going 1/10/0 in mid will just distract you, them and your team and will more than likely cause that person to throw even harder. Also, even if people do listen to your criticism, constructive or otherwise, you need to focus on yourself improving, you're probably just training your next opponent anyway.

So when you're the guy going 1/10/0, we've all been there one time or another. The best thing to do is to not throw around blame, no the jungle isn't why you died 10 times, you are. If someone is giving you advice, even if it's rage text format, give it a thought. They might know something you don't. Thank them for the help, and if it sounds reasonable, attempt it, can't hurt at this point right? Either way, do your best to not get drawn into an argument, it distracts you, and the team and will make it even more likely that you'll lose.

Not all games end how we like them, sometimes they are full blown tilts, other times they were so close you could taste it. Regardless, it was a good game and you should have learned from it. I say to end games with GGWP All, more for my sake than the others, it keeps you from getting into that last minute end of game lobby brawl/blamefest that can keep you pissed off through the next match. Don't get sucked in to the negativity, it very rarely helps.

Lastly, when they get a quadra-kill and want to gloat, tell them good job or well played. No sense in arguing in all chat, there is nothing more meaningless than that. In silver league, one of the biggest problems to me is this idea that we don't "belong" in silver, or we "deserve" to be gold. That attitude makes it easy to blame our teams for our failures, instead of working on improving and climbing. If anyone else has some tips on having a less stressful game, please feel free to comment and add to this, or even tell me that everything I'm doing is wrong.

tl:dr Don't be a jerk and stay chill homies.