Boards›Tips & Tricks

Jumping into PVP

xShunV·5/31/2015, 4:23:21 PM·5 votes·1,600 views

Before I start, I realize that there have been other players that have posted discussions about this, but I just wanted to put one out there myself. And that is: phobia of PVP, and lack of experience in it. This will be a bit lengthy.

So I've recently just come back to League after about a year or two of absence. The thing is I'm level 22 now (I've put on a level since coming back literally just a couple of weeks ago) and I've only done PVP twice, and that was before I left. Yes, only twice. I will admit that it is slightly sad. It's rather embarrassing to say I've only played against A.I. I enjoy bots, but I'd like to try and enjoy the player.vs.player aspect as well. After all, that's the premise of the game.

The reason for this is because of this crippling anxiety and fear I have of PVP. Don't get me wrong, I love League and have had fun with it. But I'm not exactly a confident guy when it comes to player to player. There's just this crazy pressure I feel that just keeps me away from it. I also don't want to be a hindrance/handicap to the team, especially because I don't have the experience I should have at my level.

Naturally when I came back, I jumped into bots to practice and get familiar with the game again and have tried to expand my comfort zones with various champs like Sona and Riven, having always played assassins. I know that players are completely different from bots and that in order to get better, I need to actually play against players. But to do that, I need to overcome my little phobia. I freeze up just from hovering over the solo button and imagining the match itself, not to mention all of the other crap.

Is there any advice I can use to get over my anxiety of PVP and turn it into a less stressful experience? Someone suggested I do a Leeroy Jenkins and just jump into it ._. I've heard from someone else that I shouldn't be afraid of losing as it can be liberating so I shouldn't have a fear of that either and that playing with friends help...except I don't have any XD For the record, I don't plan on doing any ranked for a LONG time down the road. Just planning on sticking to normal and getting used to that.

I'd appreciate any input you guys have. And for the record, I am serious, not posting this as a joke. Little-to-no experience and full of anxiety. -Shun

18 Comments

Kendra5/31/2015, 4:44:24 PM5 votes

First of all, welcome back!

Secondly, I have to say that your experience really brings me back to my early days of league, when I was scared to play PVP. I had a couple higher-level friends who kept trying to convince me to play PVP because they were bored of carrying me through bot games during which I did little more than wander around cluelessly and buy multiple pairs of boots...(lol!) They did eventually manage to peer pressure me into it and I was glad in the long run, but the first couple of games were really nervewracking, uncomfortable experiences for me. I was really lucky to be playing with 4 supportive friends in a Skype call, and I doubt I would've got up the courage to do it if not for them.

Ahem...reading back over that paragraph I realize I offered no useful advice whatsoever and probably just made it seem like even more insurmountable a task XD My bad! Seriously though, I think my advice would be to just yolo it and jump right in. And if you want, I could always add you on my smurf and queue up with you, just so you're guaranteed at least one person on your team who isn't gonna rage at you or flame you if you happen to buy multiple pairs of boots or something! XD

50000000000000005/31/2015, 4:56:28 PM3 votes

I was kinda like you. I didn't play with real people until like level 25 or something. I played league to learn and try different strategies. Losing was just another way to learn. At one point I fed hard and cost my team the game. Some of my teammates told me to uninstalland kill myself. After the game, I didn't play for a while because of that. But when I realized that I won't be seeing them again, it didn't really matter. I played another game, and did well. The important thing is that you shouldn't feel bad when toxic people rage at you. Ignore or mute them. And report them afterwards.

imonly4noobcakes5/31/2015, 4:25:53 PM2 votes

If you are new to pvp...Please for the love all that is sacred DO NOT jump right into ranked at lvl 30. I see so many unskilled players who jump into ranked thinking that just because they can that they should. Please practice in regs, and once you master a few roles and laning strats then move up to Team Builder. Once you get a number of wins in TB then you can try ranked.

Singing Lark5/31/2015, 6:20:31 PM2 votes

Haha. I had the same issue. Was really hella scared of PvP and refused to play it before I could kickass at bots.

I'll be honest my first PvP was an accident when I accepted a game inv from a friend thinking it was bots just to find out it was PvP. I would really say, just YOLO it because it's just normals and level 22 is pretty late to start normals. Even if you end up with a bad game, so what? You just found a new way to get better! I would suggest though, since you've played so many games of bots, to not have bot mentality when viewing enemies. (AKA, bots are hella predictable and PvP enemies are not XD.) Playing with friends helps, and if it really gets down to this, you could totally make a new account and play PvP with other lower level players so you don't feel as stressed going into normals because you're guaranteed that these players will have just as little PvP experience as you do. And then try PvP up to level on your regular account.

(Also, I'm not 100% sure how matchmaking works, but League might just matchmake you with and against other level 22 PvP noobs.)

ElJanitorFrank6/1/2015, 1:36:01 AM2 votes

Yes, you should definitely LEEEEEROOOOOOYYY right into it.

The people your PVPing against are people at your level (or smurfs, that you can't do anything about).

Everyone your playing with is in the exact same boat as you. You aren't joining a professional baseball team out of the gates, your just signing up for little league so you can learn and eventually gain the knowledge you need for the MLB.

Basically: Everybody at your level...well, is at your level. Don't be afraid to jump in.

And if ANYBODY flames you or something, just mute them immediately, don't take it to heart.

Not a single person who started playing LoL knew what they were doing right out of the gates.

flibitydoo6/2/2015, 4:16:29 AM2 votes

what I did was pick a champion I was comfortable with in bots to take into PvP. For me it was Alistar (the combo was something I practiced a lot in bots).

Took him into Dominion PvP. Dominion is nice because:

there is no champion meta. If someone else locks in an adc, you can lock an adc in too. No one will complain.
there is no laning phase. Dominion is mostly Teamfighting. Bot lane does have a sort-of laning phase, but chances are high that you join the 4 vs 4 top and teamfight for the whole game.

Also tried out some ARAM. Howling abyss is nice because it's very casual and played pretty much exclusively for fun. There is less individualism since you are always grouped up as 5 so you can very much "get carried", even if you aren't very good at this game.

Eventually I got comfortable playing against players in Dominion (and ARAM) and took him (and some other champions I felt comfortable playing in Dominion) into blind pick normals. The key thing I did when I was new was remind myself that this is a casual game mode. Everyone thinks that it is a casual game mode. Don't be scared, don't panic. Relax. It's casual. Don't be afraid to lose a normal game. It's harmless. Have fun. I did a lot better than what I thought I would be doing and had a lot of fun because of this mindset.

Eventually I played enough normals that when I lolkinged the players in my games, I noticed that they were mostly gold, plat and diamond players (which seemed kind of obvious given that they all had fancy borders and stuff). There was a small few Silver 2 players and 1 guy who was apparently unranked in some of my games. The majority of people I was getting matched with and against were actually good at this game. People were typing in things in chat like "sivir flash 1350" which is the sign of someone who is probably a high rank. ADCs were actually carrying and junglers were actually camping bot lane. the meta of 4-man-gank-bot-lane thing was something I learned to hate and loath because of how many times I, the support had to deal with it. What was really nice was that people were complementing me for my plays. One guy in particular, this gold border guy, told me he couldn't believe that I was unranked/silver V because of how good I did with thresh in comparison to the enemy team's gold bordered thresh.

Now I play teambuilder. the matchmaking is a little bit softer and I'm encountering players that don't seem as high ranking as I do in blind pick. This is nice because I actually get to practice new champions that I am not so experienced with like Draven.

Just be calm, remember that losing isn't the end of the world. Especially in a normals match. Play them for fun and practice.

Angry Monster6/1/2015, 11:04:30 AM1 votes

How much do you know of the basic meta? If you are completely clueless and jump in and yoloing it is not going to make it less stressful, in fact it could cause people to flip out and make you fears come true.

Go in prepared by spectate a game, watching a stream , vod or talk to a friend (just to make sure you know the basics). Understand that you may be placed with smurfs or people that have been PVPing for a while.

Make sure you have rune pages done as far as you can. Missing a rune or 2 is not a big deal but a completely blank page is asking for pain.

You also could wait for level 25 adn do team builder which will allow you to pick a roll and champ in advance (instead of fighting others for spots)

Commit Sudoku5/31/2015, 7:29:23 PM1 votes

the longer you wait to play pvp the worse it is going to be, nike just do it. the worse thing that can happen is you lose... i have over 1000 losses in normals and im plat 5 its just part of the game bro.

xShunV5/31/2015, 9:04:05 PM1 votes

So as of now, I've jumped into 4 PvP matches courtesy of Morbid and their smurf account before deciding to take a break. I will admit, it wasn't as bad as I thought. We got 2 wins and 2 losses. No trolls/flamers yet, but I'm expecting them in the future. But even if I do, I realized that I probably won't ever see them again anyway, so no point worrying about them, I can just mute them when they come. And as was pointed out, playing with players is a LOT more unpredictable, but thanks to that I had to play differently, picked up new strategies and learn how to ward (still in the process of it).

I know that this thread might have seemed a little silly to the higher elo players, but nevertheless I'm really grateful for the advice. Losing felt pretty refreshing instead of as horrible as I thought. If anything, now I'll feel worse the next time I lose to bots because of how easy they seem >_>

Even though it was just once person helping me through the matches, I was really grateful as it made me feel comfortable! I'm not as anxious now after a few games (still a tad apprehensive), but the challenge and change of pace was pretty nice. I think next time I will try and just jump right into it and whatever happens, happens. Joining any sort of ranked matches is a very far off dream, but at least I can say I'm a bit more comfortable with PvP now. Thanks to the players that have posted in this thread so far!