Well, I don't know if this was a serious request or not but I'm going to take it like it was! BadHABIT here with another Tales (hey, I can spell it right when I'm not running on 2 hours of sleep) of an Absolute Failure. I want to start out by talking about what's happened since then. I made it to Bronze 4 and was pretty happy. One day and one solid step forward. We knocked out a win for my first match in B4 and then... my second was met with a troll. During that one I slid backward a bit, and definitely made a direct attack. I kept my language clean, but at the same time it was a SOLID slip backward so I took a break. As much because I'm worried trolls will drag me back to B5 as because I'm worried about my own control.

If this seems disjointed, apologies. I'm watching ahq- esports and Azubu Taipei Assassins go at it and it's about 7 AM here in the EST timezone. Nearly 12 hours later over there. For me, I'm splitting this weekend between League, being excited about the announcement of the new Doctor by the BBC on Sunday and getting my brain together for getting back into school soon. So as much as I'd like to be knocking out hours and hours of League my heart and mind are just not in it right now. Though I just finished two games on an account on another server that went really well for me.

So the quote at the top of the page asks for advice for people who have a problem focusing on keeping positive and following, if not the rules I put in the last post, then at least their own version of them. The honest fact is that I don't think I can give any one solid piece of advice. What I can do for anyone who bothers to read this is to give my thoughts on the subject and hope that you, the reader can find something that rings true within it. Staying positive. Oh man is that ever hard. I'm HARDLY one to talk about an inability to stay positive. I have a pair of friends who I do ranked threes with and I can get so damned negative during bad teamfights. Or just in general. I LOATHE the new Twisted Treeline. For me, threes are ruined. I hate them. But I have two friends who I can get to team up with me often enough and they prefer ranked 3s over normal 5s any day. So I play it. The thing is I end up playing only to win. That gets in the way sometimes.

I'm not the only one on the team who has issues with keeping positive or keeping control of one's rage. I hope my friend of many many years and also our top-laner won't mind when I say that he rages as much as me.. and sometimes with disastrous effects. Thankfully, I think he's only ragequit one ranked three and that was out of frustration that the internet connection of our other teammate had kept him from connecting to the game at all. I ended up drawing the 1 on 3 out about 10 minutes more. It was not pleasant and I was unhappy with him for a bit after that. During teamfights he has this tendency to overextend, chase too far thinking he can get that one kill that the rest of us hadn't. I personally think this wastes time that could be spent pushing, especially if the both of us that aren't chasing are dead.

When that doesn't work, he tends to get pretty upset and his play suffers.

I hope he forgives this bluntness. While I don't overextend all that often, in fat it's rather rare now thankfully, I too do stupid **** and then let my frustration take over. Especially, again, during Ranked 3s. So what have I tried to do different since coming to the conclusion that I need to change my attitude? Well, first off, I'm far from the most intelligent, most safe player To that end I've come to the conclusion that I need to keep my mouth shut as much as possible if someone makes a mistake... whether I warned/asked them not to do what they were doing or not. I'm hardly right all the time and I sometimes question play calls made by our third teammate. Yet, some of those calls, when I act on them, result in aces. I'm no longer too proud to admit that. I still offer my advice... I just try not to get pissed. Chances are the teammate, unless they're trolling, is already beating his or herself up for a mistake and getting them pissed of just means more mistakes, more hurt feelings, rage and a team falling apart. Even a fives team in solo queue can win with a troll as long as the rest of the team keeps it together and the rage stays controlled. I've seen that first hand.

So my advice, killinthename is to cut it off the moment you feel rage starting. The moment you feel it starting, cut it off. If you were about to chew someone out, instead erase what you typed and try to give them calm, kind constructive criticism instead. That's what I've been trying to do. The best way to stop yourself from sliding back into rage ways is to SHUT DOWN THE RAGE immediately. If you have to communicate only via pings for a couple of minutes, do it. Ignore anyone getting too ragey at you. I mean literally put them on ignore. I don't care if they're proven play callers. In the case o the last one, follow your team's lead.

Spread out your games. If you have to take a half hour break, do it. It's worth it. A team turned on itself will almost never win a match unless there's someone ALREADY hyper-carrying. Never let your opponents know when your team is fighting, either. They'll be able to pick up on it, pressure the right people in game and in chat and make it worse. Repeat your own rules to yourself. How many times I've said, “No blame, just game” both out loud and in team chat since writing the last post, I've lost track.

So to recap?

1. Recognize your own imperfection and act toward others as you'd have them act toward you. (I'm working on this both in ranked 3s and in solo queue.)
2. Don't immediately assume that your teammates know nothing.
3. When you want to rage on someone, offer kinder constructive criticism instead. If they turn on you for it, then screw 'em. Ignore them and go about your day. They shouldn't be allowed to turn the team toxic.
4. Cut off rage the moment you feel it coming. Control what you say and how you say it.
5. Spread out your games... ESPECIALLY if they're going exceptionally well or exceptionally poorly.
6. Remember the rules that are most important and relevant to you and if necessary say them aloud, focus on it. (Mine remains No blame, just game.)

I know this is imperfect, but it's the best I can offer. I'm working on these myself, I don't think I'll ever be the type who doesn't get frustrated so I don't think I'll ever be done reminding myself, practicing with these rules.


Thanks for the comment, killinthename.