Reign of Gaming

Welcome back! I'm Gentleman Gustaf here with another segment of my (long-delayed) series Gaming Like a Gentleman. Season 3 brought with it a lot of new math to discuss, but now that the dust has settled, and a lot of basic strategies have been established, I'm going to fall back into using Sundays to discuss philosophy and gaming, while reserving Wednesdays for the more math intensive posts. Today's post topic is one close to the community of Reign of Gaming, and if you've ever seen me talk on the subject, you'll know I have very strong opinions on the matter (so strong, I'll be unveiling a new project centered around it in the upcoming weeks).

So to start, I want to ask a simple question: what is League of Legends? I think there are two clear answers. First, League of Legends is a game, one which is often treated very competitively, culminating in an e-sport. Second, League of Legends is a community of players, artists, personalities, innovators, math crafters, and so on. What am I? Ultimately, I am none of these things. Yes, I am a player and a mathcrafter, but above that, what I am is curious. I like to ask questions. I like to poke at people's fundamental assumptions. In another time, I may have been put death via strategic administration of hemlock. As such, I collect data constantly, often just because I can.

And in all of my data-gathering, I have gathered for you, the secret to winning more games, without even getting better at the game!

Oh, and also, Riot knows I'm onto them, so continue the discussion on the League of Legends forum with Xel'Nath, Wizardlock, right hand of the 7th order of obsidian blackfire ebonstone dark Witchlords

 First, here's the video of this post (apologies for the sibilance; I've ordered a new pop filter):

But Gentleman Gustaf, you always say the only to win more than you lose is to be better than the people at your Elo!

It is true that I have repeated this, that it has become a mantra of sorts. I say it consistently when talking about improving, or Elo Hell, or any number of other topics. So perhaps I should rephrase that. This is the most surefire way to go up in Elo without practicing. Yes, skill at League of Legends has a lot to do with your mechanical competence; if you can't land skill shots, you won't be able to play Lux very well. Yes, skill at League of Legends has a lot to do with your game knowledge: if you never take dragons, you probably won't do as well as somebody who knows how important they can be. But the easiest thing to adjust is your mindset. The biggest and easiest change you can make to your gameplay is this: be positive.

What prompts these claims? Well, I've noticed some interesting correlations in my own play. I was in Skype with a friend while I was playing LoL, talking about having fans recognize me in queue, and (most of the time) being nicer to me. She said 'You always seem to win when you have games with fans'. And I thought 'that can't be the case'. So I kept track for a month. I ended up winning 68% of games in which somebody recognized me in champion select (positively). I was recognized negatively 4 times, and the negative player lost each time, whether he was against or with me. So I've been thinking 'why is this?'

Gentleman Gustaf, maybe you just always win 68% of your games because you're so good at this game and should be Challenger Tier!

I wish.

Gentleman Gustaf, maybe it's because you're more likely to get your role with a fan around; they might give it up for you.

While I don't doubt that it's true that I get one of my preferred roles when recognized:

I don't think that causes the W/L difference. Why? While I do win at my preferred roles more (4-2 at ADC/Support today; 0-2 with everything else), I pretty much always get a preferred role (not many people seem to like bot lane in solo queue). Plus, it has an air of arrogance about it; it only holds true if I assume I'm way better than my Elo (since an ally is giving up HIS preferred role for me, so he presumably plays worse).

I think the explanation is far simpler. The player automatically trusts me because he recognizes me. And because he puts his trust in me, I trust him more, too, because I see that he's willing to put the team ahead of his own desires.

So I decided to try an experiment. One game in solo queue, I said something like "You know, I'll bet League of Legends is actually just a giant psychology experiment by Riot to see how hard it can be to get people to agree about ANYTHING". And eventually, the conversation progressed to the point where I could say "I'll bet the way to actually beat this experiment is to remain positive, DESPITE losing all game". I'm paraphrasing extremely, as I only remember my lines, not what my allies said, and I wish I'd been streaming at the time, but c'est la vie.

Anyway, we get in game with our team comp (which was fantastic, because nobody was fighting). And our jungler gets caught and dies at level 1. Nobody says anything. We counter-invade. I hate invades, but I thought 'I won't say anything, let's stay positive!' We catch and kill their lux, but they massacre most of the team: we go 2-5 in total. I'm a Vayne vs a Sivir with 2 kills and I'm not feeling too optimistic. And what gets said in chat? No 'gg'. No 'surrender at 20'. The first thing said is 'help Vi with blue, Ryze, I don't think they took', followed by 'just farm up till we scale'. Moments later, we get a double kill bot lane. I get overaggressive and come back to lane looking for blood, and give up a double kill. I'm now level 5, Nami is level 4, and both of our opponent laners are 6. And what does Nami say? 'no need for early stuff. farm up'. We get double killed bot again, making us a combined 3-7-3. Nothing in chat. Nami says 'we could drag. I have a pink'. So we do. I die AGAIN bot lane. Nami is STILL level 5 to Sivir's level 8. We have a few mediocre trades, but nothing exciting. We have a LOT of bad trades. Still no raging. 19 minutes into the game, I look at the game. We're up 2 dragons, down 1 tower, and down 3 kills. That's it. We started the game down three kills. We're down just three kills, and we're ahead in objectives (something which may have gone unnoticed had we been raging). I point this out, and we team-fight, going 3-0. At 20:25, the all-chat begins. But not from our team. From the enemy team. Pantheon says 'report this Sivir please' (she was 7-5-7). She responds 'for being same level as you? Or better kdr?' We teamfight and go 4-0, despite it being a 4v5. Somebody says 'cooperation>rage'. Somebody else says 'love this team =). Makes this game fun'. Somebody else says 'quad queue after'. We 4-0 them again and they surrender.

Now, I have no way to prove this. But in my experience, when one ADC goes 5-2 to start, and the other goes 2-5, and one support is 4 levels behind the other support (4 vs 8), people tend to rage, and games tend to be lost or surrendered.

How to be Positive?

So what does it mean to be positive? I honestly don't know how to explain this. It's such a simple concept as to be nearly irreducible. But here are my tips on how to be more positive.

Cheerful Music

The first thing I do when I play LoL is listen to something super peppy and cheerful. Normally:

It may seem silly, but do you think you're going to be more cheerful, amenable to suggestion, and generally considerate singing "FUCK YOU I WON'T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME" (don't get me wrong, that line is from one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands), or "I'm bringing Sexyback". If you need a hint, it's probably the one which doesn't start with "fuck you".

Smile

Seriously, just smile. Happier already? For maximal effect, look in a mirror. It's basic association. You smile when you're happy. So your brain associates smiling with happiness. So when you smile, you get happy. It's perversely stupid, but it's the way people work, so you may as well take advantage of it. If you feel yourself getting frustrated, laugh. It's sort of a natural reaction. The game's going terribly. You don't even know what's happening; it's sort of absurd. Absurdly funny. Laugh it off.

Exercise

Exercise floods your body with endorphins. Endorphins make you happy (and pump you up!)

My preferred form of exercise? Flailing about to:

Seriously, what sort of soulless being are you if you can't enjoy Kevin Bacon?

Be overwhelmingly nice, moreso when you don't want to

Whenever you have the urge to comment on something your team isn't doing well, ask yourself WHY you're saying it. If the point of saying it is to give them advice, like 'we should dragon now' or 'I'm getting Locket; can you turn that Kindlegem into a Shurelia's Reverie?', go ahead, say it. But if the point is to make them and/or your team think they're dumb (or just make you feel better), well, I've got some advice for you

So instead of saying 'your cs isn't very good Cait', don't say nothin' at all. It might help if you just imagine how adorable/funny it is that everytime Thumper does ANYTHING, his mother's right there to ask "Thumper, what did your father tell you?" Watch that video 5 or 6 times and you'll find it hard not to laugh at it.

I try to keep my comments to a minimum. I get in champ select and say something like "I'd like to ADC, if possible. I'm also a strong support and an OK jungle, but ADC is my best role"

And if the urge gets so strong you can't withhold comments, type something silly in chat. Just be as exorbitantly nice as you can. The silly comment will catch them unawares, and probably make you see silly. You can go for the low-key 'your username amuses me :P' to the random 'I'll bet you have FANTASTIC taste in socks', to the at-least-trying-to-make-sense 'I think that's the best (insert their champion here) skin'.

Learn support

The easiest way to see how important positivity is? Play support. If you're the ADC, you can think 'fuck it, I'm just going to carry', and auto-attack through their team until they die if you're fed enough. Can't REALLY do that as support. Nothing is more frustrating than watching a team fall apart as support. What are you going to do? Go farm top lane? Split Push? Solo dragon?

On top of that, you know what role people tend to suck the most at? It's support. I am, by no means, at ALL a good support player. I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY suck at support. I got in game with Elementz once. He ganked my lane as Shaco (I was Sona, and my AD Carry was some AD Carry who has no CC), and the gank failed. He said 'no slow?' I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW SONA HAD A SLOW. And I was playing support and winning 75% of my games at 1750 Elo early in Pre-Season 3. Is support easy? Not really. But it's socially acceptable to 'not play support', and so lots of games, you get some idiot who picked Blitzcrank because he 'has sweet hooks', and you get to abuse him. So if you're even DECENT at support, you can outplay their support hard, make your AD Carry good and fed, and then he'll win the game for you. Easy peasy.

Follow the one-and-done rule

Don't belabor a point. If you've told somebody something and they don't listen, they're not going to if you tell them again. You're just going to annoy them.

Don't say anything you wouldn't say to your (insert nicest relative here).

In fact, just imagine everybody on your team is your (insert elderly relative who can't use computers very well here). Isn't the game ten times more fun now? Instead of thinking 'that fucking idiot bought Lich Bane on Vayne', think "oh nana, no, you don't want to buy Lich Bane on Vayne" and move on, because some battles aren't worth fighting.

Follow the one-and-done rule

Don't belabor a point. If you've told somebody something and they don't listen, they're not going to if you tell them again. You're just going to annoy them.

SEE HOW ANNOYING IT IS THAT I KEPT SAYING THAT? DON'T DO THAT OK!?

But you don't have to take my word or it. Riot has been gathering this sort of data for a long time, and many of their pre-game tips reflect this. Positive, compromising players win more games than negative, argumentative players. So is the glass half-full, or is the glass half-empty? It turns out it's neither. If you see the glass as half-full, it ends up being a little more than half-full, and if you see the glass as half-empty, it ends up being a little more than half-empty.

 For more of my work:

-- Find old posts @ the RoG forums and new posts every Wednesday (3 PM) and Sunday (9 AM).

-- Feel free to find me in the "A DIFFerent View" chatroom on the NA server.
-- Contact me at GentlemanGustaf@ReignofGaming.net
-- Follow me on Facebook and Youtube for updates on all of my new articles, videos, and streaming.

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