Anger Management 101: How To Stop Raging In Your Games.

Hello there. I am going to start this with one simple truth that I want you to remember at all times during the course of the article. It will be referenced a couple of times in this article, so pay attention. You might consider this the golden rule.

YOU CANNOT CHANGE ANYONE IN THIS WORLD BUT YOURSELF

Got it ? You cannot change anyone in this world but yourself. You cannot change the guy who's feeding top lane 0-7 in the first 15 minutes. You cannot change the guy who's hurling abuse at you, cursing your family's previous and future 3 generations. You cannot change the guy who decided to afk because he didn't like someone else on his team. You cannot change anyone but yourself.


Got that ? Ok good, now let's proceed.


1. There Is No Reason To Rage, Ever.

Stop and think for a moment why you play this game. Do you play this game to win ? Do you play this game to have fun ? If your reason is either of them, or a mixture of both, raging does not help you to enjoy this game.

Let's imagine for a moment you're in a game right now. You have a teammate who instalocks Katarina and demands solo mid or he'll afk. You and your other teammates give it to him. He gives first blood to the enemy laner and goes 0-5 within 10 minutes.

You feel like raging right now, don't you ? This worthless piece of **** instalocks, says mid or afk, and is now feeding the enemy. Now, THINK. If you rage at him, tell him he's such a noob and he should uninstall the game, do you think that's going to magically make him play like CLG instantly ? No right ?



So if your teammate won't magically get better because you're raging.. why are you raging at him for ? Is that going to help you win ? No it isn't.

Think back to the time where you were in primary school. Whenever your teacher called for some class group work, did you ever feel like grouping up with the kid who's calling you names and being mean to you ?


No right ? You don't want to work with someone who's cursing you, calling you names and telling you what a shitty player you are. Nobody wants to work with someone who's treating them terribly. So back to our example. If you are raging at this Katarina player, not only is he not going to play better, he's going to hate you because you're being mean to him.

You're mean to someone, and that someone doesn't like you. This isn't hard to figure out is it ? Anyone with basic social skills and some common sense can figure this out. This isn't any different from real life. You're playing with 4 teammates, and each of them is a human just like you, sitting at their computer, trying to have fun. So why are we behaving like socially inept children just because we're playing a game ?

Back to the feeding Katarina. Now that you've told him that he's a ****ing noob and a ****ing cb dog, he hates you and guess what ? He decides to.. feed even more. Wow, that's not exactly surprising is it ? I am sure many of you have experienced this. Ever thought why this happens ?

To this Katarina player, he's aware that he's not doing well. You come along and insult him, and he feels worse. He also feels that he lost face because you called him out for his bad play, and now he wants to get back at you.

If someone bad mouths you or makes you look bad in front of others, generally you want to get back at them.

If they are on the opposing team, you want to beat them.
But how do you get back at someone, if the person who insulted you was on your own team? You throw the game.

Sure it costs you, but it costs them – and that is the ONLY way you can get back at them.

Now you know why you seem to keep having feeders and "trolls" in your game ? You insult them, and they decide to get back at you, and they throw the game. You go into the next game and the cycle repeats itself. You see it over and over again, and think it is them that have to change?

Scroll up and read the golden rule. You cannot change anyone but yourself. You can't control what others do in this game. If they refuse to improve, there is nothing you can do about it. All you can do is to improve yourself.

But wait, you say. So what do I do with people who're feeding in my games ? Simple. Don't call them out, let them save face. "But they've already fed the enemy so much" So what ? Is raging at them going to magically turn back the clock and undo all the feeding they've already done ? Its in the past. What's done is already done. If you play to win, then you should focus on what you should do to win right now. Not whine about what's already happened.


Remember too that if you call him out, he's going to play even worse to get back at you. That is counter productive to what you want, which is winning. Why would you do something that takes you even further away from your goal ? Raging also does not help you to have fun. How are you enjoying the game when you are so busy raging at someone, getting all worked up with all that anger and hate ?

There is no reason to rage, ever. If you have a bad player, keeping quiet and focusing on your play is the best.

Sure, you might still not win the game despite trying your best. Its okay, just queue up the next game and try again. What if I get a feeder the next game ? I keep getting feeders/noobs/trolls! Well, think about it. How is it that its always you who gets stuck with the bad players ? Ever considered the possibility that you are the one creating these "trolls" for yourself ? You rage at people, and they decide to "troll" you. I can assure you that if you learn to stop raging, you will encounter less "trolls" in your games.


Raging does not help you to win, nor have fun. Don't rage.


2. Unprovoked Aggression

Well sometimes, you're not the one who starts raging. Maybe you're the one who messed up. Or you were just doing your own thing, and all of a sudden someone starts raging at you for what he perceives to be your fault.

Teammate: THEY GANK ME 5v1 AND YOU NVR HELP YOU CB DOG NOOB ****.

You: Dude I can't do anything because its 5v1. Even if I go in, I wouldn't be able to save you and I would die too. That would make it 2 deaths for the team instead of 1.

Teammate: WTF NOOB. THIS SOHAI DOG SO NOOB. ****ING NOOB QUIT GAME LA. USELESS ****.

What do you do when someone else starts raging at you ? Do you rage back in return ? If you usually do that, its time to ask yourself what's the point. Does it help you to win ? Or have fun ? No right ?

"but this guy just insulted my family previous and future 3 generations"

Yeah he did. So what ? You're going to take what some random faceless stranger on the internet said seriously ? You intend to spend time arguing with him to prove him wrong ?


If you think some stranger on the internet is going to be magically agree with you if you try hard enough, you're naive. No one likes to admit they're wrong. Much less to someone who's insulting them. Don't argue with someone over the internet, because its a pointless expenditure of energy and emotion. You're not going to get anywhere.

"but I cant stand him, he's so rude" Well, refer to the Golden Rule at the beginning. You can't stop him from raging. You can only control your reaction to him. Besides, there's a mute button in this game for a reason.



3. Reflection in the mirror

It's easy to complain about how terrible and awful this community is, but remember that you and I are part of this community too. If you're reading this article, you're part of the community. Instead of whining about how bad everyone else is, try changing yourself to begin with. Sitting around and whining never changes anything.

Remember that not raging in your games is simply a matter of self discipline. It takes practice, and effort. Reading this article is fine, but its more important to put this into practice. As Bruce Lee says,




Finally, I will leave you with this quote from a great man in history, Mahatma Gandhi.



If you've made it this far, I thank you for reading this article, and I hope you've learnt something through it.