“I’m tilted”- two words that most League of Legends players become unfortunately familiar with as they grind their way to the top (or at least, to their top). Many players have their own unique ways of dealing with being tilted once their match has finished; going for a walk, listening to some of their favourite music, enjoying a tasty snack or even just taking the rest of the day off to reset for their next games. These are all fantastic ideas once you’ve admitted defeat and left the game, but what can you do to combat tilt while you’re still on Summoner’s Rift?

Through this guide we will explain how you can reset your mental game and bounce back before it’s too late to rescue a game from the clutches of defeat!

What is “being tilted”?

This might sound like a fairly obvious point to cover, but it is important to have an understanding of what it means to be tilted, and how it can affect your gameplay and mental state. The concept of “tilt” originated from the world of poker to describe the link that exists between frustration and sub-optimal play (you can watch a perfect example of tilt in professional poker here). When you consider the high stakes, split-second decision making and mind games that can be seen in poker, a clear connection can be drawn between a hand of poker and a game of League of Legends. One bad decision early on shouldn’t determine the outcome of the entire game, but if that decision is enough to tilt the player, then that one mistake will inevitably snowball into many others.

One of the most frustrating things about being tilted is that it is incredibly hard to overcome, as most players will continue spiralling out of control and play out of their comfort zone. This is why the overwhelming majority of countermeasures to tilt exist outside the place that got you feeling that way in the first place, but with a clear mind and optimistic attitude, you can shift the tides and clear out your opponents with a royal flush of your own.

How do I stop being tilted before it’s too late?

An average game of League of Legends, on Summoner’s Rift, lasts averagely 25 to 30 minutes. If you make an early mistake before the 5 minute mark, you’ve only played around 1/5th of the game in its entirety, so the most important tip is don’t give up. As soon as you do, your chances of coming back disappear to 100%, and no matter how bad you think your team may be there always exists a chance if you stay focused. All it takes is one bad call from the enemy and the bounties they have accrued suddenly become your pocket money to fund your comeback, but let’s get a little more specific.

When First Blood is drawn, ~60% of teams will go on to win the game with this advantage. When Baron Nashor is first slain, however, ~80% of teams translate this objective into an eventual win (thanks to data collected over games across all regions at an Iron+ level). Now what does this tell us? Simply put, this tells us that taking down the first Baron is more important than achieving First Blood, and so if you happen to get slain early on in the game you should turn your focus to strengthening yourself for those vital later game objectives. This means that you should play safer and, instead of thirsting for revenge, coordinate with your Jungler or side-laners to strengthen your position in lane.

If your Jungler finds it more interesting to explore the natural beauty of the Jungle instead of coming to your aid, take a deep breath and re-evaluate your strategy. As fun as full lethality Kayn may be, it may be more beneficial to put down Youmuu’s Ghostblade and instead pick up a Black Cleaver and/or Death’s Dance once you fall behind, so that you stand a greater chance of influencing fights as the game goes on. This, of course, does not apply only to Kayn, as you should consider defensive alternatives so that you don’t find yourself playing with a black and white filter all game long. This gives your team a greater chance to stall out the game and play for those invaluable late-game objectives or mobilise for a surprisingly successful skirmish.

The last and arguably most important point of recovering from an early tilting play is having the sense to pick the right fights and make smart plays. Instead of running into every play blindly, trying to score a kill or boost your ego without purpose, consider the costs and benefits of taking certain fights; the best example of this is in relation to the use of your Flash. If you burn your flash chasing down an enemy just for the sake of it, you rob yourself of the opportunity to use it defensively, and disengage from a fight or situation that is definitely unfavourable. This will, usually, mean the difference between recovering and dying more and more as the game goes on.

Anti-tilting strategies

When you’re ahead and full of confidence, that translates into your gameplay very clearly. Initiating the teamfights, encouraging your team into action and pulling off some sweet mechanical outplays. When you’re behind and feeling the tilt, your gameplay will often start to feel like the complete opposite of this, which means that your strategy should adjust accordingly. Avoiding those mechanically tricky situations by keeping it simple will be key as you rebuild your mental strength. The following plays and strategies follow this way of thinking, and will be vital as you reprogram your tilted mind.

- Build for recovery, not for fights

As previously mentioned, reconsidering your build path when you’re tilted is key to ensure you don’t deliver free kills to your opponent on a silver platter. You can, and should, afford to sacrifice a little more early kill pressure for greater eventual gain, and there’s one item in particular that works very well for this purpose. Cull is cost efficient, provides life on hit (albeit only a little, which is fine for the early game anyway), and is aimed at giving you a nice cash injection if you prioritise farming over being bloodthirsty. Let’s crunch the numbers:

Cost to buy Cull: 450g
Bonus gold for killing a minion: 1g / minion, up to a max. of 100 = 100g
Bonus gold or killing 100 minions: 350g
Cost to sell Cull: 180g
Net profit of Cull after triggering passive: 100g + 350g + 180g - 450g = 180g

180g may seem fairly small in the scheme of things, but not only does Cull pay for itself over time, it grants greater survivability and encourages a more passive playstyle in lane.

Outside of specifically building Cull, you can shuffle around your itemisation path so that your much needed defense items get built a little sooner. Items such as Death’s Dance are incredibly popular at the moment thanks to their ability to balance offense and defense, so picking one up before you dive into more aggressive options ensures that you’re less likely to tilt harder after dying too easily while still posing a threat in fights as you move forward. To ensure you don’t waste too much money on survivability, you should also invest in a Refillable Potion if the poke is too hot to handle, guaranteeing that you have a form of health regen without prolonging your power spikes.

- Proactive vision control

We’ve said time and time again that good vision wins games, but why exactly? Well, the answer just so happens to be the exact reason it is beneficial to prioritise vision to avoid getting tilted: you don’t have to die to a hidden opponent. Simple! A well placed Control Ward not only shows you where the enemies are, but it also gives you the freedom to move around undetected and prevent being caught out of position by lurking enemies, which encourages you to play with less stress around the map. The Rift Scuttler is one of the most powerful objectives in the game, purely because it is an untouchable source of vision over the river, which is the main channel through which enemies are likely to move before ganking you.

Sacrificing an aggressive position in lane to walk out and place a deep ward in your Jungle, the enemy’s Jungle or the river is more than justified. If you can see one of your teammates having a rough time on the other side of the map, putting a greater emphasis on warding your side of the map can also benefit the team greatly; spotting the enemy Jungler on the other side of the map to you can alleviate some pressure around your lane since you know for a fact the enemy Jungler can’t take you down.

- Cool down the comms

The last strategy, employed by rookies and pros alike, is to prevent yourself from getting more tilted by taking a breather and reducing the negativity in the chat. As relaxed as you may be, receiving constant BM in the chat from an enemy that watched you mess up gets annoying. There is no benefit that comes from keeping all chat active while you’re tilted, so muting it is an easy way to relieve some of the stress from your brain during the game. This is not where the advice ends, however, as there are still 4 more players that can still flood the chat while the enemy is muted… your teammates.

Depending on the game (and possibly how hard you’ve been feeding), your teammates might feel like taking some of their frustration out on you for making lackluster plays. If this is the case, then a strategic /muteall might be the best course of action, but this is not necessarily ideal. At the end of the day, games will always be made easier if the whole team is on the same page, so making sure your communication stays positive, optimistic and encouraging can work wonders. Even if you’re unhappy with your own performance, letting a teammate know they’re playing well or applauding a great teamfight gives everyone hope for the remainder of the game.

Following this guide closely will ensure that even the most hot-headed players on the Rift can have a chance at recovering after a tilting early play. The most important message from all of this is that your mentality can very often be more important for the outcome of a game than your mastery on a champion, so make sure you remember to take a breath, recover your winning attitude, and dominate the enemy team. GLHF!