League of Legends is a game that is loved by many, but sometimes newer players, current players, or returning players feel increased stress. The reasons behind this are usually because of fellow players. You might get stressed out because things are not going the way you want, and it weighs you down like a chore. Common events in League of Legends such as losses, toxic behavior, and trolls have been the cause of you hating the grind. But you can try out these tips and tricks to find a way to enjoy climbing the ranks!

Prepare Yourself

Before you start sitting down on your chair playing, you should prepare yourself. Both mentally and physically. A part of preparing yourself is good nutrition and have your basic needs met. Keep a bottle or a glass of something to drink and keep yourself hydrated. Being dehydrated can affect your energy and mood.

Preparations can also include getting the right light in your room, it can affect the mental mood. Same with music, maybe you have a list that you put on for concentration, chilling, or your “ultimate climb the ladder” mix.

Update Your Knowledge

Sometimes, if you are new or have taken a break, you might not be prepared if you haven’t touched the game in a while. Perhaps the game has reworked your champion, or it has nerfed or removed core items. Read the patches and warm up before you start playing ranked. If you don’t want to read, there are videos you can watch or the League of Legends social media pages will usually post a picture summary. Proper research of your previous mains can protect you from surprises on the Rift.

Think about that this helps both you and your teammates stay calm during the critical moments. This also means checking your ping for example. It will not be enjoyable to play competitively if you are lagging, which affects you and your teammates.

Play When the Time Is Right

Have you ever been so tired, sad, or angry that it affects your game? Then you might want to look at yourself before starting a game. Ask yourself these questions and your body and mind will respond. Maybe it is 5 AM and you haven’t slept yet. Is it then the right decision to play a series of ranked games? It depends on you. Bear in mind that even if you are used to the nocturnal lifestyle, there might be people who aren’t. So there might be instances that you meet overly tired teammates or enemies instead. The same applies to emotional states, as they will be reflected in the way you play.

You Can't Control Everything, but Don’t Lose Hope

It's alright to be confident and know that you play well. The drive of carrying counts as positive motivation. There’s no reason to fear your enemy if you are confident, but also don’t be overconfident. The common “mistake” is that people underestimate their enemy, while others overestimate their enemy. Try to find a balance, play “respectfully”, and then overwhelm your enemy when you see the chance. When you win the fight or lose the fight once, you will know how to adjust. Remember to be confident, but also critical of yourself.

To improve at the game, it’s important to remember that many factors are contributing to the reason you might lose. Think about what you did wrong instead of raging at others and try to improve that setback for the next fight. Don’t be afraid to mess up or lose because that is how you learn - through mistakes. This way of thinking isn’t necessarily easy, but it won't hurt to try. You can't control your teammates and every single thing that can lead to a loss. Take responsibility for yourself and try to focus. The worst thing that can happen is fortunately just a loss, although it’s exhausting to have teammates that give up quickly. They lose their confidence and want it to end as fast as possible. Here it is important to fight the “right fights”. For your mental health, it is important to know when it's alright to give up or when you should keep trying. When you learn to cope with these things you can’t affect, you also learn how to cope with stress.

If it didn’t go well this game, then try the next game. It is important to remember to not criticize yourself for everything. It is natural to make mistakes sometimes! Even pro players do that from time to time. And it seems like they take it as a harsh lesson and move on. You can try that too.

Take a Break

Sometimes it is wise to stop while it is fun and take a short break. Maybe watch a movie, get something good to eat or go out for some fresh air. Get some blood in the rest of your body by exercising, maybe take a bath or a hot shower. Relax and remember that you can come back to the game with a refreshed mindset. Maybe you have time to process the information you’ve learned during your break. That is usually your mind do when you sleep if you feel like it may be that a nap is a right answer to your problem.

If you have a problem concentrating or a problem with staying calm, definitely take a break. There are a few snack ideas that you can try out if you have them available. Nuts help with concentration, so you could perhaps try a nut bar or chocolate. Eating chocolate releases oxytocin which is a hormone that can help you relax. It also boosts the production of dopamine which is the happy hormone! If you don’t favor eating to boost your mood, working out will do the same. It won't produce oxytocin, but you will produce dopamine. So try it, maybe you will feel a lot better.

Do to Others as You Would Have Them Do to You

You might have heard the saying “Do to others as you would have them do to you” which your parents, teachers, or friends might have mentioned before. This applies to the world of gaming as well. Toxic behavior is in general defined as “behavior that is intentionally hurting or disturbing other peoples' mentality”. It affects the other person negatively and it can be backfired to you. So, bear in mind that if you insult or rage at others, they might do the same to you. This will in return affect you negatively and it will be a vicious cycle. You might have the thought of “Why can’t I be toxic when they started it?” It’s not that you can’t, but it will affect your teammates too even if the “trash talk” comes from your enemy.

You could try to do the opposite, be positive, and say nice things when your teammates do well. Perhaps they would do the same to you and create a good atmosphere.

Good Communication Is the Key, and If There Won't Be Any, Mute Them.

Try using the “mute all” function

It is easy to fall into their trap and start to spend time replying to them. As a supplement to what I wrote over, you can always try the mute all function. Type /mute all when the game starts.

The same applies to emotes or pings. Sometimes teammates might ping you in different ways just to be toxic. Other times enemies might spam emotes when you die. The mute all function mutes all of them. Typical examples of toxic or negative behavior:

You can also try to give your teammates a chance and mute all or mute a specific player when it affects you negatively.

Your teammates may sometimes repeatedly press pings on you and constantly talk you down. Mute their pings and chat and focus on the game. This is done by holding down tab to see the scoreboard and you press the different buttons to mute what you need. On the right side, you can only mute their emotes and the all-chat.

The last example can be that your enemy is "voicing" their behavior by being "bad mannered" also known as BM through emotes.

Have fun!

What are the games for? Fun! This is the sole reason that games exist. If it's possible, maybe try out the rotating game modes for a while before going back to the competitive part. Remember that no one is forcing you to play something you don’t enjoy, which in this case could be ranked.

Sometimes a way to do that is playing as if winning doesn’t matter, it is the experience that counts. Even pro players do that sometimes, a few years ago during the World Championship, many teams were not doing well enough to qualify further. So instead of thinking about it as a negative thing, the team played for fun. Those teams went home with two wins and a smile on their faces.

Have the Right Mindset and Think Positively

As mentioned earlier, there are a lot of things that can contribute to a loss. Therefore, do not beat yourself up. Perhaps the solution is to look at things from a different angle.
Maybe you are not satisfied with your current rank and your goal is to climb higher. When you lose and fail to reach your goal you lose motivation and the emotions will get the better of you. This will further prevent you from reaching your goal. So a solution to that would be to reflect upon yourself. Ask yourself for example “why was I that mad?” “was that necessary to say?” or perhaps “what can I do to improve?”

An example of the “right mindset” would be to focus on trying to find a solution, rather than who caused the problem. Instead of dreading on the problem in-game, do it when the game has ended. If you have the habit of doing that, games that don’t go well won’t be that painful. It would be more of a learning experience.

Conclusion

When you convince yourself to have a positive mindset, it will make things much more fun and even helpful in life itself. The idea of the “right” mindset is helpful in other areas than gaming as well. There is a saying that if you can manage to laugh about it 10 years later, then it wasn’t such a big deal after all. Be flexible with yourself, you might learn new things each time no matter how much time you’ve spent trying to master something.