You’re still new to League, and every time you play with your friends they yell at you for lack-of skill. You are on the verge of quitting the game due to being jibed at by your friends. You just want to learn the game. All you want to do is have a good game so the yelling will stop. You want to try Poppy amongst your friends but get yelled at because she is not meta. Too many beginners, this phenomenon happens a lot, something I personally call the League “Trial Period”. In the “Trial Period” players encounter their first instance of being flamed at, the beginners first encounter with a smurf, and also what the new League of Legends player can do in order to get better.

In the League community, being toxic or being really negative is a huge problem throughout the whole community and does not apply just to smurfs. Toxicity throughout the League community applies to every single person. In game, Toxic people make fun of people non stop and it changes the mindset of whom it is aimed towards. Toxicity equates to cyber bullying because by definition the toxic person sounds intimidating when threatening the other person. According to a study by Riot “only 10% of players are positive, the rest are neutral or negative.”

Over the years, League of Legends has grown exponentially. The number of new players has grown as well which also means the number of smurfs increase. What lies beyond the Trial period contains many things that can end up ruining a beginner’s first experience.

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This is a video about a Call of Duty player’s first experience with League of Legends:

According to Jev, his first experience in League of Legends was absolutely terrible. In the video, Jev explains his first games in League of Legends and how his teammates harassed him from the very beginning. Most likely, he encountered "smurfs" (a secondary account, usually played by people who are level 30) and they told him to do things that Jev did not even know were possible. What smurfs should do is to try to teach the “younger” players and correct their mistakes. Unfortunately, not many decide to do so.

Usually, smurfs are ranked on their main accounts and use their smurfs because queue times are too long (usually for people who are master of challenger) or they are on a huge losing streak and just want to get away from their everyday ranked players. Of course these are not the only reasons but rather some of the main reasons why people use smurfs. During the Trial Period, new players encounter smurfs left and right, it is important on how they are dealt with.

What some smurfs fail to consider is that their opponent is not level thirty and are actually at a much lower level, and in this example I'll be using a level four beginner. Smurfs find dominating their level four opponent to be amusing however, it is not very amusing for the level four opponent. What can smurfs do instead of dominate their opponent? They can try to give tips to his teammates and to his opponents. Helping your level four opponent might sound funny, but if you are going to win regardless, giving tips that will help the level four opponent in the long run will not hurt. This is a really important trial that is really dependent on the smurf. If the higher leveled player repeatedly taunts and curses at his level four opponent it is possible that the level four opponent will be really sad and is very likely to quit if encountered by more in-game toxicity. Personally, this has happened to many of my friends who I’ve been trying to play League of Legends with.

If you happen to be playing against a smurf and you are laning against him, try to retain as much information as you can from that lane. Of course you will lose the lane, but it’s okay to lose. Knowledge is much more valuable in this situation than victory. Most people always forget to learn from their lost lane or game. In many lower rankings, many people forget to learn from a matchup and try to just play the game over and over again with no results. This is the final step of the Trial Period: Learning. Learning to retain as much information as you can from any matchup win or lose helps to show weaknesses in your play style and how it can be changed for the better.

The Trial Period is something that many players experience but do not realize. It does not just apply to just beginners, many players go through the Trial Period and are already ranked, it can even apply to people who are even Master tier. The best thing to do on dealing with toxic people is to ignore them, mute them in game and report them. Everyone has experienced toxic behaviour towards them, even the professionals. It is sad how the negativity does not end in game. In Hai’s recent blog he explains how hateful comments is not the right way to solve the problem.Throughout everyones’ League of Legends careers, toxicity will be apparent, and it can really degrade a person’s experience with the game and change their mentality . But what can be done, is dependent on you.

Special thank you to Queen Feed, Realize and Master of LoL for helping me edit and giving me ideas.