We all know what it’s like to have that teammate. The one that that constantly harrasses, pings like a madman, and blames every single thing that goes wrong on someone else. They can ruin games, ruin friendships, and even ruin our entire day. There really is no way to avoid them but what each of us can do is work hard to not be that guy.

Be the Cheerleader
I know it sounds superficial but it really is true: Positive reinforcement for your teammates can go a long way to setting you up to win games. When people get to read that “GJ” in chat it lets them know they are doing well and will boost their confidence. It can also go a long way to affecting their thought process in the game when trying to determine how helpful they should be to others. When you are the one sowing the seeds on friendship and teamwork others are more likely to follow suit. Whether its complimenting good plays, reassuring others when things go wrong, perhaps even pointing out the other teams shortcomings. Just like a real cheerleader you can be the one to rally everyone across the goal line!

Smart Communication
This is a really broad concept but in general what it means is this: Give your team all the information you can to help them succeed. This can refer to pointing out where enemy wards are, taking down timers on important cooldowns, and using pings effectively. Something not a lot of players do enough, especially in bot lane, is explain to their team mate their play style and decision making. Try letting them know that you wanna go for the level 2 power spike. As a jungler explain to your team when or how you will gank, Some junglers want to wait until level 6 others want to go for an early level 2 mid gank. Giving this type of information can help your teammates plan accordingly and keep everyone on the same page. It can also keep people from questioning or blaming you when you were not in a certain place at a certain time.

Warding
For the love of all that is holy in Runeterra, please, please, just buy a ward. You would think I would not need to repeat this seeing as how you will read about it in every single League guide but you would be surprised how often this overlooked. Keeping your area warded not only keeps you safe but it helps others know when they are safe. Did the enemy jungler show up on your ward mid? That means you play safe and now bot lane is free to go aggressive knowing they won’t have any back up. Going right along with this is that now at level 9 you can upgrade your yellow trinket to give you 3 free wards! Most of the time you have no excuse to have at least 1 or more wards on the map at all times. As a support main it’s so frustrating to know the enemy is doing drag only to wat 3 of my teammates stand around the pit wondering because none of them have a ward to put anywhere. Another tidbit to think about, warding is not just something you do in laning phase. Sure we all want to stay safe during that time but so often once the game reaches mid to late my team mates have all decided to stop warding. Wards can help prevent getting picked off and can even lead to your team getting those important catches. Late game all it takes sometime is for one person to be caught and that leads to Baron and the end of the game. Make sure that when it happens it’s your team typing “GG” in the victory screen.

For many of you this may be something that you already do without ever having anyone tell you to do so and to that I say keep up the great work!The guy who rages at their team and flames others isn’t going to be the one to suddenly stop because they read this article. This is targeted at those of you who tend to stay quiet in games and just go with the flow. If you instead are the one who gets the team working together and and helping each other you can have a much larger impact on not only whether you win or lose but the overall environment of the community. Even if you think that you are just one person think about it like this. There are ten people in every game and if you are a great teammate then statistically that means the other team is more likely to have the bad one.