Summoner School

Transcript

What is up, I am UbergiantsBro and today we're discussing how to handle 'Trolls' in League of Legends. We'll be discussing what a Troll is, then why Trolls troll - focusing on intentions, and finally some techniques that will help you handle Trolls better.

A Troll is a nasty label so always be careful how you use it and give people the benefit of the doubt when you can. Remember that you are playing with real people, not robots. With that warning heeded, let's proceed.

What is a Troll?

So firstly, what is a troll? A troll is someone who deliberately ruins the game for other players. The key word here? deliberately. Many people make the mistake of failing to recognise a players intentions.

Believe it or not, the majority of players in solo queue mean well.... Sure, your teammate may do a dumbass facecheck going to your blue buff at level 1, but his intention was to protect your team's blue. That is not trolling.

The same is to be said when a jungler comes to gank your lane but messes up and the opponent gets away. Your jungler isn't trolling, otherwise why would he gank your lane in the first place? He clearly has good intentions but he messed up. Who cares? Everybody messes up at some point.

Four Paws does a good job in describing this in his video Gain Elo through your Mindset when he discusses intentions versus actuality.

Why do Trolls Troll?

So a troll is someone who does these things DELIBERATELY. We've all played with them before. But why do they troll? What drives them? It all comes down to this; attention. Trolls troll because their trolling rewards them with a cheap troll laugh at others expense.

People have their own reasons for needing attention and recognising this fact can actually change your mindset from being angry with them to being sympathetic towards them. Trolls troll because they are missing out on something in real life so they come to League of Legends for attention.

I am not going to go into the psychological aspect of why trolls are the way they are too much - if that interests you and you want to read more there is a great article on the summoner school website that goes into that. You can check it out by clicking here.

How to Handle Trolls

So we know that trolls crave attention. Without attention trolls would have no audience and they would then have no cheap laugh. But how do you handle trolls? One of the best things you can do is to ignore them and to not let them effect you. Do not get angry at them. Don't rage, threaten or whine at them either. Doing any of these things only feeds their cause.

Instead of getting angry, try this technique taken directly out of summoner school the next time you are faced with a troll; Say something like, "I'll send you roses to your door with a love note if you get exhaust over revive" or "Please, if you get exhaust over revive I'll order a hot chick dressed up as Nidalee to come visit you."

Unfortunately some trolls are beyond help and all you can do is put them on ignore and try to carry them as best you can. Remember to report them after the game with details of what they did so that the tribunal can handle them.

You can't expect to change trolls, what you can do though is change how their trolling effects you. Concentrate on that and you will find handling trolls easier.

The Maths is On Your Side

"But I always get the trolls on my team, always! What do I do??"

Well let's do a bit of maths, because everyone loves maths, right? There are 10 players in any given league of legends game.

Let's say 1 in every 10 players is a troll who intentionally feeds once he gets in game. For the sake of this example that means that there is exactly 1 troll in every game. So the chance of getting the troll on your team is 50% because each player has a 10% chance of being the troll yeah? But you are not the troll...

And because you are not the troll each player's chance of being the troll has gone up to 11.1'(recurring)% (excluding you), so your team now has a 44.4% chance of having the troll while the other team now has 55.6% chance of having the troll. It might not seem like much of a change, but mathematically over a period of 100 games, that means you could expect to have 11 less trolls than normal. The maths is on your side....

That's all I have to say about how to handle trolls for now, for more useful info check out the ultimate League of Legends guide that will help raise your league and maybe, just maybe, you might even start to enjoy ranked games!

I hope you learned something and that the techniques I've showed you here help you to handle trolls better. For League of Legends related tidbits you can follow me on twitter @UberGiantsBro. Have a great day!

Transcript

G'day it's UberGiantsBro here, and today we're going to be talking about 'When to Push in League of Legends'.

Firstly, what is pushing?

Pushing is shoving the creep wave to the enemy tower by killing creeps as fast as possible. The general rule for pushing is that you want to push as soon as you kill your lane opponent.

The reason for this is that you want your opponent to miss as much gold (and exp.) as possible while at the same time allowing you to farm that extra wave of creeps so that you can go back to base ASAP. However this is not ALWAYS the best idea as will be discussed soon.

The inverse of Pushing is Freezing (or holding) the lane. Freezing is holding the creep wave by only last hitting minions and/or trimming the wave so that it stays where you want it to. It is a characteristic of a good player to know when to push and when to hold a lane.

There are some key questions that we need to ask ourselves here that will help us understand and decide WHEN to push:

Is it safe to push?

Use common sense here. If people are MIA and you are on low health after a kill, you should probably not stay to push. However if you see that the mid and jungler has 4 man ganked bot, you are safe to finish pushing the lane to secure your advantage.

What is my pushing potential?

Recognize the difference between playing a fast pusher like Morde compared to a notoriously slow pusher like early game Ryze.

Is there more gold to be had elsewhere?

Whether it be roaming to another lane, helping with dragon, potentially stealing an enemy buff or simply farming a wraith camp, there is usually an opportunity to claim more gold elsewhere on the map. Be careful you are not putting your teammate behind.

Do I need to base?

If you are sitting on a large amount of gold it is often smart to push your lane and base (provided it is safe of course). Most good laners will recognize this so be sure to recall in a safe position and call your jungler to farm-farm the wave.

Map Awareness is another subject on its own but it is important to mention that sometimes it can actually be SAFER to push if your champion is a good pusher or relies on lifesteal or spellvamp to sustain.

A good example here is a Cait and Nunu bot lane. This lane is generally very powerful in solo queue because they can push fast which keeps their opponents at their tower. This makes it harder for them to counter harass and the pressure or lack of bot lane coordination may cause opponents to miss CS under their tower.

That's it for when to push, for League of Legends tidbits you can follow me on twitter @UberGiantsBro.

End your solo queue solo queue frustrations now with the most detailed League of Legends guide called Summoner School. I help develop Summoner School. Inside it you discover all the skills, strategies, and tips you need to carry yourself out of elo hell then maybe even become a diamond player like I did. Check out the ultimate League of Legends guide now.