How to Handle Trolls in League of Legends
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!
