We all know that people who flame in games suck. But we also know that everybody who has ever played a video game, more so League of Legends, has likely been tilted and flamed. How do we stop the flaming, how does it arise, and how do we deal with it if we can’t stop it?
The flaming most likely arises out of jealousy and anger. For instance, the anger could be from a prior day of bull crap, and the game only makes it worse. The jealousy could be from not being able to carry the team or having sucky teammates. It may also arise from being close to doing something or close to winning and feeling like you’ve wasted your time. And we all know those teammates who are shown to be in Gold III – but are they really?
Sometimes we just have bad games, and the flaming is pure anger from not winning or frustration that we just can’t seem to win no matter the champion or passive we possess.
Flaming is hard to stop. You can’t be like, “Shut up,” because that would only make the flamer worse. The best way to handle it is to reason with them. Say: “You know you are not achieving anything by flaming. All you’re doing is wasting energy and using more keys to hurt your fingers. Team fight and let’s get going.”
But, if the flamer is too far gone, you kinda just forget about them and try to win a 4v5 or 2v3, whatever it may be. Muting them is the other step, but if they’re tilted and feeding the other team so it’s hard not to notice, you just have to get your whole team and the opposing team to report them and have them banned – the ultimate price for flaming too far.
The most important note of all: we need to keep ourselves from flaming. We usually can’t stop another teammate from flaming unless they’re a little bit smart, but we can stop ourselves.
If you’ve had a bad day and want to lash out at teammates, turn the Skype call, Teamspeak call , or whatever you’re using off so you may flame, but not loud enough so others hear you and get offended and tilted. Most of the time, teammates end up getting mad at each other and lose the game, so be above arguments and work together. If you need to, just mute the team and try to win your lane, get your kills, and better yourself and carry and conquer. Always be the bigger person.
If you’ve had a bad day, it’d probably be better to play a single-player game in the first case, particularly The Sims or Pokémon, something light, although I can imagine somebody yelling at that level 100 Rayquaza slaying your Pokémon.
Flaming sucks, but I’ve found myself doing it to others before, whether they lock in somebody before me, steal my farm, or steal my kills. We all do it and, if we realize this, maybe we can find the heart in ourselves and just mute each other or tell each other that it’s just for one game that you have to deal with it. No one likes a grouchy flamer. And remember: don’t be a flamer, be an obtainer.
