How to Stay Calm in League of Legends

When you’re competing with others to win a prize, no matter what that prize might be, frustration is bound to happen. MOBA games such as League of Legends, DOTA, and others are some of the most challenging video games ever created. It takes ages to get started, it’s insanely difficult to climb the ranked ladder, and the ever-changing systems just complicate things.

The single most important thing to do in these types of games is–to stay calm. Getting too stressed can lead to real-life health complications. Many negative things are associated with overt stress, anxiety, and frustration. Don’t ruin your life trying to sweat out a ranked match or win that Top Lane.

In this article, we will look at a few ways of staying calm in League of Legends. This one’s for you guys, so read it thoroughly.

What you can expect:

• Advice on saving your mental health.
• Personal experience from the author.
• A heart-to-heart with you, the reader.

Take a deep breath

Occasionally, everyone loses a trade, the Lane, a whole match. The game itself is rigged to have you hovering around the 50% win rate mark. That means that you’ll probably be losing half of your total matches. Getting stressed and frustrated after each loss will significantly accumulate your cortisol levels and impact your real-life health.

One of the best things you could do when you feel that wave of stress building up is just to take a deep breath. Stop for a moment. Rest for a few seconds and breathe deeply. Calm yourself down in the most natural way possible. Assess yourself and your surroundings and realize that the world hasn’t ended just yet. You can always come back from your lost trade, Lane, or even match. The Elo is designed to go both ways, and losing is just as natural as winning. You’re there to put in the effort to make the latter happen more frequently. Getting stressed out and having your health ruined will only skew your account toward the latter. And that wouldn’t be good for anyone, would it?

Pause after a match

Speed isn’t everything. You should take a few moments after each match to calm down and refresh. Jumping from game to game is bound to end in disaster. Sure, you might be on a winning streak, but you might also be on a losing one. Taking a moment to breathe and relax is pivotal for your mental health. League of Legends isn’t a simple game that you can autopilot through. It requires significant mental capacities and strengths that can drain even the most seasoned player.

Your back will also thank you for pausing. Change your sitting position, or better yet, stand up and have a walk around your house. If you’re playing during the day, why not try some light exercise or a short walk outside? Endlessly staring at a screen can damage your eyesight, and taking in the beauty of the outside world is the only way of healing them.

Have a drink of water, calm down, pause, and take a moment. Then, when you’re ready, get back into the game and kick some ass. You’ll see that you’ll have much more success and perform beyond your expectations just by slowing down.

Quit on a loss

Once the losing starts, it’s bound to keep coming. There is no shame in quitting on a loss. Remember, a lose streak can only be broken by YOU and no one else. A victory doesn’t just break the streak. It can be cut short by leaving the game and stopping it from happening. Even if you have to take a few days off, the lose streak is done when you press that X button.

If you keep playing with a loser’s mentality, especially if you just threw a won game, you’ll perform much worse and likely lose again. There’s also the potential existence of the loser’s queue, which Riot seems to have implemented quietly. It’ll keep you losing no matter what you do, and if that’s the case, there are even fewer reasons to stress about it.

You should only worry about those things that you can control. If the game is rigged against you, there’s nothing you can really change. Play out the loser’s queue, and you’ll be back into the regular matches in no time. No, lose streak lasts forever, especially the ones you cut short. Don’t give in to the losing mentality. End it while you can before it ends you.

Focus on your communication.

Communicating with others is an excellent way of relieving stress. This is why I often play in a duo rather than alone. If your teammates are uncooperative and you’re stranded with them, this will only increase your stress. Playing with friends or associates is much better as you can calm down by talking to them.

You can also make friends with the enemy team. Keep a positive attitude and throw some banter their way. Of the nine other players in the game, someone’s bound to be a positive individual. Strike up a conversation with them, relieve your stress through jokes and humor, and you’ll see it disappear.

I do this all the time. Whenever I feel down in a game, I just try to make friends with someone if I’m not in a duo. It’s a good way of keeping up a healthy mindset. You can also get better at telling jokes, which has some real-life merit. Humor, communication, and a stable mind are pivotal for any functional human, and they are the best stress relievers.

Get a fidget toy

This might sound like I’m talking to a child but bear with me. Fidget toys are scientifically proven to be fantastic stress-relieving tools. They provide you with something that you can take your stress out on. Whether it’s that wretched fidget spinner or just a rubber ball that you can squeeze and throw around when you’re angry, fidget toys are fantastic for calming you down.

Most of them run for just a few bucks on Amazon and similar marketplaces. If you can spare that much, you should probably get one if none of the other methods work. Having something on-hand that you can immediately utilize for stress relief is probably a good idea, no matter how stressed you get.

They’re great for that instant dopamine boost you cannot find anywhere else. Everyone in the world likes fidgeting with something in their hands, and these purpose-made toys are too good to miss out on.

Remember: it’s just a game.

Now this point might get me lynched. I know it really isn’t just a game. It’s an experience. Just like those guys at your local mini-football stadium get mad that their teammate didn’t score, you probably get mad at your teammate running it down Mid. We all have our respective hobbies that are competitive, so getting angry or frustrated is only natural. Humans are social but also competitive beings. Winning and being the best is part of our core design. After all, we are animals–only intelligent.

And we can use that intelligence to install a mindset that it is just a game, after all. No matter how competitive the game or hobby–no matter how important the match or game–we cannot ruin our perfectly good health. Without the health of mind and body, we cannot enjoy these same hobbies we care so much for. Thus, we have to keep calm and remember that they’re just games that we entertain ourselves with and are not worthy of ruining our lives. Be an animal. Be competitive. But be intelligent. Please, take care of yourselves.

Conclusion

League of Legends is a frustrating game. Like any competitive (electronic) sport, winning is the goal, and that may not always happen. The road to victory is a rough one. It’s like dragging yourself through a bed of thorns. But once you get to the end, there’s no equal feeling. However, we cannot allow ourselves to be beaten by stress and frustration, and a positive mindset will make any bed of thorns into a cotton carpet. So, my good fellows, keep that chin up and never let yourselves be conquered by negative emotions.