How To Stop Tilting In Games

• After playing thousands of games, it’s not uncommon to see a team which was ahead, collapse due to internal arguments. The best thing you can do in situations like this is just to mute the tilting person. You aren’t going to reason logically with someone who is angry.
• Set a stop-loss and stick to it. A stop-loss is a fixed amount you’re willing to lose. After losing this.

Welcome to the first episode of my new series called Game Coach! It's exactly what it says, a series of short videos dedicated to certain topics designed ar. Most game-induced anger comes after repeating (and failing) a task multiple times. Maybe you’ve tried to get past a particularly devious puzzle with no luck, or a boss battle just isn’t going.

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If you've ever played ranked League of Legends before then you’ll know how frustrating a losing streak can be. It starts with just 2 or 3 losses and then the downward spiral continues until you eventually end up with something that looks like this:

Not only is a losing streak frustrating, but while you are on a losing streak, you are actually a lot more likely to lose your games. Not only does this add more frustration, but it can also seriously damage your MMR.

Also known as 'tilting', this type of behavior can cause serious damage to your chances of ever reaching a high league. But what exactly is tilting and how does it affect your mental mindset? Here's what you need to know about the mystery of tilting.

What Is Tilting?

Being on tilt can be described by the tilt definition which, according to Wikipedia, is:

‘Tilt is a poker term for a state of mental or emotional confusion or frustration in which a player adopts a less than optimal strategy, usually resulting in the player becoming over-aggressive. This term is closely associated with steam and some consider the terms equivalent, but 'steam' typically carries more anger and intensity.’

In other words: you aren’t thinking like you normally would.

You make plays that you shouldn’t make and you’ll find that you can often end up feeding the enemy laner. If you go into a game on tilt, and something goes against you (it can even be as small as missing some minions), you’ll often get angrier. While you are angry, you are going to make bad plays, want to surrender, play over aggressive, and potentially even flame your teammates.

Everyone experiences tilt at some point while playing League of Legends. It’s a natural reaction to become angry at yourself when you make a mistake. It’s also very likely that one of your teammates is most likely ‘on tilt’ when you queue up for the game.

This is why flaming can be seen regularly. Preventing tilt is almost impossible, and you just have to accept it as part of your game. What you can do is to mitigate the damage caused by being on tilt. You need to learn how to get out of your negative mind frame as fast as possible.

What Can I Do When I'm on Tilt?

Losing is a natural thing. No matter how good you are you’ll never have a 100% win rate. It’s important to start accepting a loss as a lesson and not a negative thing. Losing is almost as important as winning because you can always learn so much more from a loss. Eventually, though, no matter how good of a loser you are, you will eventually want that win. Here’s how you can stop those long League of Legends losing streaks and start to win again.

Tip #1: Think of Losing as a Lesson

Anger comes from frustration. Frustration is a form of stress that appears when we encounter obstacles in the way of our goals. A lot of people play League of Legends with the only goal to win. They don’t play to have fun, make friends, learn more etc.

If you are one of these people, then you aren’t going to climb very high in ELO. Think about what League of Legends is to you. Is it a game or an addiction to winning?

You should be playing League of Legends to enjoy yourself, improve as a player, and most importantly: have fun. Being competitive is not a bad thing, but you shouldn’t focus only on the outcome of the game. When you lose a game, you can often learn so much more from that then if you win the game.

Consider a game where a diamond smurf carries you. You got a free win of out of it, but you are now at a higher MMR without actually improving as a player. This means you are now more likely to lose your next game.

The fact is: ELO Hell doesn’t actually exist and you are exactly where you should be. It’s time to start learning from losing, to start winning.

Tip #2: Ignore your Division and Points

The League of Legends division system is just a pretty UI for the hidden MMR below. The league that you are in is a nice representation (such as Platinum or Diamond), but the only important number is your hidden MMR or ELO. When you lose this number will decrease, and winning causes it to increase.

If the system thinks you are in too high of a division, it will ‘clamp’ you. This means you won’t win much league points for a win, but your ELO will still increase. It isn’t until your ELO matches your league that you will start to win more than you lose. The short story here is that you are ranked too high for how you play.

Part of going on tilt is because you feel like you are losing too many points. You get demoted from Platinum I to Platinum II. This causes you to tilt and before you know it, you are down at Platinum IV.

Behind the scenes, your ELO is taking a beating. This invisible number is now lower than it was before, and this is the only number you should care about. If you improve your ELO enough – you’ll climb divisions very fast.

An important point here is not to let your division irritate you. If you are 0 points in Diamond II and get demoted to Diamond III, your ELO isn’t actually that different to where it was. It may suck to lose a division, but you aren’t that far behind where you were. If you recognize this, you can often stop yourself from getting too angry about previous events. This means you are less likely to tilt.

Tip #3: Play a Different Game to Stop Tilting

When you are on tilt the worst thing you can do is continue to play League of Legends. This only leads to a downward spiral with long losing streaks. Instead of queueing up to play again, you should pick a casual game which you play for fun.

A game where the outcome doesn’t matter (or maybe even a game without an outcome such as a sandbox game). This allows you to de-stress and relax. It can also remind you of why we play video games in the first place: to have fun.

How To Not Tilt In Video Games

We personally enjoy playing GTA V when we're on tilt. It’s relaxing because the outcome doesn’t matter. You can have a police chase, but if you die then it doesn’t matter. You're just having fun and relaxing. You often find that after a break in a different game, your first League of Legends game back is a win. This break allows you to calm down and de-stress yourself.

Tip #4: Use the Mute Button

Like we said previously; ‘someone on your team is going to be on tilt’. It’s very unlikely that you’ll meet 4 random strangers and not one of them will want to blame you. It’s natural to want to defend yourself when you are being blamed for something you didn’t do, but it only adds fuel to the fire. After playing thousands of games, it’s not uncommon to see a team which was ahead, collapse due to internal arguments.

The best thing you can do in situations like this is just to mute the tilting person. You aren’t going to reason logically with someone who is angry. You want to help, but no matter how much you try to hold your team together you just can’t do it alone.

The best thing that you can do is to type ‘/ignore all’ and focus on your own game. It’s difficult to carry a game solo now, but it can be done. This means you need to focus on your own game and not let the arguing put you on tilt.

Tip #5: Don't Blame Others for Your Tilting

This is easily the most important point on this list. If you want to improve your gameplay and decision making, then you are going to need to stop blaming other people. You should consider watching your replays back after every crushing defeat.

You can then notice your own mistakes and not make them again. If you just blame your team then queue back up, you are going to make the same mistakes, and you’ll most likely lose. When you start to tilt you’ll carry out the same mistakes even more regularly and end up on a losing streak.

Blaming other people is a natural reaction to doing something bad. It’s an easy way to escape from the harsh reality of the fact that you make a mistake. This occurs in all parts of life, not just competitive gaming. If you can learn to accept your own mistakes and not blame others then you will end up on a winning streak.

Tip #6: Practice Mindfulness

When playing video games you can often be distracted by a busy mind. Should you hold back or play offensively? Should you buy a BF sword or wait until the next time you back? With so much going on in your mind it can often be extremely distracting and hinder your gaming performance.

If you want to clear your mind and improve your gaming then you need to practice mindfulness. Mindfulness is the art of clearing your mind of thoughts which allows you to focus more on the task at hand. Practising mindfulness is a time-consuming process and you require a lot of practice before you get the hang of it. But once you do you'll feel a lot calmer and more focused with fewer distractions. To learn mindfulness simply head on over to YouTube or browser Amazon for a selection of helpful books.

Final Thoughts

Whatever competitive game you play, you’ll find yourself on tilt at some point. It’s important to recognize the symptoms of you tilting and to take the above advice. It's okay to tilt but it’s not okay to keep playing while on tilt. By taking a break you are massively limiting the damage that tilting causes to your rank.

If you can’t take a break from League of Legends then you could just go into a normal game. You don’t need to worry about winning or losing during this and you can just have fun. Maybe you should even play a non-meta champion for added fun.

If you still seek the thrill of ranked but still feel like you are on tilt then you could buy a smurf account. This account isn’t your main so you don’t have to worry about losing ELO on it, but you can still have the thrill and enjoyment of ranked competitive League of Legends. Just remember that no matter how bad of a mood you are in, it’s never okay to flame.

A good player (in any sport) doesn’t just coast by on mechanical skills. The truly great players also have an elite mentality which helps them grind out tough games. It makes sense, too. If you hang your head in shame after the first sign of opposition or you get blinded by rage when you get styled on your performance will suffer from it. Remaining calm and collected and having that elite mentality can also help you in esports, so read our guide to find out more on how you can avoid tilt.

From Wikipedia: “Tilt is a poker term for a state of mental or emotional confusion or frustration in which a player adopts a less than optimal strategy, usually resulting in the player becoming over-aggressive.”

So the term comes from the poker world, but it’s now widely used in gaming as well. In short: tilt = anger/frustration. It doesn’t need to be said that it’s best to avoid tilting. A player who is tilting will often be playing with tunnel vision, desperately trying to get back at ‘that one annoying enemy’ or trying to make up for past mistakes by making bold, aggressive plays which often do not work out. When these suboptimal plays result in death/loss or what have you that’s often the source of even more frustration, putting the player in a vicious cycle of tilt.

Tilt isn’t some anger management issue which only affects raging children. No game or player is ever perfect so every (somewhat competitive) player will be faced with difficult or unforeseen situations throughout their playing career. Therefore it’s important for players from all levels to learn how to adapt to these situations, and if at all possible to avoid tilt entirely.

How To Avoid Tilt

Unless you’re a Buddhist zen master you will be faced with situations where you’re getting (incredibly) annoyed. You can only sit through so many games where there’s a blatant thrower on your team, for example. As such, avoiding tilt completely just isn’t possible. At least not when you’re playing multiple (competitive) games every day. There are ways to mitigate the damage, though.

Limit Your Losses

An often heard piece of advice is to limit your losses in a row to a certain amount. You could, for example, tell yourself that if you lose two competitive games in a row you’re done for the night, or you at least take a break. You might not think you’re tilting but it’s not uncommon at all to hear players say ‘just one more game so I at least get my rank back,’ for example. That all sounds okay, but lose that last game and you’re now two (or more) wins away from your rank. This can cause you to want to go aggressive and ‘make some plays’, when in reality you’re just feeding.

Some people deal with losses better than others, so the threshold to take a break will vary between players, but in general it’s not a good idea to try and battle your way out of a losing streak. Take a break, relax, clear your mind, and get back at it with renewed confidence.

How To Not Get Tilted

Accept That Failing Is A Part Of Improving

No top player in the history of mankind has a completely flawless record. Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi still miss chances you’d expect your mate Dave from Sunday League to score. The guys in Astralis still botch nades or drop the bomb in a silly spot. I could go on and on, but the fact of the matter is that perfection does not exist.

Everyone makes mistakes, regardless of how good they are and everyone has to take it up the chin sometimes. Failing and losing is a natural part of competing. The difference between great players and ‘merely’ good players is how they deal with drawbacks. Take a loss as a learning experience (reflect on what you could have done better in an honest way, for example) and use that to strengthen yourself as a player. If you somehow believe that you deserve a 100% win record and thus get livid with every loss you’re doing it wrong.

Understand That You Are The Only Constant Factor In Your Games

You can’t control others. Sure, you might be doing everything right while your team seems to be doing their very best to lose the game, but it doesn’t make sense to get angry over that. It’s obviously frustrating when you seem to be the only person with their monitor turned on, but getting riled up over that won’t magically make your teammates better. Watch some streams and you’ll notice that even the top players in the world have off days or get put on teams where nothing seems to work. That’s the nature of multiplayer gaming.

The only factor in all of your games that you can influence with 100% certainty is yourself. Make sure that you’re always in ‘optimal condition’ and that you don’t let external factors over which you have literally 0 influence impact your performance.

Photo by Helena Kristiansson for Blizzard

Make Sure You’re Feeling Good

How To Stop Tilting In Games On Amazon

This will differ from player to player, but generally it’s not a good idea to play super serious competitive games when you’ve just had an absolutely horrifying 14 hour shift at work or something like that. Believe it or not, but playing games at a somewhat decent level in a serious way can be quite draining. If you’re already mentally empty or in a super bad mood it’s going to be way easier to be pushed over the edge, resulting in the dreaded tilt.

If you’re not feeling too hot when you finally end up at your PC it might be a good idea to play a more casual game(mode) instead of going super hard in a high stakes competitive environment.

Don’t Be A Jackass

This might not initially directly influence you; but don’t be a jackass to your teammates. If you initiate a vote to kick a player after that player lost a 1v4 in the first round you’re not only making a fool of yourself but you’re also inviting toxicity into the team. A frustrated, tilted teammate can quickly sour the mood of an entire team and a bickering, flaming team is the fastest way to another ‘L’ on your record. Try to be a positive factor for the team. You don’t have to overdo it, but a simple ‘nice try’ instead of ‘haha loser, uninstall’ is a world of difference, and being able to avoid tilt in your team is a valuable skill in and of itself.

You also need to be able to take criticism. If you get asked to maybe leave the sniping to another player your teammates usually don’t mean to say that you’re absolutely trash at the game and belong in the Wood Ranks. It could also be that your sniping isn’t really on point during that match and it’s better to leave it to someone who’s in better form at the moment. In short: be kind and gracious, both when giving criticism or praise and when receiving it.

Realize That Your Rank Is Just A Number

A lot of toxicity in ranked matchmaking comes from people being afraid of losing that precious symbol that comes with their rank. That’s all it is though; a symbol. You’re not going to get an extra discount at the grocery store for being Diamond instead of Silver and if you put your rank on your resume it’s most likely going straight in the trash. Literally no one cares about your rank, except for maybe you yourself. If you somehow lose a couple of ranks after a few days of bad luck you’re not instantly a worse player, you’re still you. Focus on improving yourself and your overall rank will improve over weeks, months, and years of play. Small fluctuations in your rank shouldn’t bother you.

Mute Trolls And Other Negative Influences

There are people who say it’s better to just wholesale mute voice comms or chat and to just never partake in it, but I strongly disagree. Nevertheless, there are always going to be people who are beyond help. If you feel like a certain player is spouting nothing but inane BS or only using voice comms to talk smack then by all means just mute that player and go on to play a bullshit free game.

Avoiding tilt completely isn’t really possible. We’re all human and as such we have our bad days and our good days. It is however super important to have the ability to recognize and remedy tilt. Being able to understand when you’re playing worse than you normally are due to frustration, feeling hopeless, and what have you will make you a better and healthier player in the long run and it’ll raise your enjoyment of the game. Understand that neither success nor failure is ever final and that even the very best players sometimes get stuck in a rut or a hopeless match and you’ll already be well on your way to being a calmer and more rational player. Hopefully this guide has helped a bit and will help you avoid tilt in the future. If you have any questions or remarks feel free to hit me up in the comments!