Stopping The Snowball Effect.

by JR Cook - 9 years ago     show comments

We’ve all had those games. Things aren’t going well early game, and the snowball is building into your doom. Not only is everything going wrong, but you’re playing terribly. Teammates start getting angry, and insist that the team’s failure is your fault. You start to not only feel angry at your team, but also yourself. Lashing out in chat seems to be the only answer because this game is lost, right? Wrong, the snowball effect can always be stopped!

Raging in chat is not only a bad idea but can often throw your game. If you spend your time typing toxic messages or defending your actions you waste time that could be spent turning around a match that isn’t going your team’s way. Likewise, if you have a solid team but one player isn’t doing well, it is not a good idea to start yelling at them. Not only do you run the risk of distracting someone who isn’t on their game, but you might also cause that player to outright give up. Having a toxic player on any team causes a lot of problems, the most notable of which is that it almost always denies you the opportunity for a comeback.

To prove that this is possible I’ve linked a recent match on Blackhearts Bay I was involved in below. We are in a 4 man premade with 3 on Skype. In this match at the 8 minute mark we are down 9-0 in kills, and 3 levels below the enemy team. The only player not in our premade was playing very poorly to open the match. It would have been easy for us to all gang up on him in group chat and bash his poor plays, perhaps even insist he not do anything without our permission via pings. This would not have only alienated him from our group, but in my opinion might have cost us this game. After all it ended up being this player’s play near the end of the game that won it all for us.

So how do you go from a hopeless situation at 8 minutes to winning at 20? One big key is to not compound mistakes. Keeping deaths as low as possible, while assisting in objectives, can be a big factor in making a comeback. When down levels it is important not to engage in big team fights. If you find the enemy team with a two level advantage and moving together as a team, it is not wise to engage them. Look at other things you could be doing on the map, like attacking mercenary camps or accomplishing main objectives, and focus on the safer ones. If nothing else is open, you might want to grab some lane experience from creeps, while defending behind the safety of your walls. This can also help lessen the gap. A comeback is not always possible, even if you play it right, but running into their team while at a disadvantage will only make things worse.

Another key to surviving an early disadvantage is map awareness. If you keep your eye on what is going on with your team and the enemies, you may be able to save someone or create an advantage via pings or quick messages. You obviously can’t always guarantee that your team will adhere to your pings, but an attempt at communication is better than none at all. Although it is good to remember that over pinging can not only cause resentment towards you, but players may also stop taking your pings seriously. Using pings to point out where the enemies are, or when it’s a smart time to grab an objective are typically the best uses of this tool.

After reading through this, some players may have decided to change the way they engage with others in chat, but what do you do if one player is being a toxic nightmare? If you’re a really good player leading by example is your best hope. Do not engage a toxic player in chat, because often it will only strengthen their resolve to spend time typing vitriol rather than working with the team. If team members are arguing with one another don’t take sides. Splitting your team up by taking sides will create an environment that doesn’t promote teamwork. Instead, do things that help prevent arguments, while simultaneously allow you to work towards a comeback. Helping a dying teammate survive, or helping an aggressive player push an objective are good examples of things you can do to diffuse a toxic team chat.

Stopping the snowball is not always easy and toxic players can make it even worse. Remember sometimes you can do everything possible to change the trajectory of a match and still fall short. Sometimes a player may insist on staying angry no matter what you do. Finally, sometimes no matter what you do the other team is simply better than yours! Do not let this discourage you from trying to turn fights around in the future. Teamwork is the key! After all, this is a team game. If the video below proves anything, it’s that you can always stop the snowball effect, even when things look really bad.