League of Legends is a game whose nature forces you to interact and cooperate with other players on your team if you want to have the highest odds of winning. Unfortunately, since the game is very intense and competitive, players are often toxic in chat with both teammates and opponents when things go wrong.
This toxicity is one of the main reasons seasoned players quit the game nowadays, as it’s sometimes very stressful and distracting to play the game while someone is spamming the chat with slurs. However, there are ways you can protect your mental sanity in situations like these with a few effective methods.
/Mute all
When it comes to the most effective solution to shut off toxicity from other players, muting has to be up there as one of the best methods. Logically, since the main source of salt in League comes through the in-game chat, the best way to shut it off is to mute the chat altogether.
/Muteall is an extremely useful command that you can type in chat that instantly mutes everyone in the game, both your teammates and opponents. This is especially useful in games where both teams are being toxic to each other and muting a single player won’t get the job done as there’s a sea of toxic messages in chat.
Muting is extremely underrated and a lot of pros and high elo players use this method when they need to focus on an important game while they’re climbing.
That being said, muting has a disadvantage though as it highly restricts your communication with non-toxic teammates. If you mute the entire lobby, you will cripple the communication options with your teammates as you won’t be able to listen to any of their pings or messages, which can cause confusion in terms of macro calls.
Take breaks
Taking regular breaks while gaming is an amazing practice that prevents tilt and toxicity in just about any game, not just League of Legends. Just a simple stretch or a walk to the fridge is sometimes enough to unwind and give you enough time to reset your mind in preparation for the next game.
This method is especially useful in a League environment where games sometimes last long and losing a 40-minute game can make you feel really annoyed. When it comes to reducing tilt and combating toxicity in League in particular, it’s recommended to take 5-10 minute breaks between your games.
Before you even think about it, the time you spend in queue and champion select (about 10 minutes) doesn’t count as a break since these breaks need to include you stepping away from the screen.
The most optimal way of taking a break from gaming and League’s toxicity should include basic physical activity such as stretching instead of just sitting in the chair.
Play with a duo
If you’re someone who grinds a lot of solo queue and you’re trying to climb the ladder, you’re probably aware of how OP it is to play with a skilled duo player. That being said, apart from increasing your likelihood of winning games, playing duo queue can also reduce the toxicity in your games.
For starters, by playing with duo queue with a premade, you’ve already removed one potentially toxic random player in your game. Instead, you’ll have an extra player who will stay positive and tryhard throughout the game.
In addition, when you’re playing solo queue, if you try to write encouraging positive messages in a five-man team those messages will get severely outnumbered by the toxic ones. However, a group of two players can easily overturn a negative team dynamic and kill any toxicity.
By using a custom rating system that evaluates a player’s attitude and friendliness, websites such as Duoo connect like-minded duo partners who aren’t toxic to their teammates.
Focus on improving
Even though it may seem a bit corny and overused at first, focusing on your gameplay instead of paying attention to the chat can go a long way when it comes to your improvement as a League player.
While you can theoretically mute the chat and move on with your game, you will grow a lot as a player if you learn to ignore your surroundings and focus on yourself.
If you’re focused on your performance and the positive impact you can have on a game, you won’t have time to check the chat or type yourself. In order to avoid toxicity, you need to adopt a mindset of self-improvement that focuses more on improving your personal play rather than winning a game.
This type of mentality that focuses on improving rather than winning will yield great results over time and you will see your win rate improve drastically while being able to block out any toxicity that comes your way.
Keep in mind that playing to improve is a process and you may sometimes be disheartened by poor results which is why you need to stay consistent and motivated.
Honor and report
Honoring and reporting players according to their in-game sportsmanship goes a long way when it comes to creating a League community that’s less toxic than it already is.
Even though you can only honor your teammates, you should always do that if you are impressed with a teammate’s skill or friendliness. That player will be encouraged to perform well and stay positive in-game after seeing that somebody values that.
On the other hand, reporting toxic players is just as important since you can get them chat restricted or banned altogether. This is especially important nowadays as Riot became more strict with banning players and a single well-reasoned report of a player who used heavy slurs can get them banned.
Encourage the team
One of the core problems that cause games and teammates to be so toxic is the fact that very few players respond with kindness and encouragement when things get tough in-game. Most players resort to belittling their teammates instead of encouraging them when they’re doing poorly which is often the source of toxic behavior.
Instead of participating in these exchanges of toxic messages and slurs, try to completely switch it up on your teammates by encouraging them to do better. It’s much nicer to hear that someone believes you can do better instead of somebody kicking you while you’re already down.
A few kind words of optimism can go a long way when it comes to team morale and it’s important to remember this before you type something nasty to a teammate that’s feeding.
Play ARAMs and normal games
Nobody would disagree that the main source of toxicity is the passion players have for the game and the desire to increase their solo queue rank. That’s why casual game modes such as ARAM and normal games are the perfect destination if you’re looking to avoid any toxicity and stress.
The main reason why players aren’t as toxic in game modes like these is the fact that LP isn’t on the line and players don’t need to worry about climbing the ranked ladder.
Everyone’s having fun by playing champions and builds they don’t usually play which reduces the intensity and seriousness of these games. Additionally, you can make these games even more fun by playing with a bunch of friends since there are no rank restrictions.
Champion select preparation
Given how toxic the League solo queue can be, it should come as no surprise that the toxicity in these games starts in champion select. A lot of players play League for 8+ hours a day which makes them permanently tilted and that tilt carries on from one game to another.
Think for a moment or two about all of the times that somebody started flaming their entire team in the first 5 seconds of the champion select because they’re tilted from the last game. This type of behavior creates a toxic team dynamic and it sometimes takes only 1 person like this to agitate the entire team.
To put things into perspective, this is such a common thing nowadays that Riot created an option to report and mute someone in champion select.
However, the best method to reduce toxicity when a single person is flaming in champion select is to get your teammates to stay focused on the game. By talking about team comps, strategies, or meta picks, you will drown out the negative talk and the toxic person will be less inclined to keep flaming once they see they’re ignored.
