To start off we should explore what makes us unmotivated.

Lack of Confidence: When we fail, we tend to dwell on our failures and lose confidence in ourselves. This in turn causes a loss in motivation. In LoL this happens usually when either on a losing streak or a death streak. It also doesn’t help when someone points out your failures to you, because that solidifies your failures. I know that I personally start to give up whenever I have died several times. I begin to call myself a feeder and a team dead-weight, and then I don’t have any will to even play anymore. [1]

A way to boost your confidence is to realize that it isn’t as bad as it seems! Even if you’re on a losing streak, or death streak, just think about how next time you will succeed. What made that last engagement bad? Was it you, or was it factors outside of your control? Sometimes you have to take a step back and realize that you did everything right that time, and it’s your teammates that need to improve.

It may sound bad, but you have to not care. Now I’m not saying don’t care about the game, otherwise you wouldn’t have any motivation, but you need to not care about your past failures. Learn from them, and make them make you stronger! Also turn your weakness into a strength. Is the enemy pushing up really far because you can’t engage them? Then call for the jungler to gank them! Your tower taken in the first 10 minutes? Don’t worry! They will either overextend and become gankable, or you get an even longer lane to farm in! I have watched pro players begin losing their lanes, and then come back and win the game because they become so farmed.

Also realize that the other team is made up of people too. They make mistakes, and they are prone to making emotional decisions that will help you win! Biggest thing I see is overconfidence. The other team will have a huge advantage on kills or towers, but they won’t take advantage of it because they’re confident they can beat you anytime. Meanwhile you have your carries farming wave after wave of minions and getting their full builds. Enemy team then engages you in your base and gets wrecked because they underestimated you! This has happened several times to me, I will do bad early game, the enemy ignores me, and then I come back and make them regret it!

As Josh says “Never give up, never surrender!”

Falconer, Erin. How to Motivate Yourself – Self Motivation. Retrieved from http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/how-to-motivate-yourself/.

Wier, Hershey. Motivate Yourself and Stay Motivated. Retrieved from http://www.lifeorganizers.com/cm_articles/119_motivate_yourself_and_stay_motivated_721.html.

Latumahina, Donald. Self Motivation: How to Motivate Yourself. Retrieved from http://www.lifeoptimizer.org/2008/10/22/self-motivation-how-to-motivate-yourself/.

Duncan, Cath. How To Recover From 10 Types of Demotivation. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.productiveflourishing.com/how-to-recover-from-10-types-of-demotivation/.

Reys, Gleb. How to Stay Motivated. Retrieved from http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/how-to-stay-motivated.html.

I know that this happens because it has happened to me and my friends before. As Elementz (a professional LoL player) says “it has to do with the fact that one bad player can make it nigh impossible for your team to win over a competent opponent, no matter how well you play,” so people get frustrated [4]. If a couple of bad players that blame everything on everyone else, and tell everyone to report their teammates for being bad, it causes a stressful environment for everyone.  This in turn causes the game to end in defeat, and we feel as if we wasted 40 minutes of our time.

A way to improve this is instead of being negative, to be positive. Show encouragement to the other players, try and help them learn in a positive way. Positive re-enforcement can be more effective then negative re-enforcement in LoL, because most people tend to make even more mistakes when they are frustrated. If a player on your team is having problems then try and help them out, or tell them how to help the team win (like buying wards).

Team motivation is very important to winning a game, especially if the teams are evenly matched. It has been proven that “motivation level of individual group members is often a key determent of group performance,” ( Turner 113) which means that if a member of a team is unmotivated, they will play poorly. [3]

Sources:

Nick Yee. CyberPsychology & Behavior. December 2006, 9(6): 772-775. doi:10.1089/cpb.2006.9.772.

Shao-Kang Lo, Chih-Chien Wang, and Wenchang Fang. CyberPsychology & Behavior. February 2005, 8(1): 15-20. doi:10.1089/cpb.2005.8.15.

Turner, E., Marlene. (2001). Groups at work: theory and research

Sigfusson, Cody. (May 23rd, 2011). Noobs Guide to Everything League of Legends. Retrieved from http://clgaming.net/board/board39-reign-of-gaming/board40-blogs/board41-reign-of-elementz/1927-noobs-guide-to-everything-league-of-legends-part-5/

(Nov. 14, 2011) I’m beginning to dislike the playerbase more and more often. Retrieved from http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=1481315

Ben: Onward!

Tony: How do you feel about the current game?

Ben: The game’s good, the community sucks.

Tony: Haha, I can agree there most of the time. What do you like about LoL?

Ben: It lets me keep in touch with my friends back home, gives us something to do together.

Tony: That’s good, I feel that way over the summer breaks. How would you compare yourself to other players?

Ben: Hmm.  I’d say average.  Definitely better than some, definitely worse than others.

Tony: How many games would you say you’ve played total?

Ben: Hmm, I’d say around 1000?

Tony: Dang

Ben: Maybe a little under that. I’ve got about 600ish wins, and a little less than that in losses.

Tony: I probably only have 300 total games.

Ben: I’ve been playing for a while XD

Tony: Haha, yeah. What’s the most important thing, would you say, to learn when first starting League of Legends?

Ben: I think the most important thing would be positioning. Like, when I’m teaching someone, they’ll chill in lane, and the enemy will come at them, but they dont’ run away. Just awareness of where to be and how to kite.

Tony : Yeah, that’s definitely important. Best thing to do is buy wards xD

Ben: Yuh, teaching them where to put them is also important.

Tony : I was pretty bad at ward placement before haha.

Ben: I don’t ward enough. I usually go mid, and don’t ward my side bushes very often. But the outside lanes should always ward!

Tony : Most definitely, it’s fun when you know the jungler is there waiting for you, and you can just ignore them and let them waste time.

Ben: Yuh XD

Tony : Speaking of jungling, what do you think of the new jungle?

Ben: Hmm, it’s not as different as I thought. The heal glyphs are a nice bonus, and the lesser experience isn’t that noticeable.

Tony : I read a Riot post from Morello that they’re going to hotfix it, since the majority isn’t happy.

Ben: Oh really? What I found was, because of the lack of experience and gold, you can’t stay in the jungle just farming, you have to gank.  The respawn times makes it difficult to know when someone will gank. I don’t see a big problem with it, I think people just don’t like changes in the meta XD.

Tony : Yeah xD, what do you think of the meta? A bit boring now?

Ben: The whole laning phase is boring, but there’s not much that can be done about it. Everyone just last hits and ignores the other. Kind of a waste of time. That’s just how MOBAs work.

Tony : I think Riot’s trying to liven it up a bit with the new champions they’re coming out with.

Ben: And making bank XD

Tony : Haha yeah that too.

Ben: They reduced minion damage a bit, but people still don’t dive often.

Tony : I don’t know how reduced the damage is yet, but I can see people becoming a bit more aggressive in the near future.

Ben: They took it down by about 15% not very noticeable though.

Tony : Ah, but still a tad weaker.

Ben: Yuh

Tony : What’s your favorite type of champion to play?

Ben: AP carry or assassin. Assassins are a bit hard to place in the meta though, so I usually end up as AP carry, jungle Lee Sin is super fun though.

Tony : I feel everyone cries over assassins.

Ben: Yeah, they aren’t op at all, you just have to know what to do.

Tony : Which is target them with everything xD

Ben: Yup.

Tony: Well I ran out of questions.

Ben: Mk XD

Tony: Thanks for the interview!

Ben: No problem.

1. Trolls: They don’t take the game seriously, or they try and do their best to disrupt either team by either being offensive in chat or playing badly.
2. Carries: These players try their best to carry their team to victory (like the champions!) even if they have a troll on their team disrupting everyone else. They are often deemed “Try-Hards” because they honestly do try hard to win.
3. Inexperienced Players: AKA Noobs, these players are in the process of learning, now this could be learning a champion or learning the game in general but they are often the players that are most “trolled” or insulted during a game because their score is terrible. (This is the category I place myself in haha)
4. Experienced Players: These players are decent at what they do, and while they may not be getting the most kills they are doing their job and helping their team.

Now a player might cycle through these “types” throughout a game, and it is all due to player psychology. If a player is expecting to lose, then they want to give up. This is very apparent in League of Legends because the games tend to last 40 minutes or more, who would want to play for almost an hour just to lose? “Players don’t finish games for many reasons, but no matter what explanations arise, it’s also likely that a significant number of players stopped out of frustration.” [1]

I can personally attest to frustration affecting my game-play, because it happens often, and I understand why players want to give up. Another quote explains “those who believe that their failure is the result of stable factors, such as native ability or intelligence, which they cannot easily change, are most likely to give up or not even try,” [1] and I believe that is what causes people to not care and either start to troll their team mates, and berate them. Which in turn causes low team morale.

Sources:

Phillips, B. (2009). staying power. Game Developer, 16(6), 22-27.

Stoeber, J., Harvey, M., Ward, J. A., & Childs, J. H. (2011). Passion, craving, and affect in online gaming: Predicting how gamers feel when playing and when prevented from playing. Personality & Individual Differences, 51(8), 991-995. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2011.08.006

Anderson, A., Craig, Ford, M., Catherine. (1986). Affect of the Game Player: Short-Term Effects of Highly and Mildly Aggressive Video Games. Pers Soc Psychol Bull December 1986 vol. 12 no. 4 390-402

Flynt, P., John. In The Mind of a Game. 2006

(2004). Psychology 101 – Chapter 7: Motivation and Emotion. Retrieved from http://allpsych.com/psychology101/motivation.html

Have a GG – Tony

Jon: It’s no problem, glad I could help.

Tony: So what do you think about the current game of League of Legends?

Jon: Besides it’s fun? It’s really a unique concept its one of the few free to play games that does not have a item mall that make anyone who spends money there OP, it runs nicely and besides the occasional rager, people aren’t completely immature on there.

Tony: I agree with that. What do you think about the variety of Champions?

Jon: Surprisingly vast, each champion has his or her own little quirks and even though they each fulfill one of a few tasks, it’s the little things along with player skills that can make a battle go one way or another.

Tony: What are your favorite types of champions and what role do you enjoy playing most?

Jon: Well as you know I play so many types I really have not settled on one type. I like ranged champs such as Ezreal and Vayne, but I also like melee champs such as Udyr, Shyvana, and Irelia. What I look for is survivability. I’m a clumsy person in general, and I’m also stubborn, I tend to wait too long before heading back to base, or I’ll wade into a trap. As Ezreal for instance, has a blink that is good for escaping, and Udyr has a sprint/shield with life and mana regeneration that is great for getting away and sustain. I guess for role: solo top, support, or bait haha.

Tony: How experienced would you say you are at League of Legends?

Jon: Experienced or skilled? Experienced, I’ve played for a while but there are probably a lot of people who have played less than me but are much more skilled.

Tony: I know you have played longer than I have, but I also know that you play many other games.

Jon: Yep

Tony: So if you had to put your skill/experience on a scale of 1-10 what would you rate yourself?

Jon: 5 or 6 I hope!

Tony: What would you consider the most important skill to learn to be successful at League of Legends.

Jon: Awareness.

Tony: I see what you mean, being aware is really important to controlling the map.

Jon: Yep.

Tony: I think that pretty much covers it! Thanks again for the interview!

Jon: No problem.

The most obvious difference is team cooperation. When playing StarCraft, players can only rely on themselves. Any mistakes made are on their own end.

League of Lessons is a team-based game and along with cooperation comes the frustration of dealing with teammates. Coming to League of Legends, I’ve found dealing with other players effectively very important to success.

League of Legends feels like it’s on a much smaller scale compared to StarCraft. Every player controls their champion only while StarCraft gives you your bases and your entire army. It’s a big transition focusing on hundreds of units to putting all your attention only on one.

It’s easier to multitask a single unit, but for a beginner it’s tougher in that tactics are much more influential. It also feels like every action puts the player at stake, whereas StarCraft has you make many more important decisions.

There are a number of things League of Legends presents that are unfamiliar to a StarCraft player. Things like lane-pushing are completely foreign to StarCraft players who aren’t used to dealing with units controlled by A.I

StarCraft players are used to maps being important to the balance of the game; League of Legends and its balance revolves more around the abilities of champions.

StarCraft, despite having much more onscreen at any particular time compared to League of Legends, doesn’t have the multitude of champions League of Legends does. Considering all the champions, the bots, and the interactions between these two, there’s an overwhelming amount of things to consider when playing your champion. StarCraft doesn’t have so many complicated relationships like this.

– Marvin

Dragon initially spawns at 2:30 with a respawn timer of 6:00, and interestingly the health of Dragon is based on highest champion level with 3030 + 220(highest level’d champion level). Dragon gives 190 gold to each member of the team that defeats it plus 25 gold to whomever lands the last hit! That is a total of 975 gold for whatever team kills Dragon, which is why controlling Dragon is so important in competitive play and the pro players take it whenever it is up. Take a note of when the Dragon will next spawn after defeating it, so your team will be ready when it spawns again. [1]

Baron Nashor, shortened to just Baron, gives a team buff (as long as you’re alive) of 40 AP, 40 AD, 3% health/5, and 1% mana/5. Defeating Baron also grants 300 gold and 900 experience to each player, totaling 1500 gold and 4500 experience for the team! A team with Baron buff is able to more easily push down towers and emerge victorious in a team-fight (and that fed Akali that has all 3 buffs can solo a team now). Late in a game it is advised to have Baron warded so as to more easily disrupt a team trying to get the buff, as well as keeping pressure mid and top lane to be a threat to a team trying for Baron.  [2]

Sources:

1:(Oct. 30, 2011). Dragon. Retrieved from http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Dragon

2: (Nov. 6, 2011). Dragon. Retrieved fromhttp://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Baron_Nashor

There is a way to prevent this, along with map awareness you can use wards! Wards are wonderful because they give vision of an area without you having to be there, and they turn invisible so the enemy team doesn’t know they are being watched. Wards help give knowledge of the opponent whereabouts and as we all know “knowledge is power.”

Here are some common places to put wards during the laning phase.

Placement for top lane!

Top river ward placement.

Bottom river ward placement.

Warding for bottom lane.

These are what I would consider the four basic places for wards, and they do help prevent getting killed in ganks because you have a warning.

Who should buy wards? Answer: Everybody! Everyone on the team should buy at least one ward everytime they go back to shop. Wards don’t last forever and if you want to be protected while pushing down a tower, it is really in your best interest to buy and place wards. Supports, and junglers should especially buy wards to help the carries save gold on wards.  Hope this helps out, and prevents a few ganks for you!

Have a GG – Tony