In LoL, what really separates the “good” players from the “great” players is teamwork. Low ranks are full of individual players, but upper ranks are full of team players. You can be the world’s best individual player. But unless you can 1v5 every encounter, you’ll still end up capped out in Gold rank. Because even as a good individual player, you’ll lose half your matches from the lack of teamwork.
This is ironically why lots of games end up as shit slinging disasters; When you force randoms to cooperate and tie their individual success to the actions of their teammates, shit gets toxic very fast. The slightest mistake or misjudgement is treated as the end of the world, because we judge others by their actions rather than their intentions. Because it’s entirely possible to lose ranks through no fault of your own. Even if you play a perfect match, you can still lose due to your teammates fucking up. So even small mistakes are judged harshly.
It’s also why Korean teams have historically dominated the leaderboards. In Korea, Internet cafes are a large part of the culture. Kids go to play games with their friends after school. So many of the Korean teams are friends who have been playing together since they were in elementary school. Their teamwork is exceptional, because they know what their friends are going to do in any given situation. They can accurately predict their friends’ actions and reactions, and plan accordingly.
Contrast this with the western style of team building. Recruit individual players to a team, then force them to scrimmage for 12 hours a day to learn each others’ play styles. It’s the corporate “recruit a square peg, then hammer them until they fit into the round hole because that’s what the team needs” philosophy. They’re building teams from individuals, instead of finding teams who already excel together.
Source: Dated a girl who floated between Diamond I and Master rank with her friends. I believe she even got lucky and hit Grandmaster once? I had very little interest in playing the game, but got to learn all about it from her.
In LoL, what really separates the “good” players from the “great” players is teamwork. Low ranks are full of individual players, but upper ranks are full of team players. You can be the world’s best individual player. But unless you can 1v5 every encounter, you’ll still end up capped out in Gold rank. Because even as a good individual player, you’ll lose half your matches from the lack of teamwork.
This is ironically why lots of games end up as shit slinging disasters; When you force randoms to cooperate and tie their individual success to the actions of their teammates, shit gets toxic very fast. The slightest mistake or misjudgement is treated as the end of the world, because we judge others by their actions rather than their intentions. Because it’s entirely possible to lose ranks through no fault of your own. Even if you play a perfect match, you can still lose due to your teammates fucking up. So even small mistakes are judged harshly.
It’s also why Korean teams have historically dominated the leaderboards. In Korea, Internet cafes are a large part of the culture. Kids go to play games with their friends after school. So many of the Korean teams are friends who have been playing together since they were in elementary school. Their teamwork is exceptional, because they know what their friends are going to do in any given situation. They can accurately predict their friends’ actions and reactions, and plan accordingly.
Contrast this with the western style of team building. Recruit individual players to a team, then force them to scrimmage for 12 hours a day to learn each others’ play styles. It’s the corporate “recruit a square peg, then hammer them until they fit into the round hole because that’s what the team needs” philosophy. They’re building teams from individuals, instead of finding teams who already excel together.
Source: Dated a girl who floated between Diamond I and Master rank with her friends. I believe she even got lucky and hit Grandmaster once? I had very little interest in playing the game, but got to learn all about it from her.