Riot Demonstrates That Rage In Online Games Will Cost You

Rage is one of the primary emotions of online gaming. Put a bunch of emotionally immature people who stake their egos on how good they are at a game together, one of them is eventually going to go ballistic. Riot Games has collected data on ragers and trolls from League of Legends and guess what? They lose. A lot.

Obviously Riot’s data set is limited to League of Legends, but it’s a pretty compelling collection of data. This being the Internet, Riot has couched it in a funny, but pointed video:

What’s striking is just how much more rewarding, in terms of the game, sportsmanlike conduct actually is. Polite players win 10% more often than average, while brats win 35% less often. To give you an idea of the scale of that loss, players showing sporting behavior win 1.7 million more games. Daily.

Yeah, yeah, “teamwork is OP” and all that, but if you think about it, it makes sense. When you get angry, you don’t think clearly, and when you don’t think clearly, you get your ass handed to you more often than not. There’s a reason people trying to pick a fight are trying to antagonize you, after all.

Either way, it’s a good reminder that A) you really should not be taking a game where you run around in a funny costume quite so seriously and B) if you relax, you’ll win more often. Although considering some of the LOL players I know, they probably have some help with the relaxation thing. Maybe Riot could work on the whole “Eating Cheetos while on live-chat” thing next.

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