Fix Your Mentality: 3 Things To Do To Avoid Getting Tilted
People know me today as a caster for MPL-Philippines. A few however, know me as one of the best leaders in Philippine collegiate esports history. After retiring as a player, I transitioned to coaching, managing, then chose casting as my main profession. In my 4 years of collegiate esports, I’ve managed to secure 7+ national championships across my many roles in our organization, University of Santo Tomas’ Teletigers Esports Club. I’d like to share a few important things I’ve learned and imparted with my players that kept their mental game strong in fierce competitions.
All of us commit errors in-game. Even professionals at some point, made crucial errors that cost them the game. For us casual gamers, mistakes are more frequent and noticeable. Mistakes, for the most part, are inevitable. They’re bound to happen whether it’s forced errors, or just miscalculations on our part. One thing we could avoid though, is letting that mistake define our entire outlook of the game. Here are some useful tips for you to avoid getting tilted!
- Accept that mistakes are bound to happen.
Never expect a perfect game. It’s alright to hope for one, but expecting a perfect game would only fill your game mentality with disappointment. In a setup where both teams are rewarded for forcing errors out of opponents, it’s extremely rare to find a perfect game when both teams are almost equally skilled.
Accepting that mistakes are bound to happen would allow your mind to be at ease when those mistakes happen. A clear mind would immediately allow you to think of the next best play to do instead of taking a few minutes to calm yourself down because of disappointment or frustration. Every second counts in competitive games, and that split-second decision you make to think of the most optimal play might give you the victory.
- Communicate with your team clearly.
Always pass every piece of valuable information you get even when mishaps happen. Most of the time, those mishaps give more information than correct plays you do in-game. This would help your team to recover, or even help you out to take back your loss.
Don’t forget that tone matters. Shouting at your teammates with your frustrated voice won’t do your team any good. You don’t have to sound loving–you just need to be able to clearly send all the relevant information you picked up to your team. This will help in the decision making of your team as a single unit. Remember that team work makes the dream work.
- Learn, reset, and recover.
Once the game is over, no matter what the results are–you need to assess everything you’ve learned as a team. In a competitive setup where BO1s rarely happen, you would need another game to either close the series, or extend it to a third game.
Learning from your losses or wins, then treating the next game the same way you treated the first game would allow you to approach the upcoming battle with the same fierce mindset but with better knowledge at your disposal.
Knowledge, skill, and communication are all core aspects of keeping yourself and your team away from being tilted. Champions and soon to be champions know how to handle the competition even outside of the game. For instance, when teams are equally skilled in-game, a good mental state sometimes makes that small difference between a trophy and 1st-runner up medal.
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