Not Caring: The Secret to Ladder Anxiety
What is ladder anxiety?
Anxiety stems from our fears and worries about a future event. For example, I had anxiety writing this because I'm worried I made some terrible error that I'll discover in the comments. In the case of ladder anxiety in Dota 2, we are apprehensive about a few things:
- Losing
- Being flamed for any reason, even if unjustified
- Not playing well (don't meet your expectations)
- Poor teammates
- Drop in MMR
Anxiety is normal to being human, but it can be excessive when it prevents us from our activities. Many of the above beliefs in Dota will actually stop us from playing. We're worried that we'll lose or drop in MMR, so we don't play at all. What happened to the fun in just playing a game?
Why do we feel ladder anxiety?
By Natalie Dee
We dislike failure. Valve is aware of this as well, as shown in the lack of a loss score in your profile. At Dotabuff, we've also removed the "longest losing streak" from our records page. Although failure can have its benefits as a motivational factor, its constant presence in our minds can have worse negative effects. Our thoughts about losing can compel us to avoid the situation altogether. You can't lose if you don't play. [Correction: Dotabuff does still have longest losing streak.]
We have unrealistic expectations. We all want to be better and to reach that benchmark MMR, whether it's at 3K or 5K. And we want that goal now. Every loss pushes it further away. However, improvement in Dota is a slow, gradual process. Our goals can be longterm, and they can be numerous. Maybe shoot for improving your mid game rotations, last hitting mechanics, or study on drafting strategy.
Our worries are misplaced. Everyone loses, a lot. And though many players are quick to flame, it's an impulse that often has no basis. Losing is part of the game, and if you ask any professional, they would not be the player they are today if they didn't learn how to improve from their losses.
How can we overcome ladder anxiety?
Change your thinking
Our perception and thoughts affect how we feel. We see losing as failure and a negative outcome, and in turn we feel apprehension about playing Dota. And when we lose, we are completely focused on our own failures (though some may scapegoat to others). We fail to realize that losing happens all the time, and it's no different in our situation. Even professionals lose. In patch 6.80, Na`Vi has lost 41.5% of their games. You can't win every game.
Losing isn't always negative. It can be motivational. Our impulse may say to move on and forget about that horrible feeding fest, but instead we can learn from our mistakes. Pros will thoroughly review their own games to discover their weaknesses and see how they can improve.
As pub players, our losses also mean that our future games may be matched with weaker players. Any points lost will be easier to win back.
Relaxation training
It may seem silly, but relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, meditation, and thinking pleasant thoughts are proven methods of coping with anxiety in behavioral therapy. For example, Annie Duke, one of the most successful poker players, practices yoga to prepare for the physical and psychological stresses of playing the game.
What relaxes you? It could be music, comfortable clothing, a cup of tea, or just doing some stretches at your desk before the game loads.
Desensitization
Desensitization is done systematically. Find the situation that you're most comfortable with, and work your way up to ranked matches. Dota has the benefit of being a team game, whereas a one-on-one game like Starcraft can be a very tense situation. Do you have fun playing casual matches with friends? Start there. And keep in mind you don't have to win! Have other goals that you want to practice, such as unusual warding spots, or getting used to quick-buying items. You can work at it step by step. Here's one example:
- Watch a ranked game
- Play a game vs bots
- Play a casual, unranked game with friends
- Play a solo unranked game
- Play a ranked game
Stay Organized
One last tip is to keep a schedule. Forget playing whenever you feel like, and feverishly playing to get one win when you're in a losing streak. If you have time for three games a night, and maybe a few more on the weekends, then stick to that, whether you win or lose.
Now go play
I've thought about why I enjoy Dota 2 and why I've logged in an embarrassing number of hours into it over the past two years. I've been addicted to other types of games, such as MMOs, mobile games (Candy Crush is evil), and every Batman game by Rocksteady. Dota 2 is unique. Our heroes don't level up from game to game, we don't gain points to unlock features, and we don't progress through a story. Every game of Dota is the same as the one before it. The only thing that changes is us. After each game, we see ourselves grow. That's something to look forward to.
Have you faced ladder anxiety yourself? Feel free to add any tips you may have for others in the comments!
Great article! I find myself in the same situation often times. These are some great tips!
As someone with ladder anxiety i would like to point out that the mute button is my best friend
i like it, then again, the schedule part is somewhat confusing for me.
personally i play cause it is fun also if i can play with friends, i do so as long as they want to play ill play with them.
when solo, i really do not mind the result of the game as long as the game did not end in a weird way of all opponents or teammates disconnecting. when that happens i just boil up and have to end the game day then. lag issues and other connectivity problems make me angry.
so i do not have any schedule to follow. i guess if you really want to progress and better your play you need one but if you just play casually then have no schedule is not a detriment.
its just a random, virtual number, keep that in mind. No need to rant about it in any way. Play the game for fun (if youre not any kind of professional player) and thats about it. Losing can be fun, too. If the game makes you sad/upsets you, why waste your time with it? you could do other stuff in the meantime that would make you a lot happier. But anyway:
- MUTE. Even though Dota is a team game, some "teammates" can be really annoying. If they wont stop insulting/pinging/speaking in a foreign language, just MUTE them. You will not change their opinion in the most cases, and the time you spend trying to convince them that "b" doesnt mean "push", you could as well spend farming, stacking neutral camps or even setting up a neat solokill.
- Analyze your mistakes. It's nice to watch replays or just think about what you could've done better (item choices, decision making etc), rather than blaming everything on the russians that just kept feeding. you can not change their behaviour, but you can in fact change yours. even if it occurs that you did everything "right", and EVERYTHING is to blame on your teammates, then just forget the match and start a new.
- Dota 2 takes time. You wont hit 4/5/6/7k MMR from one day to another. BUT, if you keep your winrate over 50%, you're going to get there eventually. Even if you're on a bad 8-games losing streak, the wins will eventually drop in again. Sure, its frustrating as hell, but over a long timespan, winrate > 50% means 6k MMR.... just a bit later than you initially thought.
- MMR is a number. in a VIRTUAL game. it is NOT going to determine anything important in your life. MMR != sex. MMR != happy life. and if you really seem to be stuck in 1k/2k MMR hell, just create a new account and try your best there. even if you get calibrated just 500,600, well maybe even 1000 MMR above your old account, you might have found the Trench Tier you belong to. With teammates that fit your expectations.
- Dont care about other peoples MMR. If your friends are all 4k, and youre sitting at a shameful mere 2k, and they keep laughing at you, why dont just laugh back? No need to feel any pressure or something, just go ahead and make sure you enjoy the game. Remember, we're playing it in our free time to have a little bit fun, not to feel like human waste. If they wont stop ranting about you, just block them. If it happens to be your reallife friends laughing at you, talk to them, or ignore them in any "your mmr so low boi"-related stuff.
- Dont play ranked games. Even public matchmaking has something similiar to ranked MMR system. So youre going to increase your skills there too, getting matched with better players over time, and the best, you dont need to fear a virtual number hanging out on your profile.
Kind regards,
2.3k MMR player that plays the game not only to get better at it, but to have fun while doing so :)
i think dota2 mmr must be change system like
sorting the highest mmr and the lowest mmr in hero colour
such as blue green purple yellow brown in radiant side
in LoL , actually im a diamond player , i can know im playing with lower mmr or higher mmr teammate
example , im in blue position , and the brown position said he will pick carry , omg
its like warning of dangerous match , usually i pick strong solo lane champion that can carry the game early mid strongly
in LoL , we pick from blue green purple yellow brown player , so its a pick from highest mmr to lower mmr
it really help a lot , it means
highest mmr pick carry , we can trust him
lowest mmr in team pick carry , we know , ah its like a gamble , then u pick strong support that can transitional into strong late game hero
such as necro , abaddon , wk , omni , DP , zeus , warlock , leshrac , or enigma , lion , shadowS , wk if u really need disable
(never heard about DP support ? at lv 16 with proper positioning she can deal insane damage as a support , the key is positioning , but beware someone will call u retard if u pick DP support)
i think the different of support and not support is his item , and he is do warding and dewarding , pick mekans , buy force staff in case of emergency happen to ur main hero (such as mid laner n carry got disable and will be die, force staff him)
so basically every hero can be support , but wk suport only have stun impact , melee , and more useless in early game , consider it
or
lowest mmr in team pick carry , we know , we must pick very strong burst damage support in early game phase to baby sit via space created, like lina , sky , lion , etc
the most amazing think about support is EG support , they do warding , they farm , they fat , they have high impact in game
theyre support, but they can be very strong at mid / late game phase
ok i hope dota2 developer or who have relationship with it can consider it
so we know , who is pick that carry , who is pick mid laner , is it the highest mmr in a team (5k mmr) , or is it lowest mmr in a team (2k mmr)
and we know what we need to do , such as , ah its brown 2k mmr pick AM carry , ok this game will be hard , maybe he cant rapid farm , at least we can pick strong anti push hero , such as KotL , venom ward , or techies for mindgame
or we can balance that AM 2k mmr with very strong early mid game hero , such as brew , sky mage , doom fast mekans , enigma fast mekans, centa , etc
in current meta game , we dont know , which player have high mmr , which player have low mmr , the one pick carry we can trust him or not , etc , even mushi said he got blamed sometimes in SEA server
mushi ? yes , every one love to blame right ?
*ps my english bad , nevermind it :)
@*FarizTampan 5th
this is a stupid system -... just sayin...
like smite they do the same lol things there
it should team decisions and not prerolled roles