Why keep playing a losing game?

[zellsantal]

Ok I have played LoL for a while now, trying different champions to see which I might be good with. On many of my games as of late we would be losing and figure ok we weren't going to win (more so if the other team have over 20 above yours) hit surrender. You figure if not going to win might as well just call it but when you hit surrender and have one or two people not wanting to and force's you to play though the losing game. These games been all draft but still my question is why do people want to keep going and wasting everyone's time? On top of that the other team gets more points to add to their account (that's to my understanding anyways.) which only make me feel like these people do it on purpose. Im not trying to be an ass or anything like that but just trying to understand why players would do this.

[Maell]

Unless you're playing at high enough level (master or above) no game is lost until your nexus is destroyed.

[potis]

The same with every moba, people overvalue their ability because a very basic system based on win ratio and a coloring scheme tells them they are somehow playing against people of equal skill therefor they should not give up.

Sometimes they arent wrong, and you can "turn things around" but those are very few games and they arent based on the ability of the players, but rather on how much the opponent is gonna fuck up, but LoL isnt really such a moba, but lets pretend it is for the sake of the discussion.

Now add the above to the fact the average player is probably on for just one game and simply wants to waste 30mins cause he doesnt care to go "the next game since this one is lost", there is no next game he is gonna log off to cook dinner or something, and you have people that dont surrender when its obvious from the first few minutes its a waste of time.

[Kumorii]

You look at it from a "winning" is everything pov. You even comment on the other team getting more points out of it, like it matters. At least that's how it comes across...could be wrong of course.

There's plenty of people who don't see it like that and even some who ENJOYS playing from an underdog position.
best games I've had in Dota 2 or hell, even just keys in m+ is usually from a disadvantageous position. Clutching games are quite fun.
And yes, many games there are someone who says "it's lost, it's pointless" and then you do a comeback and win anyway.

Not saying that I for one always enjoy doing so and sometimes myself think it's lost. But in the end, it's a vote. Forcing them to quit a game could waste their time as much as it wastes yours. Depends heavily on what their schedule is like. Playing with randoms means you have to compromise and you have to accept that.

of course there are salty people who refuses to end because they are salty, but for every one of those kind people there is also one who throws the game because they say it's over.

[DechCJC]

It depends on how badly you’re losing, but I would argue that you tend to improve more when you’re losing than dominating the other team. Playing to improve is a lot healthier than playing to win.

I mean there’s a clear point where it’s hopeless or your team is just totally outclassed, but I think a lot of people throw in the towel before either of those criteria are met.

[themortalgod]

For me the reason I may click no on surrender are multifold.

The first, for me, is that I may not agree we are in a hopeless situation. Maybe we scale better, maybe it isn't that bad, idk, but I'm not gonna vote yes if I feel there is a 10-20% chance at a comeback.

I may be having fun. I've had lots of games where even though my team is losing, I'm still doing fine and enjoying the game. I remember one recently where I was godlike (I was on Ziggs) when we surrendered at 20 because one of the other lanes fed the opposing Lucian to like 14 kills in the first 15min. The game wasn't even that far from even but they surrendered anyway. I'm never gonna vote yes in that situation.

Even if winning is extremely unlikely, there is value to practicing playing from behind.

Another big one for me is often I only have an hour to play. That means only one game. Even if a team surrenders at 15, there isn't enough time to start and play another game in under an hour. Thus I may opt to stay in a losing game just because I want to play longer. It can be extremely frustrating to know you only have time for one game and that game is over in 15 minutes after one lane (on either team) feeds into a unanimous surrender.

Also, League has some incredibly swingy catch up mechanics now. There was a time that being a bit behind at 20 was a rough situation but now all it takes is a lucky team fight ace that shuts down a few players that then translates into a bunch of objective bounties and suddenly you can recover a TON of gold just off a single mistake from the enemy team.

Personally, though, I often will agree to surrender if its an extreme situation where our team is just getting dumpstered. What drives me nuts is when people push to surrender even if only behind by a little bit. I get so tired of dismissing /surrender popups every few min in games that are still relatively even. Sure the enemy team may be up a kill or two but the game is close to a coin flip so long as we play smart and don't tilt.

[Ghanir]

From my experience many losing games end up in a situation akin to this: You have 5 people playing 4 roles (top, jng, mid, bot) and most of these times it's 2 of these roles that are losing (for example mid and bot).

If, for example, we assume that you play Top lane and you have a losing Mid and Bot one of the people playing from those two roles will most likely be negative and asking to "go next".
While you are playing Top and your Mid and Bot are losing you might have a Jng actually doing well, and because your Jng is doing well it is not illogical to assume he wants to continue to play BECAUSE he is doing well. It could be for many different reasons, some of them perhaps being: "I think I can carry", "Because I've done well so far I wanna continue to see how far I can get after having done so well" or "If we just group up we can turn this around because we have x/y/z".

Naturally there are people of the mindset: "I haven't done any major mistakes thus far, unlike X and/or Y, and therefore I will continue this game and you will stay here with me", or as one more commonly might hear "holding the game hostage".
There def. are people that for one reason or another have a negative mindset going into the game from the get-go and therefore don't care what everyone else thinks and therefore will do things against the other plays will, but don't bundle everyone together like it's a fact that everyone does this with malicious intent.

[raz98]

I dont surrender because even losing teaches. A losing game is an opportunity to figure some stuff out, and a chance to turn the game around.
Don't surrender. Your time isn't that valuable if you're playing a moba. Take your lumps like a man.

[Zardas]

Ok I have played LoL for a while now, trying different champions to see which I might be good with. On many of my games as of late we would be losing and figure ok we weren't going to win (more so if the other team have over 20 above yours) hit surrender. You figure if not going to win might as well just call it but when you hit surrender and have one or two people not wanting to and force's you to play though the losing game. These games been all draft but still my question is why do people want to keep going and wasting everyone's time? On top of that the other team gets more points to add to their account (that's to my understanding anyways.) which only make me feel like these people do it on purpose. Im not trying to be an ass or anything like that but just trying to understand why players would do this.

Are you playing only to win, or are you playing to have fun ?

[zellsantal]

Am I here to win or to have fun, both really but I will say mostly for fun. However, its hard to have fun if your team have 5-10 kills while the other team have 40 plus with all most if not all outer towers gone while the other teams is hardly touched. Having more gold to get the items they need for the builds and so on. Thats the time I say to surrender and what I am talking about. I agree if the other team is about 10 ahead that we still have a chance to turn things around. Normally I would agree losing helps improve but as it stands the only thing anyone would learn with those type of losses is that your team sucks because they don't want to work as a team. Or something in those lines and just afk until the game is finally over with or just keep feeding them until the other team finally wins. While other team is lucky to work well together and just owning everyone.

As I said before not saying this to troll or sound like I only want to win games. Just I feel it is a waste of time if your 5-10 to 40 plus to not out right surrender and go to another game. Other then that I am grateful for all of your input.

[Celement]

Unless you're playing at high enough level (master or above) no game is lost until your nexus is destroyed.

Usually around low plat people stop wasting time on lost games and ff. Low elos believe in magic comebacks and they can happen because the team ahead rarely groups and ends. In mid tier though people start to read objectives and realize a comeback isn't in the cards less the enemy team dc.

The game really does need some kind of slaughter rule in low elos to force games to end earlier.

[micheal scop]

It's for fun, play with a relaxed mind

[aceperson]

if losing or winning is all you care about, why do you even play the game? aren't games meant to be a fun way to pass time? maybe i'm just weird but i find getting stressed out over losing isn't fun. it's one of the reasons i quit playing hearthstone. i realized i would start raging because there was another person i was playing with that we could just talk with.

i'm not saying competitive games can't be a thing but why is winning the only thing that matters? people learn more from losing than winning, people are generally happier when they don't place importance on an expectation like winning at a game, etc. and if being competitive to try and win is part your fun, why do you want to give up at the slightest downside? wouldn't the competitive part of you say "make them earn every inch!"? modern competitive gaming culture makes no sense to me. i don't mind trying to win and i will certainly do my best to try and win, but i'm not going to put winning over having fun. winning may be fun, but playing a champion is more consistently fun.

[Dundebuns]

Firstly, you either win or you learn. Although I would say if you give up without learning something, that is when you actually lose.

Secondly some champions are late game champs. It's annoying when people pick Veigar, Nasus, Vayne etc and then want to FF at 15. Some champs just never win lane in an even skilled match (Nasus again for example) and some people see losing lane as losing game, when actually your win condition is to last until 30 mins and then annihilate everything.

[Tentim]

It depends on your elo... most silver games can be carried by a unicorn player as people rarely know how to effectively end.

Gold usually should FF but they almost never ever will.

Higher plat you see people FF properly.

It comes down to people being poor losers more often then not and wanting to "punish" people by wasting their time. Gold is by far the worst elo for people holding others hostage.

[shise]

if losing or winning is all you care about, why do you even play the game? aren't games meant to be a fun way to pass time? maybe i'm just weird but i find getting stressed out over losing isn't fun. it's one of the reasons i quit playing hearthstone. i realized i would start raging because there was another person i was playing with that we could just talk with.

i'm not saying competitive games can't be a thing but why is winning the only thing that matters? people learn more from losing than winning, people are generally happier when they don't place importance on an expectation like winning at a game, etc. and if being competitive to try and win is part your fun, why do you want to give up at the slightest downside? wouldn't the competitive part of you say "make them earn every inch!"? modern competitive gaming culture makes no sense to me. i don't mind trying to win and i will certainly do my best to try and win, but i'm not going to put winning over having fun. winning may be fun, but playing a champion is more consistently fun.

I see your point, but life is about winning, everything is about winning. Losing is a way to achieve victory, so it can be okay to lose, you learn from it indeed. But at one point, if you don´t see a potential to win, it´s not fun.

[aceperson]

I see your point, but life is about winning, everything is about winning. Losing is a way to achieve victory, so it can be okay to lose, you learn from it indeed. But at one point, if you don´t see a potential to win, it´s not fun.

definitely. everything in this world has nuance to it. when i play lol, which is rather rare these days due to the community, i'm usually a guy who wants to play until we've lost. there are exceptions such as when the other team has a 30 kill lead and our kill total isn't even double digit. when i played wow, i would rarely leave a m+ run and only do so if the group was having troubles early on and kept making the same mistakes repeatedly. those kind of situations are perfectly fine with quitting to me because there is clearly no chance to improve or make a comeback.

[VinceVega]

I hate the surrender button and mentality.

I had more than a fair share of games where everyone would have said we are going to loose. But we didn't.

In the curretn LoL ONE mistake can make or break the game in the endgame becuase the enemy can just walz through every single tower in seconds.

Also because i play the game to have fun in... you know... playing the game. Winning is fine but not the only goal when you paly video games

[ONCHEhap]

Losing games is how you improve.

[Donald Hellscream]

Because turn arounds are possible.