There is nothing worse than a bad mood or something that will ruin it. When playing Dota 2, you can often encounter various situations that will lead to this: bad allies, strong opponents, technical errors that spoil your game. And then the worst begins — dysmorale, tilt, anger, which leads to a number of mistakes, lost games, lost nerves, and rating points. But this does not stop you, and you continue to play until you win, or you end up just deleting the game. I think so, because such situations are not uncommon among players. So, let's try to figure out how to deal with this condition and improve mental toughness in Dota 2.

What is a tilt?

During the game, you can often hear the phrase "I'm in tilt" or "I'm tilted" from players. This term was once used by poker players to refer to the state of a player who, due to excitement or another lost game, makes a number of mistakes and irrational decisions. This leads to even more mistakes and a new defeat.

Over time, this word has become a part of gaming slang, including in Dota 2, and means essentially the same thing, but now it can characterize various reasons for this state. Which lead to the player getting angry with everyone, making a lot of mistakes, using foul language, and more. And all this leads to defeat.

Here is one of the very real examples that can happen in a game. You're playing Enigma, you've bought some good items, and maybe even got a quick Blink Dagger. An important battle begins, you try to break in, but something goes wrong, and you press the ultimatum button too late or too early and miss the Black Hole ability. After that, a teammate starts yelling at you, and another starts pinging on the map. After various words and dissatisfaction in your direction, even if you realize that you made a mistake, you still do not accept harsh criticism. Therefore, you will start to be rude in response, which will be the first moment of division in your team. You lose the desire to help your allies, go farming in the forest, die a few more times, and become even more upset, and the enemy team takes advantage of this and wins on positive morale.

Causes of tilt in Dota 2

Getting into a state of tilt is actually not that difficult, and there can be many reasons for it. One condition can give rise to another or be interconnected with it, which makes the effect of dissatisfaction stronger. This means you will start making more mistakes in the game, or you will become the one who deliberately destroys the game on purpose on the principle of "neither yourself nor others".

• The player has been in a bad mood from the very beginning due to events that are not related to the game. These can be problems with studies, workload at work, difficult relationships with parents, depression, irritability, etc.
• The rudeness of one or more players on your team is not caused by anything.
• Players do not share a role or do not follow fair rules of the game.
• Mistakes made by you or your allies that lead to a loss of advantage over your opponent.
• Newcomers or more experienced players who don't know how to play a certain character, but take it and ruin the game.
• Locus of control — attributing your own mistakes to others through the prism of a subjective view.
• Deliberate destruction of a comfortable game by someone from your team.
• You just went into another game in a state of tilt.

How do you deal with the tilt?

Perception

Each of us can react differently to the perception of negative phenomena, which for one is just an event, while for another it is a whole tragedy. It works the same way in Dota 2. For example, if we compare the lost games between someone who has recently started playing Dota and someone who has experience in it, the latter are more prone to a state of tilt. And the thing is that for beginners or players who play just for the sake of playing, winning, or losing doesn't make any sense. They just came in to try something new and relax in the game, so they won't be upset by a defeat or even a dozen defeats. For them, it will be just another portion of the experience. 

For players who care about rankings, good statistics, and just the fact of winning, it's much more difficult. Their psychology is designed in such a way that they get satisfaction only from victory, and when there is no victory, their condition worsens accordingly. So can a person simply recalibrate themselves and start perceiving the game differently? Yes, but to do so, you must first accept the fact that the game is just a game, and be more pragmatic. If a player is not playing in the ranked mode, then defeat is not so terrible. In the case of the rankings, it will be difficult to readjust yourself, because, for many people, these are not just numbers, but an indicator of their self-improvement, which is often underestimated by other players.

Control

In some cases, tilt can be controlled by comparing the cause and effect and mitigating the negative impact if possible. For example, if a player makes a mistake, you don't have to pour a ton of anger on him or her. You can say in normal way that everyone makes mistakes, it happens, and next time everything will work out better. And it works that way. Because if a player makes a mistake once and is yelled at, he will be worried about making the same mistake again. Because if it happens, he will only confirm his wrongness or low level of play. And if the player is told that they can do better next time, they won't be so worried, which means the chance of making a mistake will be lowered. Thus, a situation that should have become hostile and split you as a team will, on the contrary, unite you and raise your morale. You can also often notice that when players take things more lightly, the game is easier to play than when they take everything too seriously.

Turn off the chat

It happens that even when you try to communicate adequately with the team, there are very toxic players who will dismantle everyone and just get annoying. Although Dota 2 is a team game, in such situations, you can turn off voice and text chat to avoid hearing and seeing any toxic statements, which will also have a positive effect on the psychological state of a person. Some players exclude communication tools in the game in advance to avoid being subjected to tilt from the first minutes of the game. This method can also be used to avoid messages from members of the opposing team, whose mocking phrases can also provoke a tilt.

Self-improvement (Dunning-Kruger effect)

Many players need to accept the fact that they are far from being eSports athletes and that their level of play is much lower than they think. All or most of the mistakes that led to the team's tilt and loss are not the team's fault, or at least not always and completely, but yours as well. 

Remember how many situations there were when you, even with a hero with good items, could break into a fight somewhere on the enemy side of the map, without wards and help, and die there. And then you start pinging the minimap and blaming the team because they didn't help you. But you should think about why they didn't help you. Maybe they were busy farming because they don't have items like you. Possibly one of them had just respawned or was regenerating at the base, they were too far away, and you did not even tell them that you were going to the enemy part.

That's why you should always review your games and work on your mistakes to prevent them from happening again. If you need help, say so in the voice chat. If you require a specific action from the team, tell them what you expect from them. If you want to know why an ally is not fighting with you, make sure they had a good line and farm during the game to go and help you now.

Take a break

This is probably the most trite thing to say to counteract the tilt, but it's almost the best option. After another lost game, it is worth taking a break for a while, calming yourself down, playing something else, drinking coffee, tea, or another drink that will lift your spirits. Alternatively, you can go for a walk and switch your attention from Dota 2 to something else that won't spoil your psychological mood.

Delete the game

It may sound ridiculous, but for many players, this is probably the ideal option. Some people just don't want to waste their time and energy on team games if they're so frustrating. Many players who quit the game never come back to it and don't tilt anymore, at least not in it.