When the going gets tough in your solo queue ranked games, you’re down by three goals in the last few seconds of your ninth lost match in a row. you see your teammate fly past the ball as it sails gracefully into the top corner of your goal.

Everything goes into slow motion as your veins pop out of your forehead and your blood boils. Your hands hover over your keyboard, waiting for you to start firing off insult after insult at your “noob no skill garbage trash teammate” because he didn’t “stop whiffing” or “defend you noob” or follow your "helpful guidance".

Now, you could kick off, (not sorry) and start a tirade with him in chat, probably forgetting to keep it in the team chat, and therefore ripping apart your teammate's self worth (with limited success) in full view of the other team. But that would make you look like a clown, and nobody wants that.

Here's a few things to keep in mind before you brandish your keyboard, and fill your chatbox with meaningless profanity.

Before you jump at his/her throat, bear in mind that if you don’t know any better, (and let’s face it, most of us probably don’t) how can you tell the difference between good advice and bad advice? It’s not unusual for players at the beginning of a match to be free and open with their opinions as to what exactly the team should do and where they should go. They don’t always agree, and they can’t all be right. So how can you tell?

Well, if somebody suggests that you go somewhere and do something, and then you don’t, and then you lose horribly and pointlessly, it’s possible that they were giving you good advice. On the other hand, if you go somewhere and do something, and then lose horribly and pointlessly, it’s possible they were giving you very bad advice. Or maybe they weren’t. Maybe they were giving you very good advice, but you just did a poor job of executing it.

You see what I mean? It’s very difficult to know if somebody is giving you good or bad information if you don’t know any better yourself. Especially in the heat of the moment.

So when you tell somebody to do something or go somewhere, and they either don’t do it, or do it wrong, remember two things before you lash out at them.

1- They are under no obligation to listen, much less carry out your advice. For all they know, your advice is worthless.

2- Under stressful situations, advice can be misunderstood. They may have tried to execute your advice but failed under the pressure of circumstance.

If you fail to take these things into account before you open your potty mouth, I'm afraid that's just you being an asshat.

Speaking of lashing out at your teammates, I always find myself asking: What exactly is the point? What do you gain from it? Is it helpful? Constructive? Is it TRUE?

Apart from making you feel smug and superior, what effect does it actually have for those on your team who have been forced out of position, made an honest mistake, or been foiled by circumstances they had no control over/awareness of? Are they going to suddenly come back on perfect form and start playing ten times better because you’ve called them idiots? I’m pretty sure the chances of that are slim.

But what about the rest of your team? What about the ones who are still trying to win, still attempting to apply pressure and create opportunities, still trying to pry victory from the very jaws of seemingly certain defeat? Well, it’s a pretty good chance that, with you introducing yourself to them by calling everybody idiots and losers, they’ve not only already reported you for verbal harassment and misbehaviour in chat but have also blocked/muted you, and prevented all further communication with you. Therefore, even if you are in fact a tactical genius and have the solution for winning the match in the palm of your hand, nobody is going to hear it.

So, the act of flapping your lips in chat and making your own teammates feel like crap doesn’t really achieve anything other than you having succeeded in stroking your own ego for a few seconds and adding to the list of people that consider you to be a self-obsessed narcissist. All you’ve really done is make a bad situation worse. Good job.

I’m not saying you’re not allowed to get upset with your teammates if they behave like utter boneheads. Of course you’re going to get upset. But keep it to yourself. If you absolutely definitely must do something about it, report them for griefing the match, keep your mouth shut and try your best to salvage the situation without running your mouth and making yourself look silly. And believe me, you ARE making yourself look silly, even you're calling someone ELSE out.

There's a point where "making someone aware of their mistakes" stops being about their mistakes, and devolves to you trying to dismantle your teammates' humanity for reasons even YOU would struggle to fathom after giving it some thought.

Don't make yourself look stupid, just get on with the game, and let bygones be bygones. Besides, getting ragey won't make your NEXT match any better, either.