I wanted to talk today a bit more about ranked anxiety and how you can defeat this phenomenon. I touched on this matter about 5 months ago, and I feel like that was very well received, so I wanted to take this opportunity to reiterate what I said, and perhaps add a little more for clarity.Basically my opinion is as follows: If you are playing ranked, you should be playing to get better. Surely you want a better rating, and there's a lot of talk of getting "better teammates." Now let me tell you why that's a fundamentally flawed way of thinking and is in fact hurting your chances at becoming a better player and moving up in the ranks. Your attitude is everything when you play League of Legends. Noone wants to play with someone that thinks they are better than everyone else, noone wants to be your friend, noone wants to hear about how you dominate your team, but you are still silver rated.Now, you may be thinking: "Cloud, you're such an idiot, if I didn't have such feeder teammates, I would be Diamond 1 X destroyer elo by now."Which is entirely true, I AM an idiot. But that bit about having bad teammates, doesn't really fly. If you were the only person in the world that got bad teams (I assure you, you aren't and by bad I mean 0-6 in 10 minutes flaming afkers), then you would be completely justified in complaining. The actual truth is that you aren't the only person that gets "bad" teammates, and by focusing on other people's play (something you don't have control over), instead of focusing on something you DO control (your own play), all you are doing is making it less likely you will win that game.There's also a right way and a wrong way to be constructive. If you notice a teammate is doing poorly, it is NOT appropriate to comment on their build or the lack thereof. No amount of strategizing with other people will do you any good if you come off condescending. The thing to say in this sort of situation is "group please, I can carry," or "just split, we have a better chance not grouping with our jungler the only one that is fed." The strategy itself is less important than the way you go about it. If someone is being negative, it's simply not worth it to strategize with them, just remember to keep pinging when you are playing so everyone is on the same page.I used to get nervous myself, so I can relate to what you all experience.In my personal opinion: Any anxiety you get just comes from a lack of mechanical practice. Note, I said mechanical practice, not mechanical skill.As you can imagine, you care about your rating. Warming up before each game will help you with your attitude going into games. Always play to win and try your best. Always try to improve. Never think about how your team plays because it leads to destructive play patterns and personal behavior.Just practice your mechanics enough so that you feel you will be playing your best, therefore accurately rated no matter what. The system is pretty damned accurate and losing a game because you are getting nervous (or because of bad teammates) is not going to cause you to be stuck anywhere.As soon as you take responsibility for your own play and accept your rating, good or bad, you will become a better player, and invariably improve your rating. This is an unequivocal fact. If you practice something, you will get better at it. You don't even have to play a lot to improve. If you aren't being honest with yourself, or ever blame your teammates, you are guilty of this (remember, it's NOT enough to just "win lane" and most of the time, you could be a lot closer to even than you think).Plus you have times where you lose your lane too right? So what's the anxiety all about? What does that do for you? Are you really afraid to play at people of your own skill rating or are you just afraid to fail?It's always more beneficial to think of what you can do to carry a situation rather than having a defeatist attitude in games that could still be won. I would still recommend surrendering lost games, but that is a judgement call more than anything.Thanks for readingI no longer offer lessons via client, as I don't usually stay logged in when I'm not streaming, but starting today, I am offering lessons via twitch private message. That's right, just ask me questions straight through the twitch messaging system and I will do my best to respond in a timely manner. I am very knowledgeable about gameplay patterns and how that relates to your individual play. I have dubbed this feature "The League Psychic."