Ask all the dead invite/IM teams

Actually that's a bad idea

i've found that having positive teammates to play with makes a huge difference. people who don't like losing/can't learn from their mistakes will act negatively in mumble and make it harder for your team to focus. if you have players with the same mindset as yourself to learn/improve, you'll spend the downtime after a loss talking about ways to beat them next time rather than talking about how terrible your team is.

Well if lansky's approach doesn't work. Just look at the issues of other teams and be happy you are not them. You guys may lose, but that just means you can improve. You come on here and see teams bickering over the stupidest shit on earth. Be happy you aren't them. There are worse things than losing, play it out and do what you can.

I have more of a problem with staying positive during the game. I'll just get quiet and stop calling as much.

Remind yourself that its a video game. You play for fun!

who gives a fuck if you win/lose your playing with your pals and your all getting better together

Smoke weed I've heard that clears up the problems.

Same here, but I should be thinking of matertea's and phobia's advice before everything else.

I guess I've gotten too absorbed to the game and forgot really why I've been playing at all.

There's more people prone to be negative in the lower divisions, right? Guess that's one factor that splits up players in different divisions. I haven't heard much/any negativity from invite/im comms at all, but it's so common in what I play with :S

;_; I'm so impatient.

Thanks for the insight guys, it's really refreshing.

edit: boobs

boobs

Positiveness comes from realizing that the result only matters if you pin all your hopes into winning. A good player will get something out of a game/scrim even if it is a loss. If you lose every match but you felt that you are now 100x better than you were before, then that is an accomplishment.

Don't care about being good, care about getting better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s7cntB6ljQ

you gotta believe

Losing just makes me try harder, so I've tried REALLY hard A LOT.

Don't tunnel vision on what's not working, yes looking at your mistakes is a good way to learn/improve but taking a positive approach and focusing on what you're doing right and thinking about how you can make it even better is also a good approach to take sometimes.

Play a lobby, a pug or even in a pub server to build back some confidence.

more beer

doesnt matter if youre losing as long as youre getting better

what marmaduke said. just to build on what lanksy said, surround yourself with positive non-ragey players, and also players that aren't oversensitive about criticism. Just take every game you play and be optimistic, find something from the games you play that are good (things you can build on) and also importantly things from a game you dont do well (that you can improve on) and make sure you approach both with positive mindsets and then act on them

Attitude First!

*

after we lose a particularly difficult match we usually just go pub stomp. or go stomp tf2lobby. or play easy mode in l4d2. we call them "confidence building exercises". we also have a group therapy channel in our mumble if we need to talk about our feelings.

or (humor aside) just watch a demo with your team and see what was wrong. honestly, once you've figured out why you have been losing in the first place will make you more confident in making the adjustments to improve. how did they counter us at mid? why did we wipe during this transition? did we know we had uber advantage at this time?

answering questions like that will show you where your team needs to improve, thus building confidence, thus breaking your losing streak.

one thing ive learned is to try to dump your irl baggage before you start playing

if im stressed out about stuff irl playing tf2 seems like a really attractive option at the time because you can just focus on it and take your mind off things, but if you are cranky going into scrims you will be cranky during scrims

i can notice it even if i'm just a bit behind on sleep - i'm more liable to let things bother me and feel down if im playing while tired

just try to be rested, relaxed and have a full stomach when it comes to scrim time - take a quick nap or meditate or whatever if you need to beforehand. maybe take a nice pregame shower to wash all your worries away

Playing with people you enjoy the company of would / do hang out with in real life is really important. If that's completely impossible just play with people or find someone to practice with that wants to grow as a player, people who want to legitimately get better will take criticism well and want to help others the same way. If you can't stand to watch demos of your mistakes have someone else take a look at them and critique, just know losing is as much a part of winning as anything else.

Is really great advice too.