How to deal with trolls in League
How to Deal with Trolls in LoL (2025 Season Guide)
From time to time we all meet those annoying players who seem fully determined to ruin the game for everyone else. While “elo hell” doesn’t really exist, trolls are absolutely real. Accepting that they exist is step one. Step two is learning how to limit the damage they do to your LP, your mental, and your winrate.
In this updated 2025 guide, we’re going to talk about real, practical ways to reduce the negative impact of trolls in your ranked games, keep your mental stable, and still climb. The advice here comes from thousands of games in solo queue, from high-elo players, and from the day-to-day experience of LoL boosters who deal with this stuff constantly while still maintaining high winrates. We’ll also talk about how to recognize actual trolling vs “just playing badly,” how to react in champion select and in game, and what to do after the match is over.
And yes — not all trolls are created equal. Some are “soft trolls” you can still work with. Some are griefers. Some are just tilted. And some are literally just bad at the game. Treating all of these the same way is a mistake.
Before we start: remember that winning is what matters. You are not there to educate anybody, fix solo queue culture, or become their life coach. You’re there to get LP. If you’re serious about climbing and want focused progress through personalized help (including duo games, coaching, and pro-level analysis), you can also check Boosteria Premium, where pro teammates help you climb without the constant chaos of random matchmaking.
Who Do We Actually Call a “Troll”?
First let’s set boundaries. We do not automatically call everyone who plays badly a troll. There are a lot of reasons why a player might underperform in a given match. Maybe they’re playing a new champion for the first time. Maybe they’re tilted from a previous game. Maybe they’re just having a slow day. If you instantly decide “Trash, report, troll” because someone died twice in lane, congratulations: you are the problem now. You are the one who is about to tilt the team and lower win chance.
In this article when we say “troll,” we mean players who:
- Intentionally feed or run it down on purpose
- Openly assist the enemy team, for example by escorting or leashing enemy jungler into your own jungle
- Refuse to communicate or refuse to play with the team in a way that is clearly griefing, not just inexperience
- Deliberately sabotage objective fights, AFK for “revenge,” or hold the game hostage emotionally (“I int if you ping me again”)
There are also “different types” of trolls you will face in 2025 solo queue, and you can still work with some of them. For example, sometimes you’ll meet the “funny pick troll” — someone locked in a weird champion for that role, but still tries to play. That’s annoying, but it’s not always unwinnable. Sometimes those players even carry. Then there’s the pure griefer who types “gg open” at minute 3 and runs down mid. That one is harder. We’ll cover both.
And of course, sometimes there is the “nice troll” — the one who looks like this:
Rule #1: Don’t Feed the Troll (Literally or Emotionally)
This is the golden rule that high-elo players and professional LoL boosters live by. When you’re good enough to carry, you don’t need every teammate to be perfect. You just need the game to not collapse from the inside. And the fastest way a game collapses from the inside is not the 0/3 top laner — it’s the flame war in chat.
Most trolls are attention-driven. They poke you to get a reaction. They type something disrespectful in minute 2 and wait for you to explode. The second you bite, you’re done. You’re not watching the minimap. You’re not timing enemy summoners. You’re mentally arguing with someone who’s already muted you and doesn’t care.
So here’s what you do in 2025 solo queue when you notice a troll starting up:
- Do not show anger or pain. Never type “report top,” “stop feeding,” “play safe,” etc. That fuels them.
- Do not try to “win” the argument. You will not win. Even if you’re right, you lose LP for being right in chat instead of right on the map.
- Stay calm, focus on carry paths. Track dragons, turret plates, shutdown gold, and tempo swaps. Your job is to figure out “How can I win 4v5?” not “How do I teach this guy manners?”
Sometimes, a troll is triggered by an insult or ping spam early. In that case there is a window to de-escalate. Very often, saying something calm like “we scale, just group later” can actually pull them back from full grief mode. Not always, but sometimes. And when it works, you just saved the game.
Rule #2: Use /mute and /muteall Like a Tool, Not Like an Emotion
Muting is not weakness. Muting is optimizing your attention.
If someone is constantly flaming, bullying, or trying to bait you emotionally in the first minutes of the game, mute them immediately. Don’t wait until after you’re already tilted. Don’t “see how it goes.” The longer you let them talk to you, the more LP they are stealing from you for free.
Important details:
- Do not announce that you muted them. Don’t type “muted” in all chat or team chat. That just escalates it, and now you’re part of the drama. Silent mute is best mute.
- Keep pings on if possible. Sometimes trolls rage-type but still ping dragons or summoner spells. If they’re not spam-pinging you, it’s useful info. You can /mute chat without muting pings, and that’s often ideal.
- Protect your mental energy. The faster you learn to instantly shut out toxic players, the faster you will see your own mechanical performance go up because you’re no longer split-focused.
The sooner you master this, the sooner you’ll notice you’re positioning better in fights, tracking cooldowns, and actually thinking macro instead of emotionally reacting. That’s literally how LP is gained.
Rule #3: If Someone Refuses to Group — Turn That Into a Win Condition
Here’s a super underrated trick in solo queue that still works in 2025 ranked:
Sometimes you get a player who refuses to join team fights and just runs around split pushing, ARAM-ing mid alone, or invading the enemy jungle without vision. You type “group,” they ignore you. You ping Baron, they’re farming enemy Krugs. You’ve seen this a million times.
Your instinct is to get mad. Instead, you can actually use this person as either bait or pressure.
Try this approach:
- First, try politely to get them to group. One calm sentence: “group mid for dragon fight pls.” If they refuse, accept reality. Game state is what it is, not what it “should” be.
- Option 1: Follow them with 2–3 players. If this “solo hero” won’t come to the team, sometimes the team goes to them. It sounds dumb, but it often gives you at least one real 4v4 or 5v4 fight somewhere on the map, instead of you randomly dying 1 by 1 across the map.
- Option 2: Trade objectives while they’re being hunted. If the enemy wastes 3 players chasing your “problem child,” you instantly push mid tower, take dragon, or rush Baron vision. Use them as a distraction. You don’t have to like them — you just have to convert their chaos into gold.
It’s not pretty League. It’s solo queue League. The win screen doesn’t care how you got there.
Rule #4: Be Adaptive in Champion Select and in Lane Assignments
This part hurts your pride, but it wins games:
Sometimes a troll will wait until the last 5 seconds of champ select, lock in the champion you already called for your role, and then say “go support” or “idc I’m mid.”
You have two choices here:
- Refuse, fight over the same lane, go double mid, and lose at 4 minutes.
- Swallow your pride, swap to a supportive/safer role, and win anyway because you stayed functional.
Yeah, it encourages bad behavior. Yeah, it’s unfair. But if your goal is LP right now, then you must sometimes just adapt. Take a champ that can survive, roam, or scale from wherever you end up. Focus on impact, not ego. You can climb by being versatile. You cannot climb by being “right” in champion select and then losing 20 LP because you both insta-died level 2 arguing over CS.
This is exactly why a lot of higher elo players have a small flexible pool of champs they’re always comfortable with in multiple roles — roaming supports, jungle peelers, safe waveclear mids, disengage enchanters, etc. You don’t have to love it. You just have to be able to do it when the lobby goes bad.
If you want help building that kind of champ pool and learning how to stay useful in off-roles, this is literally what Boosteria Premium is designed for: duo with a high-elo player who adapts around you and shows you how to stay relevant even in chaos lobbies, instead of mentally exploding in champ select.
Rule #5: Stop Pointing Out Mistakes Mid-Game
There’s a popular myth: “If I don’t tell them what they’re doing wrong, they’ll never improve.”
This sounds logical. In reality ranked solo queue does not work like that.
You are not their coach. You are not their dad. You are their temporary teammate for ~25 minutes and then you’ll never see them again. Your job is to win this game, not repair their long-term relationship with wards, wave management, or itemization.
When you type things like:
- “ward pls”
- “bad build”
- “stop pushing without vision”
you are not “teaching.” You are provoking. Almost always, they will snap back, the chat explodes, and now the troll feels justified to grief even harder “out of spite.” Meanwhile you die because you were typing instead of kiting.
Instead of criticizing mistakes, give forward-looking direction that doesn’t blame. Example: “Group for drake, we win 5v5,” or “Play slow, peel our ADC.” That kind of phrasing helps organize the team without accusing anyone.
If you want structured improvement conversations and actual feedback on builds, it’s better to do that outside the chaos of ranked chat. Places like leagueoflegens.com and long-standing esports communities such as Team Liquid forums/blogs are great examples of where long-form discussions and VOD reviews actually make sense, because people there are in “learn mode,” not “tilt mode.” In-game? People are in ego defense mode. You won’t fix them there.
Rule #6: Ignore Crying, Whining, and Emotional Loops
Some players don’t run it down mechanically, but they run it down emotionally. They die once, then spend the next 10 minutes typing “jungle diff,” “mid no roam,” “top useless,” nonstop. They’re not playing anymore — they’re roleplaying being a victim.
Your best move? Do absolutely nothing.
Do not agree with them (“yeah jungle inted”). Do not argue with them (“you’re the problem”). Do not try therapy (“it’s fine, just scale”). All of that just tells them: “Yes, keep typing. Keep making it about you.”
When a teammate is locked into emotional self-pity, your silence is the fastest path back to useful gameplay. If they cool off, cool. If they don’t, at least they’re not dragging you down with them mentally.
Rule #7: Don’t Call Everything ‘Trolling’
This is one of the most important mindset shifts in 2025 solo queue.
You must learn to tell the difference between:
- Actual intentional griefing, and
- Inexperience, tilt, or mismatch
Here’s the difference:
Intentional griefing looks like: running down mid repeatedly while laughing in chat, announcing “I’m done playing,” refusing to play objectives out of spite, or literally helping the enemy secure buffs or Baron. This is classic troll behavior and yes, you report it at the end. No question.
Regular bad play looks like: getting hooked by Blitzcrank five times because they panic-flash badly, taking 1v3 fights because tunnel vision kicked in, dueling a 7/1 enemy because they “think they can outplay,” missing cannon minions because they’re nervous after giving first blood, or building weird items because they saw something once on a stream from Challenger and tried to copy it in Silver.
That second category is not “trolling.” That’s just skill level, mismatch, or tilt. Calling these players trolls actually makes you the bad guy, because you’re turning a teammate into an enemy. The moment you do that, your mental goes red and your chance of winning drops fast.
Stay focused on what you can control. You cannot control their mechanics. You can control objective trades, wave management, and how often you die.
On that topic, you can also read more on recovering from a losing early game here: What to do when you are behind. It’s a practical survival guide for “oh no, bot is 0/7 at 8 minutes, what now?” style situations, which, let’s be honest, happens every other match.
Rule #8: There Is Always a Win Condition (Even in 4v5)
One of the biggest lies in solo queue is “gg it’s 4v5 we can’t win.” You absolutely can win 4v5 games, even in the current 2025 ladder environment. It doesn’t happen often, but it’s not fantasy either. You’ve probably lived through both sides of it already: you’ve won with an AFK once, and you’ve lost 5v4 once. You remember both.
Here’s why you should never mentally surrender early:
- Shutdown gold still exists. One unlucky “hero play” from the fed enemy into your tower, and boom — 1,000 gold swings back to you instantly.
- People throw Baron constantly. Even at high ranks, players flip 50/50 Barons with no vision and lose everything in 20 seconds. You just need to be alive and ready to punish.
- Scaling exists. Certain comps are monsters at 30+ minutes, even if they’re behind early. If you have that kind of comp, your job is stall, not ego-fight. Clear waves, delay Soul, force Elder flip later.
- Enemy tilt is real. The team that’s “winning” often starts flaming each other for not ending fast enough. You’ve seen this: “why are we not ending???” Then they die mid lane one by one and suddenly it’s your Nashor, not theirs.
The point is simple: keep playing. You do not FF at 15 just because someone is AFK or griefing. You keep building small advantages and wait for the fight that flips the map.
Rule #9: After the Game — Report Smart, Then Let It Go
When the match is over, do this:
- Report actual griefing calmly. Don’t write an essay. Just mark “intentional feeding,” “negative attitude,” or “AFK / leaving the game.” The automated systems and review teams look for patterns across many games.
- Do NOT DM them. Do NOT add them. Do NOT rage-post about them. That only keeps you tilted into your next queue. And your next queue is what actually matters for your LP, not the game that’s already over.
- Queue check yourself. Ask: “Am I calm or am I angry?” If you’re already tilted, take 5–10 minutes off, watch a short pro VOD, stretch, drink water, whatever. Re-queuing on tilt is literally donating LP to strangers.
Side note: If you want a climbing environment with less chaos, less ego flaming, and more structure (shotcalling, objective control, proper macro), partnership-style ranked sessions with a consistent high-elo player can change how the whole game feels. That’s the idea behind Boosteria Premium: you’re not alone with four randoms who might explode, you have someone in the game who actually wants to win with you, and who knows how to convert messy solo queue games into winnable paths.
Community Wisdom on “Trolls”
There’s a quote from classic LoL forums that still holds up today in 2025. It perfectly explains how the word “troll” actually gets misused and how that misuse loses you games:
“Sometimes when people say ‘trolls,’ they mean teammates who openly say they plan to lose the game on purpose to punish someone who upset them. If that’s what you’re dealing with, do your best not to inflame them. Don’t tell them to ward. Don’t tell them their build is bad. Don’t tell them they lost lane. Don’t complain about them in all chat. Don’t say anything to them or about them, period.
Other times when people say ‘trolls,’ they mean teammates who are losing the game and they assume it’s on purpose. But way more often than not, those people aren’t trolling — they’re unskilled, tilted, countered, or just outmatched. They run into 1v3s because they’re tunnel-visioning. They fight the fed opponent because they don’t realize how far behind they are. They miss CS because they got yelled at and can’t focus anymore. Calling these players ‘trolls’ makes you the bad guy and makes you responsible for the rest of their bad plays. So don’t do it.”
Brutal. True.
BONUS: REAL LIFE TRUNDLE
Practical Checklist for Surviving Trolls in 2025 Ranked
- In champ select: If someone steals your role last second, adapt instead of ego-fighting. Flex pick. Secure some scaling or utility value. Remember: LP > pride.
- In early game: Spot toxic behavior fast. /mute before you’re emotionally hooked. Silent, not dramatic.
- In mid game: If someone refuses to group, turn them into either bait or map pressure. Shadow them or trade objectives while they get chased.
- In late game: Never mentally give up in 4v5. Shutdown gold, stolen Barons, enemy tilt — comebacks happen constantly, even in the 2025 season.
- In chat: No public blame, no “stop feeding,” no “bad build.” You’re not coaching. You’re trying to win right now.
- After game: Report hard grief, queue mental check, continue only if calm.
Useful Next Reads & Resources
- Is “elo hell” real in LoL? — Why blaming teammates actually blocks your own climb.
- What to do when you are behind — How to stabilize a losing game instead of mentally FF’ing.
- Boosteria Premium — Duo with calm high-elo players instead of rolling dice with trolls every game, learn macro while actively winning ranked instead of just watching theory videos.
- leagueoflegens.com — Community discussions and patch perspectives from players across all elos.
- Team Liquid — Esports mindset, macro thinking, competitive discipline. Learning to think like this in ranked is how you stop engaging with trolls and start treating every game like a winnable puzzle.
Final Thought
The skill that truly separates consistent climbers in 2025 from everyone else is not mechanics. It’s emotional control. Anyone can pop off on a fed champion one game. But players who climb are the ones who can still play properly even when their top laner typed “gg open” at 3:42.
Stop feeding trolls with attention. Start turning chaos into win conditions. And if you’re tired of doing that alone every single night, get structured help, get a reliable teammate, and play with someone who’s focused on winning with you, not flaming you.
