The Art of Trolling

When playing League of Legends, one may often come across the term “troll” on a daily basis. Whether or not it is directed at you as an individual, it is still a recurring theme that seems to be very dominant in almost every game. According to Urbandictionary.com, trolling is most commonly defined as, “the act of purposefully antagonizing other people on the internet.”

In regards to League of Legends, this single definition does not suffice when using this infamous term; rather, there are many variable definitions that can be associated with “troll”/”trolling.” In order to fully understand this term, I decided to do a little back tracking to see exactly what examples of trolling there are in League. Trolling isn’t necessarily the more renowned definition that it was once known as. Instead, it has warped into a strange umbrella of definitions that can be either negative or positive.

There are two major types of trolls that one may come across while playing League. The first is what I like to refer to as the menacing troll. These trolls are ubiquitous, with the tendency to troll often and, mostly in a terrible fashion. There is sometimes no rhyme or reason as to why this individual is doing what they are doing. Whether it’s a ranked or normal game, this individual tends to just spam random phrases and words into all chat and do the oddest things in game.

The second category is what I refer to as the happy go lucky troll. These trolls tend to troll for fun. There is not necessarily any malicious intent behind what they are doing. Instead, these trolls tend to be in a premade group and just do troll-like things such as choosing only support champions or all tanks. Deviating from the normal team composition and trying out new things isn’t necessarily always considered trolling either. Changing up the meta is just another part of League that can be interpreted in different ways like trolling is.

The most dreaded trolls, the menacing trolls, tend to spam “noob, noob, noob” and other colorful words into all chat while running into a turret and pressing L simultaneously. These trolls only want to wreak havoc in game and they tend to do so successfully by antagonizing other players with their actions or their inaction. Whether they are feeding the enemy team or buying all the boots in the world – these trolls take great pleasure in being able to illicit rage from teammates.

Rage feeds their ambitions even more as they continue pursuing games to troll around in. The victorious sound of their internet laughter haunts players that just want a decent game. Regardless of if these trolls are reported to the tribunal and banned from League, they keep popping up from anywhere just to cause as much grief as possible just because they can.

The usually non-malicious brother of the menacing troll is the happy go lucky troll. These trolls tend to be good natured and play for fun. Usually (but not always), unusual team comps are reserved for normal games and avoided in ranked games. In a premade group of 5, there may be 5 support characters prancing around the map typing “come at me bro” into all chat. In a premade group of 2, there may be an AD Sona and a support Skarner (yes, I typed Skarner).

These anomalies are usually just experiments and used for genuine entertainment. Sometimes they will warn their non-premade teammates of their intentions, other times they won’t. Regardless, these trolls are not on the prowl to make anyone rage or angry. The intention of their trolling is to have fun. This kind of careless and free fun can be pretty darn entertaining, if sometimes a bit annoying.

Whether you are a perpetrator or a victim of trolling, the art of trolling remains a prominent part of the League of Legends community and game play. Whether you get stuck with a derp-esque Amumu running into the enemy base at level 2 or an enemy team made up of support champions, trolling remains a commonplace occurrence. Although the menacing troll may elicit rage and anger from you, anger and rage shouldn’t necessarily be given back in retaliation.

There is both the art of trolling and the art of combating trolling. Trolls tend to reciprocate troll-like behavior – it is a secret yet universal language that only the disciplined can adhere to. Instead of throwing your keyboard out the window because of a menacing troll, take that opportunity to take on the role of the happy go lucky troll to actually make the best of a possibly terrible situation. However you decide to deal with the trolls in League is ultimately up to you.