Don’t let a disconnect fool you, the game is still winnable

This week’s Exit, Pursued by a Volibear is brought to you by maybe that saddest solo queue game I’ve ever played.

The other day, still on 8.5, I decided to hop into a quick ranked game. I was playing Jhin, as I’ve been trying out AD Carry recently. Things started immediatly on the wrong foot, as our comp was some immalgamation of the most toxic solo queue mains you can imagine. We had a Gangplank, a Wukong, and a Riven (that hovered Yasuo before he got banned), with a Sona/Jhin bot lane.

The game started out relatively normal. There were lots of kills on both sides but things remained pretty even. But the enemy team had an Akali top so obviously things went to hell. By the time the mid-game showed, we were losing every engage and getting caught more than I care to count.

As the enemy team started pushing our inhibitor tower, I noticed something suspicious: where was their Warwick? Turns out that Warwick had made it to level eight and promptly disconnected for one reason or another. For almost the entire time the enemy was beating us, it was a 5v4.

Of course, this story wouldn’t be sad if I didn’t tell you that we lost the game, which we did. I was angry and speechless, but pretty impressed as well. These poor jerks on the other team had lost their jungler, one of their key CC players, and just soldiered on like nothing was the matter.

Riot Games

They won through blatant aggression. They realized that my team was stupid, so they just slammed into us over and over and over again. We couldn’t really handle their Akali, so I was almost useless. By the time Akali started to get too confident and dive us too hard, the rest of her team was problematic enough to handle themselves against us.

I can’t count how many times I’ve seen a disconnect on my team and just crumpled in defeat. There was a time back in the dark ages of season 3 where servers had so many issues that DCs were likely, rather than rare. You’d go into a game, see “a summoner has disconnected,” and just slump your shoulders as you watched your LP drop. It’s demoralizing, but it isn’t an instant loss.

While most games with a DC result in a loss for that team, I’ve been on both sides. This isn’t my first loss to a 5v4, but I’ve also won the 4v5. I’m not one to complain about people surrendering. In fact, I’ve played plenty of matches that should have been surrendered twenty full minutes before they ended. But a DC is not the same thing as a loss, even if it feels like it.

The way that League is right now simply means that four champions in the right composition can keep the dream alive and smash through a stupid enemy team. You don’t need to surrender, even if it seems like you should.

So next time you get a DC on your team, use it to motivate you to carry harder, and whatever you do, never get relaxed when the enemy team is missing an ally.

Riot Games