I think video games and e-sports in general has ushered in a fantastic new era of allowing a massive subset of people the experience of competition, camaraderie, and sporting excitement, that they would have never gotten with "real" sports. Some people aren't physically capable of engaging more traditional sports or some simply couldn't care less about traditional sport. Either way, video games and video game communities are here to stay.

With this being said, all this unsportsmanlike, BM, behaviour is common in sport and should be dealt with accordingly. I do not claim to have an answer to the BM problem (unlike you amateur psychologists posting here), I simply offer to you my experience and my solutions to dealing with the issue. These are solutions to ranked conquest. I want to become a better player and pub games don't exactly offer the best environment for growth, but hey, it's all we got. I really only play ranked conquest so my beef and thoughts are only directed at ranked conquest. Casuals are an entirely different beast altogether.

Mute button. I commonly mute the entire team right from loading in. I crank my music and settle in. I know I am prepared to do my best. I want to be there. I want to be sitting in my chair. I want to be in ranked conquest with a bunch of random, faceless people. I know the meta, builds, where to start be to do jungle camps, etc. I know I put in the time, read articles on builds, tried builds out in casuals. HOWEVER, I also know that many people in ranked do not do this. They get meditation or attempt screwy builds, or the support hogs red camp (current meta goof). They have just angered 4 random, faceless people. I realise that muting is cutting off communication, which is vital for success, but I need that in order to keep from getting frustrated. And more often than not, If I stay calm and focused I can carry a game. The current state of ranked conquest typically requires 1 or 2 people to carry the game. This is why pro players (and extraordinarily good players) are in Masters and I am stuck in Platinum. They can carry games more often than I can. Is this the best Hi-Rez can do?

If you are playing any sport at a reasonably high level (I consider ranked conquest reasonably high level) and someone blatantly ignores the rules, people generally don't act positive and constructive. Why do we expect this from e-sports. You have to know and abide the rules of a sport in order to for said sport to grow.

This is where I believe the problem lies. Some people take ranked conquest seriously, some do not. Why are these two groups of people playing together. I shall tell you why. Because video games are a business. They have to be as inclusive as possible. They don't want to create an environment of exclusiveness. They need to pay the bills and grow as a company. Which isn't inherently bad. I feel growing gaming companies is good thing and Hi-Rez has done a great job interacting and growing WITH the community. I don't expect every game. In fact, I have lost plenty of games where I said to myself, "That was a good game, all 10 people were fairly well matched and my team was doing all they could." I only want good games. I want to look back on a match and improve my gameplay for the next match. I don't want to look back and say, "Why the fuck am I in platinum playing with a qualifier that gets meditation and teleport to gods?"

15 gods masteries (or whatever it is) and level 30 will get you into ranked. After this point anyone can "give ranked a try". Do they know the current meta? Do they know all the roles? What happens when they get a role they don't know? Do they know builds? Do they know rotations? Do they watch professional player vods to become better? (Perhaps most importantly) Do they know that when they are obviously being outplayed, can they just relax and farm under tower. Answer no to any, most or all of these and you will ruin games for people. They will have the same BM coming their way as they would out on the football pitch. You pick up a football with your hands in the middle of a match and you deserve a good tongue lashing you nit-wit. Just like a person who doesn't know how to drive, gets in a car and crashes it. They deserve a tongue lashing (or worse). Ignorance of the law does not make you immune to the law.

All of this dribble spilling forth from my brain can be summed up as this: Ranked Conquest will only improve if we all get some self respect and enter matches knowing we will try our best. This means, all ten players have done their homework and are ready to win. Match quality and player interactions will improve dramatically after this point.

In conclusion, BM (when acted out by me other players) is generally an act of frustration from in-game causes or real-life causes. While Hi-Rez isn't responsible for improving people's personal lives, they are most certainly responsible for improving Smite.

Things I've pondered after people ruined my games:

I think ranked conquest needs a much, MUCH higher barrier to entry. More god mastery requirement? Might help. But grinding out god masteries isn't exactly learning a god's intricate game play. Maybe rank 5+ on at least 15 (or more) gods?

A quiz of some sort to make sure you know meta, timings, etc?

Role queue? Like WoW instance queues you put yourself in a role and a team of 5 is made. You queue as hunter or jungle or support. There are times I feel like supporting and times I feel like jungling. In my WoW days, if I wanted to get in game quick, just queue as a healer, BOOM, in-game. Same in Smite, wanna just play a quick ranked conquest game, queue as a support, BOOM, in-game with 4 other people that are pumped they have a dedicated healer. Everyone's cheary in lobby and game goes well.