How do you deal with losing?

[Ryltair]

Sometimes I'm actually affraid to play a league match because losing hurts so much. What tips do people have to deal with losing?

[Dode]

Play more, lose more, get used to it.

Maybe try a season of BB1 playing as flings.

[export]

stop losing start winning :D

/edit in all seriousness start laughing everytime something does not work like you planned laugh

[BurningSigil]

Just git gud.

But seriously, learn that losing is a part of the game as much as winning is, you'll lose roughly half the time if you are being matched fairly.

Laugh at deaths, I lost a level 3 +Mv Beastman to a Dead, Apo into Dead, yesterday.

Laugh at losses, I lost a match cause a Black Orc Blocker intercepted a relatively safe pass then ran the ball in on the last turn of a match.

Blood Bowl is about knowing bad things will happen and being able to roll with the punches.

Chat with the guy you are playing against. Start each match with "Gulf and Hoof" and end each match with a TD or a Foul. Then laugh and say "GG".

Play for fun, making your own story, leveling up , dieing, and releveling your team.

Winning is fun, but losing is inevitable. Once you accept that, Blood Bowl becomes a lot more enjoyable.

[blindside]

You know the usual, throw my monitor, swing around my keyboard like I've gone insane, and start screaming at nuffle. Im starting to try in league games to come in knowing that I'm the underdog and expect that I'll lose unless I can claw my win from the opponent.

[Curath]

At some point it may become clear that safe play can no longer win me the game. I might not have enough players to effectively play the normal game, or I'm just too far behind to catch up with my usual tactics. To me this means that all the pressure is off.

I don't need to plan for the failure anymore, carefully making sure that everyone is positioned correctly and the tackle zones are covering the squares for ball scatter. Instead I can try something risky that can get me back into the game, and plan for success. I go pick up the ball from 2 tackle zones, dodge into a cage to get a two red dice block, or throw a long bomb with an agi 3 player who doesn't have pass. If whatever I was planning succeeds, I get a quick touchdown. If not.. oh well, I was already losing.

[Altheus]

Kipling said it better than I ever could.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

[Velihopea]

Losing against better player: Easy, he was better.
Losing against bad dices: Easy, Nuffle does his tricks on me. Sometimes you are lucky, sometimes not. (This works if you see your good luck too, and do not selectively see only the double skulls)
Losing against worse (Chaos) player due to REALLY bad dices: Try to breathe, do not engage in any discussion and throw your headset around the room at every failed action.

[Sephorin]

Hello, Ryltair. Your question applies not only to Blood Bowl but to any competitive endeavor. When I used to play games with my father, he would scream and slam doors when he lost. (I don't play games with him anymore.) I determined that I never wanted to act like that.

Here is what helps me when I feel what you're feeling. "Just play through it" is good advice, but I think it's a little more complicated than that. You want to play with a positive attitude, don't get down if things aren't going your way, and don't get frustrated over things you have no control over (dice). Be genuinely happy for your opponent when he makes a solid move or pulls off a strategy that you didn't see coming.

Another thing that sometimes helps me: shift your focus off of winning and onto improving and having fun. Try to tell yourself: it doesn't matter if I win this match. I'm playing to improve my coaching skills and to have fun.

At times, you may want to study the game rather than actually playing a match. Here are some links in case you want to do that: http://forum.bloodbowl-game.com/viewtopic.php?f=61&t=5500

I hope you stick with it, Ryltair. I still struggle with negative feelings in competition at times, but I firmly believe that working to overcome them has made me a much better person, both in playing sports/games and in life.

[Ryltair]

@Sephorin

Thanks mate :)

[rinku]

A loss will most likely mean you played a better player. Which probably means someone who knows their team, and probably your team, better than you do.

That's fine. Blood Bowl ultimately comes from miniatures wargame roots where this is the norm. Dice are used to add a random factor, but ultimately unit selection, maneuver, concentration of force and thinking ahead usually determine the winner over dice luck.

And funnily enough, the same principles apply to most team sports.

Every game is a lesson, win or lose. The key thing is to learn, and improve.

(On the other hand, Blood Bowl is not Chess. You'll get good breaks - but it's up to you to take advantage of those!)

[CalUKGR]

I just resign myself to the inevitability of losing and keep trying. My team, The English Gentlemen, has never won yet in any League game. I actually scored a touchdown in a match tonight, but that was very much the exception - more a case of blind luck than clever strategy.

As our Team Captain, Ser Tufton-Woositt, is always quick to say: "It's not the winning, chaps, but the taking 'em apart!"

It's good that's he's got a sense of humour. He needs it.

[Sigmar's Faithful]

I shout at my laptop screen and them go play Mordheim: City of the Damned and the shout some more.
I than crawl up in fetal position and cry, than I stand up and shout again, this time in defiance of fate, and fall on the floor to cry some moar.
I may than fire up Dark Souls 2 and cry in utter disbelief in my incompetence and crawl up again and cry a rivar.
And so I fire up Euro Truck Simulator and discover life is good again.
Than I play Blood Bowl 2 and the cycle repeats.

[Jeheil]

After a really bad beat (bad dice against abuse d1k of a player) I would always run my gobbo's out for a game...they are never meant to win....so it was chill n laugh...and every now and again Tali'Blam my bomb chucker and Boink my pogo'er would have a stormer......

[Lensar]

Originally posted by Ryltair:

What tips do people have to deal with losing?

BB2 isn't a game about winning. It's a game about surviving. It's about the wild crazy, sometimes sad, sometimes funny, epic story about your team participating in such a brutal and outrageously awesome sport.

Every game your players survive is an opportunity for them to get more SPP and progress. The more you play, the more options you have, which is putting more tools in your toolbox, making you more and more competative as game in and game out.

[Dode]

Originally posted by Lensar:

BB2 isn't a game about winning. It's a game about surviving.

That's only true in the matchmaking ladder. Try a league.