Managing Tilt: A guide to an effective TF2 mentality

Managing Tilt: Establishing a healthy solo queue mindset

Introduction

Hello everyone. I’m writing today about the importance of managing mental energy during your time playing Team Fortress 2. Outside of anecdotes you will pick up from playing the game or learning strategies for maps and classes, learning to establish and maintain a Positive Mental Attitude (Hereafter referred to as PMA) is one of the most useful skills you can have when it comes to ensuring you put your best self into every game you play. This results in a more positive gameplay experience for yourself and your teammates, and usually correlates to an increased success rate on the battlefield.

I would like to preface that TF2 is one of the only games I take seriously, I know every map, I have already done everything there is to do in TF2, I know where people flank from, most of the time what the other person is thinking of doing and anticipating. Therefore this guide is intended for people such as myself, who play to win, rather than people who play trade servers or turtle on 2fort. Again, I take this game seriously and I think the hours I've put into the game speaks for itself. If it bothers anyone then I suggest finding a different guide.

The purpose of this guide is to help new and veteran players establish good habits for recognizing when they are Tilting and take responsibility for both their performance in-game and their mental status. This will ultimately help them remain sane and get better at the game.

What is Tilt?

Tilt is a term that originated in the competitive poker scene, and you will see me reference it many times in this guide. Tilt refers to a negative attitude or state of mind that affects in-game decision making in a detrimental fashion. Since the FPS games like Team Fortress 2 and other shooters are mentally, rather than physically intensive, a player’s state of mind has an even greater impact on their ability to perform in-game compared to traditional games or sports. That impact often carries over to a player’s success rate and therefore, their ability to enjoy the game.

What causes Tilt?

Since everyone is different, there are a myriad of factors that can cause a player to become tilted. It is very easy for players (solo queuers in particular) to get frustrated/tilted by any of these factors and simply throw up their hands saying “I can’t control my teammates, they play badly and I get all the gold medals every game, so I deserve to win, it’s not my fault I get matched with trolls or with F2Ps every game”. However, these lines of thought aren’t productive. True skill comes with accepting the fact that you can’t control what other people are going do or how they will play the game at any given time. What is under your control is your reaction to any given situation.

For the sake of simplicity, I’ll review four of the most common causes:

1. Performing poorly during a game/losing a game

When reviewing this tilt factor, it is very important to first understand a fundamental truth of online games. You won’t win every game of TF2 that you play. Every game (outside of a draw) has a winning and a losing team. Not everyone can be on the winning team every time. “Failure is the fertilizer of success” is a favorite quote of mine. You don’t learn nearly as much from winning a game or stomping the other team as you do from a defeat. The sooner you can accept this and start treating every loss as an opportunity to learn, the faster you will improve and recover your PMA after a loss.

2. The perception that teammates just aren’t doing their jobs

This one is a bit trickier. Many players feel like the only reason they are losing is due to their teammates constantly performing worse than them. What you have to realize is this: You cannot directly control your teammates behavior at any given time. Indeed, trying to micromanage or forcefully tell people what to do during a game rarely works out and often actually hinders both your personal performance and chances of victory. Instead, gently encourage teammates, and do your level best to fill roles that are needed in your teamcomp yourself. Oftentimes, many potentially tilting or toxic situations can be remedied this way.
For more on this, refer to “The 11 Monkeys theory of solo queue” below.

3. Online trolling from teammates (griefing) or enemies (toxic chat or taunting)

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” In this quote is the solution to this problem. As I mentioned before, you won’t be able to win every single game of TF2. Some losses will be caused by engineers placing troll teleporters, spies abusing cl_interp or discord goons pre-queuing and pocketing eachother.

There are 2 important points to remember during games like this:

1. Never give up. Even if someone is trolling on your team, it is still possible to win. Will it be hard? You better believe it, but it isn’t impossible.

2. Don’t allow someone else acting like a petulant child to ruin your good time. Once again, you cannot control the actions of these people, you can only control your reaction to the situation. Just mute the trolls/griefers and move on with your life. Nothing good comes from getting angry or frustrated, you just push yourself closer to a state of tilt where you will be less effective in-game. Don’t respond to trolls, retorts only distract from the game (lessening the chance of victory further) and serve to get you riled up, increasing the chance of tilting. Never let them take away a learning opportunity from away from you. Use the console command "hud_saytext_time 0" to disable your in-game chat box.
(For more on this, refer to “The 11 Monkeys theory of solo queue” below).

4. Poor mental status due to outside stressors, such as job/school or family related pressure

The most useful thing I can say about this is that if you aren’t having fun, or the game has begun to feel like work to you, it is time to take a step back, review your mental status and either fix or learn to cope with whatever situation is placing this external mental pressure upon you. TF2, especially if it's competitive, can be a very intense and fast-paced activity, but at the end of the day you should be having a good time. Never queue for a game if you are tilted beforehand by something that has happened in your personal life. If you still want to play TF2 and blow off some steam, hop into an community server, play Slender Fortress, MvM, VS Saxton Hale and just mess around for a bit. That, or crack open a cold beer/soda and lay down beforehand, put on your favorite tunes, go for a walk and clear your head, etc. Whatever helps you relax, just make sure to establish a solid PMA before hitting that queue button.

The 11 Monkeys theory of solo queue

There are many players in the TF2 community that will claim “But, I should be winning, it’s not me, it’s my teammates, TF2 is a team game and it is impossible for 1 person to have a significant impact in a 12 person team, besides, I always get matched with trolls, F2Ps, or people that have just installed the game, it’s not my fault I can’t win”.

Well, as many people (streamers and youtubers) and my hours on this game have proven, it is possible to win from a hopeless situation. Carrying teams is not impossible in TF2, and the simple fact of the matter is that if you cannot carry teams consistently then you simply are not that good. There’s nothing wrong that, we all have to start somewhere, the important thing is that you put your best foot forward and keep your eye on self-improvement.

To cap off this discussion on Tilt, I’ll review the 11 Monkeys theory of solo queue. In the matchmaking system, your own performance is the only known variable of the 11 players that are thrown into your team. This means that as long as you keep your PMA established and perform consistently, there are 11 slots on your team that could potentially get filled with a troll or griefer (Monkeys), whereas the enemy team always has 12 Monkey-slots free. So, while you may have games where you get matched with trolls/griefers/against pre-queued discord goons, there is actually a greater chance of the enemy team having a troll or griefer. This means that the odds are always in your favor in the solo queue environment. Is it enough to win every game? Of course not, but this does mean there will be more games where your personal contribution will matter and bring victory a bit closer. Just don’t be a Monkey and everything will turn out alright, probability is on your side.

Final thoughts and review

Keep a positive mental attitude (PMA).

Encourage your teammates

Don’t respond to toxic teammates or enemies (try not to be a Monkey!)

Don’t queue when tilted!

Remember to have fun!

If you made it this far, thanks for reading my wall of text! Hopefully these guidelines will help you with your solo-queueing in TF2!

[myro pain]

Many thanks for a non-joke guide on such a common problem comp fps players (like myself) encounter so often. Very well created.

[TaxMan]

thought this was going to be one of those joke tf2 guides but ended up being a great read

[Wazeezee]

you cannot tilt in tf2 if you simply type "ultra ballfart" in chat

[Lia ☀]

much love, thanks for the advice!

[built indifferent]

As one previous person said tilt is fine, it's frustration. I think it's impossible to carry a steamroll when you're constantly fighting 2 or 3 overhealed players at the same time. Anyway with random crits and bullet spread, the game is (sometimes) a dice roll and can't be taken seriously. You can play great, just be ready for a bullshit facestab or a pixel headshotting you 5 kilometers away. I think without the 2 instakill classes the game'd more enjoyable for everyone

[timon.wav]

Thanks !

[Rits]

им

[Catch 22]

thanks for the guide

[klaramela]

Constant tilt is not ok, at that point you have an issue having fun whether you win or lose. Remember that games are supposed to be fun. Don't force yourself to have fun if you aren't enjoying the game.

[MEK]

tilt is fine, let it happen, dont supress it. things is, having no tilt is having no intent on winning the lobby. and tf2 is a game that lets you requeue, so just do that. if you want to dedicate yourself to a lobby that makes you tilt and you know for sure its not you who's at fault, then be tilted. thats it. you cant escape the attitude, it doesnt happen because you have anger issues, it happens because you are human.