Cognitive Bias

Today I introduce a couple examples of cognitive biases in League of Legends. These are irrational errors in your thinking whilst in game, impacted by common natural emotions, which prevent you from being all that you can be. Fix this issue and seriously improve your game!

Today's cognitive bias: Investment.

After investing into "a good idea," don't allow that investment to influence you to pursue a bad idea when the scenario changes.

Example 1

You “catch somebody out.” They’re clearly alone in the jungle. You caught them and can kill them. Attacking them is the right idea. However, they run and successfully make it back to their jungle. You have no vision and no guarantees about who they’re running towards. Your teammates type "dont chase noob!11" as they always do.... but why do you chase?

You feel you've invested time, energy, cooldowns, and a significant portion of your own health bar into the attack. You've spent a lot on this attack, and it feels owed to you, by the universe, fate, buddha... Your mind is still calculating the odds of killing somebody caught out-of-position. You need to let go of the investment, continually recalculate, and cut your losses. Recognize when the odds of victory have shifted viciously.

Example 2

You pummel somebody during laning phase and they run under turret. Again, you feel invested, and in fear of losing that investment, chase them under turret. They use summoner spells, abilities, and items you hadn’t considered at all and killing them under turret becomes impossible. While pummeling them in lane was the right option, dying under turret is the wrong option, especially compared to farming copious last hits whilst the opponent recalls under their turret.

Here, the major cognitive bias is not only the investment, but especially that you feel the kill is owed to you; that you've done the right thing and it would be unjust if they get away. In this case, it's easy to let go of that bias by considering the 10 last hits you'll get while he's recalling, which are roughly equal to the gold you get for a kill, and come at no risk.

TL;DR

Let go of your investments, don't pursue emotional justice, and you will avoid situations that cost you defeat!