Let's start at the other end of the question, as defining bad mentality is for whatever reason easier. However, bad mentality still covers a wide spectrum, ranging from plan laziness to even just taking losses badly. A more recent example of a team that could be considered to have bad mentality is the previous 2014 summer champions, Elements. Now on a 5 losing streak, they are nowhere near where their fans and they themselves expected to be. When you are coming off a win streak like Elements are, it is only your game to lose, whereas for a lower tier team such as the CW, Dentist has said that the Wolves are just trying not to get relegated so they have no real pressure win or lose. Several of Elements' members including W1ckd and Rekkles and ex-Alliance ADC Tabzz have said that the team atmosphere haven't been great, with people unwilling to take blame and multiple disagreements. This was also seen when I talked to nRated. He said that after Tabzz left, the whole team feel was lost and everyone started to want to point fingers and blame each other in the case of any mistake. This was not particularly evident at first, as Tabzz was used as a scapegoat and so the problems weren't seen until recently. The disagreements became evident with the top lane swap, where Wickd was benched partially because of his stubbornness, which played into his stereotype of having a small champion pool and strange/ ineffective builds. Another reason for this swap was Kev1n was described to be a very calm and neutral person, much like Nyph, and would free up space on the team for the bigger egos such as Rekkles and Shook. Another supposed benefit of this swap is that Kev1n is described as a friendly person, and friendship is a very lacking element in the team, which sometimes leads to the blame game as the players feel that 'oh, I don't really like him, I'll just blame him for my mistakes'. Another key factor is their coach, who is quite inexperienced, and rather than talking with the players to find solutions, seems to talks at the players instead. This leads to the players feeling unheard and negates what little advantage the coach brings because the players are unwilling to listen. The team also appears to be affected by losses in an emotional way, and instead of taking a look back at the game and seeing what went wrong, their attitude is rather that of 'just go back to scrims or solo q and we can get better', which in a sense works, but is much less effective than other teams' practice.
So now let's take a look at the best team in Europe at this moment, SK. Why are they doing so well compared to Elements if they have roughly the same amount of skill? Taking a look at their star player, Forg1venGRE, he said that he expects his entire team to be on the same level as him. Now, there are two ways his team can react. They can either say, no way we're doing that and training 12 hours a day and they can be a good team, or, the team can say OK, let's try that and be an amazing team. Whichever one the players choose depends on their mentality, which in this aspect, ties into work ethic. On average, the SK players practice 12 hours a day. If the players are motivated and have the right mentality, they would be open to suggestions about training and trying things out to help them improve as a team. Another advantage the SK Gaming Team has over Elements is the fact that all of the players are all friends and get along well with each other. This is in part due to the help the team's sports psychologist has provided. The help includes teambuilding exercises which really brings the team closer together and gives them the edge in teamwork over any other team. The psychologist also helps them resolve any disputes they have and that allows the players to improve themselves instead of arguing with teammates. In my opinion, Elements could really benefit from having a sports psychologist, but that's for another time.
Now we've seen a team that is doing well and another that has major problems, let's take a look at two rising teams, Copenhagen Wolves and Gambit Gaming. Both Dentist and Leviathan have played instrumental roles in the teams' improvement since their somewhat shaky start in the first few weeks. Leviathan has played an active role in the coaching the team and finding solutions to problems. 'I take time to sit down with the team and discuss problems and potential solutions' he said. The results have been self-explanatory. After an underwhelming start, they are now on a 5 win streak and look to be getting stronger and stronger, maybe even rivalling the Moscow 5 of old. Similarly, the Copenhagen Wolves are also on a winning streak, and are tied for 3rd place as of the end of week 5. 'We try to take it one game at a time and if we lose, oh well, maybe next time and if we win, then all the better for us. We don't have huge expectations from our fans so that takes away a lot of the pressure'. Having this attitude towards the game means that while you are motivated, you don't have the pressure that causes you to have a massive tiltfest. This has been proven ad the Wolves have looked incredibly solid over the past few games, and not only that, they have had the confidence to make big plays as well.
After all of that, let's try to define good mentality, or at least the components of good mentality. We know that people should have good work ethic and an optimistic outlook on events. People should not let pressure or fame get to their heads and shouldn't get complacent. Finally, most of all, people should acknowledge problems and if help is available, use it to try and find solutions. But even after all this, good mentality doesn't have a definitive description and at the end of the day we only have guidelines. Even so, having the right mentality is as important as being able to innovate or having good mechanics or communicating well, and that is something we know for sure.
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