Angry Friend Issues

[goldenjester]

Myself and many of my friends play Magic. Generally we all play together and enjoy it, but I have one friend (and to a lesser extent, his girlfriend) that have become a bit troublesome when we play. My friend is very competitive (we all are, but he's the worst), and he doesn't take loss well. Generally, this isn't a problem as he is a very good player. He typically plays red decks (he has a burn deck and a goblin deck that know no bounds) and wins within the first four to five turns. I typically play blue or blue/white, so with a few lucky draws, I can dismantle his strategies fairly effectively. I haven't actually played a blue/white deck in a few weeks now, however, as the last time we played I played lots of negates and kind of dismantled his deck.

This is where the problem comes in; no one likes losing, I understand this. Against him, my other friends and I typically lose four or five times in an hour/hour and a half, which gets frustrating. Against my other friends, the win/loss ratios (and subsequent good cheer) are more even. When he loses, however, he gets angry. Scary angry. Usually, he's a big, lovable, dorky teddy bear type of person, but when he starts to lose...well, let the wookie win (after the finishing blow, he kind of knocked the table over). Please note, I was not being patronizing or "in your face."

My friends have kind of started to play less with him because he has become less fun to play with. What do you guys suggest we do to maintain the balance of friendship? Anyone ever been in a similar situation?

 

[Gxas]

Its because he's using a red deck... Real men play solid black!

OT: I've been in the situation and we just talked to him. I mean, it did lead to us not speaking for a while, but he matured and now we get along pretty fine.

 

[adam352]

If he does it again then tell him to stop being a prat, if he continues then boycott playing him, make sure your friends don't play him either and soon he'll learn that not playing at all is less fun than loosing on the odd occasion

 

[Johnny Impact]

I had that friend. He used to destroy me 4 games out of 5, he was better than I was and had better cards too. When I'd start to win a round, instead of knocking the table over, he would start lying. He'd tell me the Kor damage share ability didn't work since the latest errata, he'd purposefully misrepresent the way the stack works so I couldn't counter his spell, stuff like that. I found this incredibly selfish and juvenile. I began studying the MTG rules in depth and brought a printed copy whenever I played him. Soon he lost interest in playing against me. He could still beat me 4 out of 5 following the rules, but unless he could go 5 for 5 he didn't want to play at all. That wasn't the end of our friendship but due to that same attitude coloring every aspect of his life we eventually drifted apart. Haven't seen him in years.

I hate to suggest using a "chick argument" but you could tell him you're not even going to deal with him if he's going to be like that. Rage quitting in real life can be dealt with the same way as in games: you just start playing with others instead. He may come around, but even if he doesn't, at least your table will be saved.

 

[Imp Poster]

Make him look at what is going on when he does that. He can either lose like a winner or win like a loser. Winners will try and figure out why they lost and get better that way. Losers don't care, they just want to win. So when you have a friend that just wants to win, the game suffers.

I had a friend that couldn't take losing. So one time, we were playing Magic, I won once out of like the 3 times we played already. I don't even try to win because he becomes a cry baby about it. So I confronted him. We argued. He got so mad that he wanted to arm wrestle because he thought he could beat me in that since he works out. I told him that it took strategy and technique like Magic. At the start, I taunted him with his "strength ego" he had. He tried and tried to take me down fast and hard. So I played defense the whole time just pushing enough so he wouldn't win, bending my wrist alot. Once he got tired, I twisted my wrist over his wrist, exerted all my force and won. He stopped talking to me after that, but oh well.