The truth about losingstreaks.

Dakiras: Some good reading there. Very nicely put, brick128.   While you might criticise the validity of my WoT experience based on my service record, I'm a long-term competitive I've been playing competitive games (amateur stuff, only competed in small, open tournaments) since I was about 16; back in the days of Counter Strike. With any heavily competitive game (sports, too) you will go through streaks of performing worse than other times. A lot of circumstances can affect performance beyond that of your overall skill in the game, which I won't list here. It's limitless.   When you're on a losing streak, you dig yourself further into a pit of despair and frustration. You start judging yourself (or more often your team mates) harshly. This, in my opinion, is the biggest factor to the perpetual cycle of frustration that eventually leads to raging at others... then you start performing even worse because you're more focused on criticising your team mates in chat. The more you lose, the more stressed you become - especially if you check your scores all the time and they're heavily on your mind. As you say, this is the point to step away and take a breather. Play a nice relaxing game like Flower, or listen to some jazz... whatever gets you calm.   When you're relaxed and not consciously thinking about your performance, you will naturally perform to your usual standards. Just don't relax too much. You don't want to fall asleep in a WoT battle and have others rage at you.