A stranger at game night taught me how to actually lose

Last month at a Chicago meetup, this quiet guy named Doug beat me 6 games in a row at Carcassonne, but he kept telling me exactly which move would've won each time. It hit me that he was more excited about my near-wins than his own victory, and I've never looked at competitive play the same since. Has anyone else met a player who made losing feel like a lesson instead of a defeat?

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charles_lewis1413d ago

You ever have that one buddy who just gets it? My friend Mark had a similar thing happen at a chess club. He was getting crushed by this older lady every single week, but she'd stop mid-game and point out the exact spot where he missed a winning move. He said it was weird at first, like she was rubbing it in, but then he realized she was actually rooting for him to beat her. After a few months he finally won one game and she was happier than he was. That changed how he coached people at work too, like he stopped caring about winning and started caring about making the other person better. I think that's the mark of a truly good player, not the one with the most wins but the one who builds up the people they play against.