Supercell's Clash Royale is one of the newest mobile Esports today and aside from its vivid visuals and complex strategies, the game also offers what most competitive games subtlety provide - mind games. Now, how exactly do mind games start in this mobile app? And how much of an impact does it provide? Well, let's find out.

Clash Royale: Mind Games

Mind games consist of engaging your opponent in a psychological warfare wherein the one with the toughest mental attitude prevails. In Clash Royale, however, it involves breaking your opponent through direct verbal attacks using emotes and whatnots. Although you might be thinking that mind games involve predicting your opponent's next moves, etc., in reality, it's more than that. Disrupting your opponent's focus is another form of psychological battle and it is by far, one of the most effective ones as it would virtually destroy your opponent's pace and gameplay - given that he or she has fallen into your trap.

Now, while this type of "mind game" can be labeled as a dirty trick, there's no denying that it exists in the game - and it's even rife in Clash Royale. As you play more often, you will eventually come across an opponent that would badmouth you in one way or another. Now, how would you exactly deal with this type of players? Well, Ash has an amazing advice for you and this is one of the things that he emphasized on his video, "Good manners will likely yield to more wins."

Bad Mouth vs Good Manners

According to Ash, one of the best competitive players and streamers in Clash Royale, emotions play a huge role in Clash Royale primarily because of its fast-paced reactive nature. This means that focus is one of the vital keys to winning your battles and what better way to lose one's focus than to play with their emotions - midway through battles?

And so, to summarize the whole video and to answer the question from the premise, yes, Bad Mouth is definitely an effective tool in Clash Royale - but only for those that cannot deal against this trick. In Ash's video, he has shared a couple of ways in order to prevent your opponent from disrupting your focus and taking away the pace of the game. Here are some of the pointers:

First, always have that positive attitude towards your opponent, regardless of their behavior (saying good game, well-played despite winning or losing). Second is portray good manners during battle. Despite outplaying your toxic opponent, you shouldn't take over his or her shoes and do the Bad Mouthing since the game hasn't yet ended and things can still swing from either table. Furthermore, being nice to a toxic player would create a reverse psychological effect towards that player and could potentially alter his pace and focus in the process.

Bad Mouthing In Clash Royale

In order for you to fully negate the effects of Bad Mouthing in Clash Royale, you must know one of the basic techniques that these players do. Here is a thread from the Clash Royale subreddit thread where it provides details regarding basic "bad mouthing" techniques in the game. You may be familiar with these but it's good to know some of the subtle details where your opponents start to instill cheap tricks upon you:

The Start Of The Match - Your opponent will try to mock you during the beginning of the match, either laugh at you or display a crying emote. This is the initiation phase starts.
When You Commit A Mistake - Your opponent will start displaying funny emotes once you commit a misplay. This is when you should start reversing the strategy to your opponent by playing nicely.
When They Commit A Mistake - Your opponent will display "Wow" emotes followed by "Good Game" and then "Laughing Face." This is where you should start capitalizing on your opponent's mistake and keep on pushing with the right troops.
End Of The Match - This is where your opponent bombards you with emotes especially if you lose during the battle. In the top ladder, it's highly likely that you'll face this opponent in your subsequent matches and if you lost your temper and focus during the last game, you'd probably fall for his cheap trick in the next one and this is where you'll eventually lose your trophies in the long run.

So bottom line is, always have that positive mental attitude whenever you're in a game and even after the battle. You shouldn't succumb to your emotion and act like an adult. Try to counter and reverse these tricks and you'll eventually win the battle both literally and mentally.