League of Legends has been around for more than a decade since its official release. With this, the game, as well as its player base, has grown significantly building a large community that spans all around the world. While this might sound like a good thing, having a large community has a lot of downsides to it, such as people being mean or unsportsmanlike in-game. This begs the question of why is League Of Legends so toxic?
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Why Is League Of Legends So Toxic?
For starters, Riot Games has done a great job at turning League of Legends into one of the most competitive esports in the world today. Whether you play simple ranked games or if you are a pro-player, the stakes of each game are relatively high which means that players are always fighting to get a win. It’s no wonder people are easily upset and take their frustration out on other teammates to vent out any negative emotions they are feeling out of it.
Toxicity or being toxic at a game means that a player is acting in a way that disrupts gameplay or the mental state of others. Oftentimes, this comes through verbal communication and involves the release of hurtful or personal attacks to another player which is totally unrelated to the game they are playing. A lot of these toxic behaviors can be found on the Report button or tribunal found at the end of the game which hints how much these actions are frowned upon.
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There are a lot of ways a player can be toxic. Here are some of the most common examples of toxicity in LoL.
1. Trash Talking
Trash talking is the most traditional form of toxicity that even reaches outside of the boundaries of esports. This is the act of verbally attacking someone by putting them down or insulting the way they play. While this is the most common form of toxic behavior, trash-talking has also become one of the most entertaining parts of a game. Pro-players often engage in trash-talking to engage the fanbase pre-game. Trash talking is harmless if you can control yourself.
2. Leaving/AFK-ing
AFK means Away From Keyboard which is a term invented to call people who are inactive during the game. These forms toxic behavior is brought about by a large sense of frustration that causes the player to think that there is no reason to play the game anymore. This affects the game as having a man down causes a significant disadvantage to team-fighting and tactics. Leaving and AFK-ing is highly frowned upon and can result to serious repurcussions.
3. Disrupting Gameplay
Disrupting gameplay is when another player acts to ruin other player’s gameplan. This can come in the form of sharing someone else’s lane, taking minions away from a player, or giving the opponent information about your own team to give them an advantage. Again, this behavior affects the game greatly and would often lead to your team losing as a result.
4. Intentional Feeding
One of the most horrible forms of toxic behavior in League of Legends is intentional feeding. This is done by letting the opponent kill you willingly and without any resistance. This gives the opponent a huge advantage in gold as well as giving your team a massive disadvantage by having a man down. However, teammates often mistake regular feeding from intentional feeding but intentional feeding is more obvious than the regular one.
5. Spamming
Spamming is another potentially harmless method of being toxic in game. This is done by sending a message over and over again relentlessly, using the ping function to continuously harass another teammate, or using an emote constantly to annoy another player. Spamming is still punishable by the tribunal system but isn’t as impactful to the game as the previous forms of toxic behavior.
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Is Toxic Behavior Punishable?
Yes, we’ve mentioned that all of this misbehavior is punishable by the League Of Legend’s tribunal system which is reviewed by Riots Game’s support team. Punishment can come in the form of either a temporary suspension or a permanent ban of your account. This means that there will be a definite amount of time where you will not be able to play on your account and all progress you have made in certain areas will be lost. You’ll lose all honor points and ranked rewards when banned or suspended.
What To Do When You Have A Toxic Teammate/Opponent
We know what it feels like when your teammate just makes League of Legends so toxic that you want to stoop down to their level and retaliate by being toxic yourself. Of course, that will release the frustration you’re feeling but it won’t help the game progress any further. Instead, you should do these simple methods to make sure that toxic players like these will not ruin any games for you in the future.
Use The Mute Function
The mute function is very helpful for people who insist on trash talking, spamming, or just harass you through the chat function. The mute button which is found on the Leaderboard screen (Tab Button), simply choose which player you want to mute. If you can’t find it, you can always use the command prompt /mute on the chatbox or simply type in /muteall to silence all of the players including your teammates and opponents.
Report Them After The Game
Reporting a player will notify the game’s system or support team of the player’s toxic behavior which will then result in that players suspension or permanent ban from the game. While this won’t cause you any immediate relief, it will make sure that less people in the future resort to acting in a toxic manner. Just make sure not to abuse the tribunal system by reporting everything you think is toxic even if it isn’t since there are a lot of other serious reports ongoing.
Talk To The Player
Now, this might sound cheesy and futile but there are cases where talking to your teammate makes them understand what’s wrong with what they’re doing. Additionally, there’s nothing wrong with showing a little human compassion even if you’re talking to someone who clearly doesn’t give it in return. Try to understand why this person is misbehaving and come to a compromise or lift their spirits a bit. Maybe you’ll even get an honor point from this.
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Toxic Behavior In Online Games
Since the beginning of time, MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) Games have had toxic players infesting the game and ruining the experience in one way or another. If there is a global chat, then surely there will be a toxic person sharing his unwelcome opinion on it. But why are online games so toxic? The answer varies widely on the topic of human behavior in general. Everyone wants to be the best, so if they’re not then they drag down others to their level.
While League of Legends is widely accepted as having one of the most toxic player bases, that only comes because of League of Legends’ massive amount of players. After all, more players mean more people that will become toxic in your games. Other MMOs might have the same ratio of toxic players but since the player base is so small, it won’t count as much in the overview. The best thing to do is to try and not stoop down to their level and become toxic yourself.
What Is The Most Toxic Region/Server?
The debate on which server is the most toxic has been around for a long time and it’s really hard to come by an answer when you haven’t played in all of the other servers. However, there are two regions that stand out as having notoriously bad reputations for being extremely toxic in all and every online game, those are the Russian and SEA servers. Those two are often disputed as being very active in the chat box and take their frustrations to the next level.
Compared to these 2 regions, receiving a dozen insults in 5 minutes is a walk in the park as the players here will literally sit in the base while debating and spectating on other players for the entirety of the game all the while commentating on every little mistake their teammates AND opponents have. In fact, they make the EUW seem like a daycare when it comes to being a toxic community. Hopefully, this horrible reputation will soon be a thing of the past.
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Who Is The Most Toxic LoL Streamer/Pro?
Toxicity in prominence does have its advantages for players who seek to have a higher approval rating from the fans which is of course ironic. When it comes to toxicity, there is no one who invented the image better than Doublelift who has been known as NA’s king of trash talking but backs his behavior up by winning LCS championships and being known as the best AD Carry in North America to date. Nowadays though, he is more tame and humble than before.
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