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Toxicity, Age, LCS Pros, and where Riot wants to go with this...

Arch Mage Magnus·4/29/2015, 8:00:16 AM·4 votes·1,168 views

This is a longer read, and it's just highlighting issues that I personally believe are with League and the competitive scene.

I've been reading a lot on LCS within the last year and a half; hell I begin to think I read more about League than I do actually playing it these days. I am also a mature individual at the age of 32, so I know what it was like to be 17 - 20 and think I knew everything there was to know about life. I was a Counter-Strike pro back in 1.6 (11 years ago now?), playing for team BiO (Bio-Degradable Heroes) and had the opportunity to play in MLG two times. The gaming fame was fun, more-so was making decent money ( won a $25,000 purse) for playing games. However.....we never ever let it get to our head back then. After reading the latest news with Altec leaving WinterFox, I was compelled to rant about this.

Recently you hear a lot about toxicity within teams. It's no surprise to anyone that plays League, it's quite possibly the most toxic and ill-mannered game I have ever played. Playing CS back then....terms like PWNED and NOOB were just coming out. They didn't have a negative impact on gaming, and fighting within teams rarely ever happened. Counter-Strike took a lot of skill, but since every person was on the same playing field it took a lot of strategic diversity out of the game. Mastering champs, learning lanes and match ups puts a lot more stress on individual players, and it really makes it easy for a team to point a finger and blame a specific player for losing matches.

It seems now players feel very self entitled; especially in League. In LCS you have teams constantly benching players, or trading and replacing players simply because "they aren't doing good". I would hate to be that player. Imagine being that guy in any ranked or normal game where everyone gangs up on you because "you suck" or you simply lost lane. I've been their; it sucks, you know you screwed up, and being yelled at doesn't solve the problem. Now, amplify that by adding a bunch of professionals tell you ( you are also a professional ) that you simply are not good enough and you need to be replaced. Who would really want to live in that household? If there was anything I knew how to be when I was in my teens, it was being a complete dick. Ignoring people, and letting issues fester within that environment would destroy an entire team, and we have seen and heard this from players like Hai in Cloud9, Team Liquid with Piglet, and now WinterFox. Soon as name calling begins, or player shaming the entire morale of the team drops, and suddenly no one wants to play or communicate. The only remedy that players see is to go free agent, start with a new fresh team and hope things go better.

At the age of 17.... do these players really understand the gravity of their situations? Going from flipping burgers to LCS stars, being paid a good sum from Riot, travelling the world and living with a bunch of other self entitled players. To many it seems like the dream, but from videos I've seen, posts I have read, the players don't seem to take it as seriously as they should. Just now you have Krepo retiring, GOSU is taking a break, and Altec is getting kicked from Winterfox. Krepo and GOSU even admitted to toxicity taking over in a lot of their games now in soloqueue. I know when you play the same game, 12 hours a day it can become very hard to focus; I've been their. It's easy to be blinded by the thought of playing a game and getting paid, but I feel a lot of players, or even the fans don't acknowledge the troubles and emotional impact of playing behind the scenes; and I don't blame them. The average age of players and fan base is probably between 12 - 20 years old.

I actually feel sorry for a lot of these players. Some of them are going through some negative experiences within the pro scene. Family problems, relationship problems, depression, and stress. I'm not sure exactly what Riot does to help individuals that are in these situations. Should Riot raise the age limit of LCS players? I'm not sure if that would help. I would not want to be in the LCS when I was 17; hell I don't think I would want to right now either. I feel a lot of these players would have a fair bit to say if they could freely speak their mind on the topic. I respect any player that tells it how it is, like Hai and Gosu about how toxic and draining this game can become in the competitive scene. Everyone tunes in to watch, but forget what it's like for those teams that lose that have to go back and face each other week after week as they try and perform. It's depressing.

So too all the players that put the time in, and truck on in competitive play you have my support. It's not easy, and it's not all fun and games when it does become your job. Don't be afraid to speak your mind or reach out when it gets tough.

Thanks for reading, and if anyone wants to add some thoughts to the subject feel free.

1 Comments

Avorok4/29/2015, 8:08:24 PM2 votes

I am 20y/o and by what I have read, you seem to generalize the age of players as a whole, which you shouldn't. Let's start out by saying, online games the were becoming popular, were mostly filled with older people and not younger people. Todays age, every age is online playing something, probably the biggest age range is either 12-22 or 22-35. And with the growing amount of people online, they soon find that, if that person doesn't know who you are, or where you are, talking shit is ok since they can't find you, and usually is the reason today for any age, not just teens to twenties.

How LCS teams interact with each other is just how they do things, have you seen how NFL players and NBA, and other sports treat each other? It's much worse, with older players and a lot more on stake. LCS is as much as the same, they are making millions, and screwing up isn't part of the job. Anger brings out a part of someone no one likes, and things are said in the process.

You can't say that they don't understand the gravity of a situation due to age, that has nothing to do with it. Try telling this child, that has been playing the violin since he was 3, and now is 11, who has been playing it as long as he is born, and messes up, and get's a little shame from it. He knows that messing up isn't good, and every note needs to be right, he understands the gravity of not doing something right. Same for the LCS players, most either have been playing for years, or the entire years of the games existence, therefore, they understand the gravity of the situation than most, they are there, we are here. They have surpassed us by doing so. Being in that situation, they know what they are doing, and if not done correctly, anger and rage will be among them. If they lose, they lose a lot. Lost of all the time, the title, money, and whatever else comes with it.

Your generation is different from ours, or theirs. You can't say "I wouldn't want that right now" You can't even relate those two. What someone wants is what ever they want, only because you didn't want it at that age, doesn't mean every single person your age at that time thought that too. This game is their job and how they make money, and the are making substantially more than you did at that age, as I said before, hundreds of thousands of dollars, even millions. A bit off topic, but spending 20 years of my life, to spend another 40 behind a desk to make 50-100k a year. While they already are making more, and get to do it in a way they like, and make a lot of money, and have a lot of fun doing it. Now not saying that not all peoples don't get a job they like and are happy just as it. You go to school, to get an education, to get a job. Why do this, when you can make 10x as much doing something else that doesn't require all those things. [ and isn't illegal ]. You've been behind the scenes, ok well you also had a choice, not to do it. That's like saying "I want to be a firefighter" becomes firefighter Oh man, I have to go inside actual burning buildings? And save people? My point is, you go into a competitive atmosphere, and you should have the knowledge of what could come about competitive people. The Whole point of competitions is to win and maybe have some fun. If You go into a competition to lose, you're insane, why waste peoples time and effort.

Going into the competition scene is a choice in this matter and they chose that type of style and must live with the things that come with it, if they can't really handle it, then they can leave. But it requires a team to stay and fight the battle. No one really wants to leave their team that they spent years playing with. But when it comes down to it, they leave. Or If you're team sees you as a problem, then the instant reaction is either to get rid of them, or try and change their habits, if it continues, then it's time to say goodbye.

I'm pretty sure one of the worse things in the competition world is, being on a team, where you're teammates are expecting you to do perfectly, and be on the center of Tv's and livestreams, then you don't. Sure the stress it heavy, but that's what you get for being at that skill level, you set expectations for people, not vice versa. You do really well, then that's the performance people expect you at. Sure there are instances where people want others to do really well, but that's only to the point where they think you can, but you don't know if you can exceed it or not. Different from actually knowing you do well, and just not following through.

In any situation where someone doesn't do well, it never helps to bring them down even more. Positive feedback is always the right answer, but most don't do this, well, because of mostly what I said above, anger, competitions, what's on the line, center of attention, stress, and anything else that comes with it. But for a general basis of any online game, there will never be, no toxic people. It is impossible to make a game where you make the community non-toxic. Because the game would be come to strict in how you socialize, and it'll affect gameplay to the point where it's not even worth playing.

Sidenote: I don't think Riot actually pays or sets anything for the championships, more like hosts it as the game itself. Most of how the players get paid is through sponserships, which pays the players and Riot. I think. I don't think Riot has the resources to spend on events like that.