Why League is so bloody toxic
Let's start off with the basics. League is a video game (yeah no shit). For a very long time video games were never taken seriously. I know what you're thinking; "its just a game how can you take it seriously?", but that's not where I'm coming from. Until essentially the last decade, games were never taken seriously. They were something you did in your spare time, and was considered a waste of time by most people. However, technology, graphics, coding etc. all brought a new era into gaming. MMORPG's, MOBAS, RTS, (just MMO's in general) brought the one thing that we previously lacked. You could only get so good at pacman. games like League have almost infinite possiblities since they give numerous options, build paths, playstyles etc (:P lol not really, but the concept is still there). Because of this they almost immediately became very popular, and obviously the growth MMO's have shown in the past half decade is almost obscene. So know its time to look at what changed and why exactly, these MMO's grow toxic.
There are generally 3 types of players in all popular and successful MOBA's. The casual and the serious (tryhards if u wanna be like that), and the trolls (I'll talk about him last). I consider myself a casual gamer. I play on a regular basis but don't go apeshit when i go on tilt. I've never had a chat restriction, or any bans at all. But i've been playing this game for about 2 years, and i've experienced enough crazy to say righteously, THIS GAME IS A TOXIC CESSPIT. But I still love it. I love the concept, the champions, and I've made some pretty good friends here as well. I don't think I'll stop playing anytime soon unless the game really does become a Free2Play Pay2Win generic RPG. The serious player is the one who dreams of being a pro LCS player and making millions playing a video game. I mean honestly who doesn't just drool at the thought. If i was given that opportunity, even I might take it, although I don't think I could enjoy it. The internet fanbase is 10 times more vicious than televised media could ever be. The internet has no rules, and anything can be accessed if you know what you're doing. And sadly that brings us to the core of things.
Casual players and the serious gamers just can't mix. Ofcourse I'm talking about this on a large scale. I have a friend who is quite skilled, and we got along duo'ing quite fine. Gamers will take a game very seriously, especially ranked yolo queue. Obviously a casual player won't take it nearly as seriously. Whereas the might both be trying to win the mindset in itself is just WAAAAY different. A scenario being a ranked game: Casual player uses a build that is off-meta, then proceeds to do bad, whether or not it was his fault doesn't even matter, a hardcore gamer proceeds to rage him out with a variety of creatively colorful lingo that befuddles the mind and almost certainly ends with "kill urself scrub" or "you deserve to be gunned down on the street" -cough- no references-cough*. The casual gamer is of course a normal person, who will most likely respond in kind, whether it be proceeding to feed, or argue with the offender for most likely the rest of the game. Hell, even when they do good a lot of the time they're arguing for some most likely stupid reason. And then to make the situation all the worst, there is the troll. And his entire job is most likely to make you go batshit crazy and rage out. Not speaking for all of us, but as a casual gamer myself, I will most likely ignore the troll and surrender ASAP or just keep playing depending on how our team is doing. But I'm almost certain the hardcore gamer will lost his shit, whether on ingame chat or by screaming and punching holes in walls in private (exaggerations for the literal folk).
So the background and scenario has been set and it is now time for the climax. -DRUMROLL PLEASE-
THIS IS NO LONGER A GAME!!!! IT'S A SPORT!!!!!..... or as close to one as possible
Okay got that out of my system. So here is my reasoning, my evidence, and my plot. You don't have to agree or disagree. This is pure opinion and many arguments have been going on for quite a while about this kind of stuff. Here's the definition of sport:
a contest or game in which people do certain physical activities according to a specific set of rules and compete against each other (Mirriam Webster's Online Dic. if you want proof)
I'm sure we're all looking at the "physical activities" part, but for now we can probably ignore that. I believe it's pretty safe to say that chess, poker, or any game that can be played competitively can be considered a sport. League has long since passed that barrier. Games that offer minor competition, like basic all out battles where one team simply overwhelms another, can't be really called a sport. It's more like whoever has the best gear wins. But when you have entire websites dedicated to strategies, buildpaths, and methods you can no longer say that League is "just a game". Now I know some people will say "we already knew this, that's why its called e-Sports dumbfuck". Well if that's the case why don't people fucking ACT like it. The answer is actually quite simple. It's the internet. Where there is no such thing as a girl gamer, trolls rule, and psychopaths are created every 5 minutes.
What would happen if League couldn't be played at home. If you had no choice but to go to a certain area and had to play in a room and ONLY against other people in the room. I almost 100% guarantee you won't see a single curse word used in an offensive way. Fact: (most) People are cowards. Most people won't admit it, but it's the truth. There is always trash talking in sports. But the level its taken on the internet would almost always result in bloody brawls if they were used face to face. When people have no fear of what can happen to them they are free to say and do whatever they want. And until something is done to deal with that sad fact, its not gonna get better. It's probably gonna get worse.
Casual gamers play for fun and usually don't totally freak out if someone does something wrong. The hardcore gamer is generally very serious and will generally be very angry, especially against trolls. Some are actually nice guys that don't rage you out for making mistakes. And trolls eat up negative output and love instigating it almost as much. Altogether the combination of those 3 types of players is almost made for disaster. The playerbase is made up of a mixture of many age groups, but most are younger, so you get a lot of argument and immature behavior. This is honestly to be expected. This is a sport technically with no rules. Sure it has its punishments, but they can only be administered after the damage has already been done. This can't really be blamed on Riot. There is a limit to what coding can do and we simply don't have the capability to input a referee into our game, or if we did its certainly not being implemented. Jeezuz im too tired to put a TL;DR.
