Why are so many people toxic only when they play bad?

When we win, there's usually a high spirit of camaraderie. When we lose, it doesn't who did what, someone will typically find one thing in particular they dislike about someone else and rant off that for the entire game.

I just had a player go on for 15 minutes about placing one control ward in a place he didn't like.

What made him start the heavy language and insults? It wasn't the pink ward. That was his scapegoat. It was him getting caught out by a Thresh hook in lane after he went back to get more CS. His own poor playing resulted in him getting mad, but as many players do, he decided to throw it all on another player to make himself feel better.

And two days ago, I was 0-0-4 as support in lane. Everything was going fine. My ad was up in cs, I was zoning properly, and I thought it would be a good game. But then comes a direct hit with a Blitz hook on the ad, he dies instantly, and all of the sudden I become the target of non stop flaming for a solid 5 minutes.

If you truly want a game without toxicity, you shouldn't rely on playing perfectly and being an amazing teammate. Your only hope is if EVERYONE ELSE plays perfectly. As soon as a toxic player does something wrong, they'll search far and wide for any spec of dust to point at and scream profanities at.

The sad part is I assume most of these players are actually sincerely nice in the real world. Something in a competitive player's mind just goes numb during a game, and I assume this is due to an underdeveloped superego in some people. If only people had the ability to control themselves. Sadly, this is not the case, and never will be. Hence, there will always be toxicity in competitive gaming. No policy, game changing update, or fantastic positive attitudes will change that. And it saddens me.