First off, can I point out how absurd it is that this post relies super-heavily on the viewpoint of three Challenger players? They don't represent the playerbase at large, and if they're giving their opinion in an interview, they're going to be subjective, so...Why hinge an entire point on the subjective opinions of three of the top-tier players speaking on the matter of toxicity?
...and the ones who DO care and get mad about losing, are labeled Toxic.
Funny, I care about winning, and I get pretty bent about losing, but I've yet to be labeled as toxic.
Or...Could it be your statement isn't wholly accurate? Let's rephrase it for a sec.
...and the ones who care too much and get mad about losing, and put their rage into chat, are labeled Toxic.
See, this statement is way more accurate. You can care about winning and get mad about losing without being toxic - you become toxic when you take that care and anger and put it into chat to start railing against your teammates.
NA needs to get off this "everything is toxic" bullshit and stop banning or suspending people who are TRYING to win.
Oooooor...And, here me out for a second here, this is gonna sound absolutely fuckin' bonkers, but - maybe toxic people need to wean themselves off the excuse that their toxicity stems from "trying to win" and accept that they're just taking shit too far?
Because if you're trying to win, you wouldn't be toxic. Extra Credits did an episode about toxicity quite a while ago, and Dan (and by extension, their writer, James) had a pretty fuckin' good line or two in it.
You'll notice really good players don't tend to trash talk. They don't throw out racial epithets. They don't demean people, they don't insult people, they just win.
...And he's(James) noticing a few trends. In games where people started blaming each other, it's almost never the really good players who are throwing around blame. It's almost always the people who are flailing.
And when you think about it, this makes perfect sense. If you played a great game, but ended up losing, at least you can say to yourself, "Well, at least I did awesome." but if you play poorly and took everybody down with you, it's very natural to look for something other than yourself to blame.
While the first quote primarily focuses on people trash talking their opponent as a tilt tactic, I'd argue that it applies to flaming in general, as they later remark that the majority of players who play the blame game may more than likely be the ones at fault.
If you were really trying to win, you wouldn't need to flame your teammates, blame them for losses, or be toxic in general. You'd be either winning or losing by your own merit. Wanting to win is no excuse for toxicity.
