The word "toxic" is seriously being overused

I am ALL FOR punishing truly toxic people. I have been playing since season 1 and can tell you this game has gotten much more negative as far as its player-base and community go. The word "toxic" in this game was not always used. It was a term that developed after years of the game being released to refer to a player as "someone whose actions and/or communication in the game intentionally diminish the experience of other players within that game".

The important word in all that is intentionally. Why? Because the word "toxic" has gotten overused and bloated to the point where pretty much ANYTHING someone doesn't like on any level is considered toxic. You can gank someones lane and take one of their minions, and depending on the person, they may freak out and say you are toxic. Well let me tell you, that is not toxic friend. Toxic would be that same scenario, except they say "god you suck" and then proceed to take farm. They intentionally are trying to piss off one of their teammates which is evident by their verbal communication paired with their action.

There is a large difference as well between criticism, and toxicity. This is the biggest issue I see with people referring to something as toxic. This is a game, a competitive one at that. What comes along with anything you do in which you can get better at is criticism. You will NEVER GET BETTER AT ANYTHING if you are not willing to accept criticism for your actions. And criticism comes from other people AND YOURSELF. Being able to analyze and criticize your own mistakes is the largest part to getting better at something. Sometimes outside points of view can really put things in perspective to help you become a better player, in addition to criticizing yourself. And THIS is where the problem is with toxicity. Explaining a mistake or an issue with another players game play is NOT TOXIC for two reasons: One, they are not TRYING to piss you off. Two, they are not saying things remotely related to the game that have any capability to help the other player. Stop referring to this as toxic. If you are one of the types of people who cannot handle outside criticism, you need to just simply press mute.

There are many other reasons why I believe this is an overused term but this post is long enough already. In short, please stop spamming the term, and please stop spamming the report button. Really take a moment and think about what that player did and if it really negatively impacted you that bad.