The rising amount of toxicity in the higher ranks of League of Legends has been the center of attention for most content creators since Voyboy called out Riot Games for its lack of action to the subject earlier this month.
One League fan recently put together a video of a high-ranked player, Geranimo, being toxic toward his teammates. It also highlighted the level of toxicity in the higher levels of NA ranked games.
The video showcases instances of Geranimo rage-quitting and flaming or griefing his teammates, while also banning viewers who criticize him on Tyler1’s steam.
Geranimo is an affiliated streamer. Though his viewership numbers may seem below average for today’s standards, Geranimo was one of the top League streamers in 2014 when he was ranked Challenger. He’s also a notable Draven player.
“The video does show me acting like a complete tool,” Geranimo said on Twitter in response to the video. “Only thing I can really do is try my best to keep being better. Some clips are way out of context but it’s still me doing those things.”
Toxicity is an inevitable part of every online game. But Voyboy—one of the calmer League streamers—has reached his limit with toxic behavior in League, which should be a clear indication that it’s getting out of hand in Riot’s flagship title.
Carrying games in solo or duo queue becomes harder once players rise within the ranks and a certain level of team play becomes essential to keep on climbing. Toxic players can put a team at a numbers disadvantage and reduce the level of enjoyment players get from the game. Even if you aren’t on the receiving end, an easy win can be as boring as a meaningless loss due to a griefer.
In the past, there was a Rioter who kept toxicity in check but after a misstep, he was fired when he went all out against the infamous Tyler1 streamer. Going forward, Riot Games should invest more resources into controlling the toxicity levels in the game, otherwise more players will start dropping out in order to save their mental health.
While other games have come with multiple solutions to toxic players, the current solution in League of Legends is simple: mute and report and that doesn’t do much most of the time anyways. Riot should look to Valve on how they handled Dota 2’s toxicity because it seems to work and copying that working model could be great.
