Toxicity in Valorant is a popular and always debatable topic between devs and players. In this article, we will talk about the reasons of toxicity, its roots, and how Riot deals with it.
What is Toxicity in Valorant?
Toxicity is a broad term used quite often in the gaming world. It usually describes a person that gets certain feelings after a particular event that caused him to either use voice or text chat to negatively address the issue or grief in the game. It's rare to see a player not complain about toxicity and tiltness and it's an issue that's extremely hard to solve from a developer's side.
The way toxicity is manifested in our everyday gaming is usually represented with insults that are quite harsh and could hit your feelings. The other way people act in a toxic way is by intentionally griefing their teammates by either harming them with abilities, not taking the game seriously, or just staying AFK and not playing the game at all. It's good that Valorant has a mute button and their report system is actually good, which is a positive side to this issue, but we will talk about this later.
Reasons For Toxicity In Valorant
Doubting Female Players
Compared to a lot of other games Valorant has a quite decent percentage of female players. Even though most of the competitive players, if not all are males, females are as well pretty successful at games. People mistake the reasoning behind the deficit of female players in the pro scene with their ability to be good at the games and ignore the actual reason which is their low player base. Gaming has not yet matured enough to have mix gender tournaments and hence why this topic is such a vulnerable one.
i love valorant sm, but i frequently feel like my life would be better off playing it less. opening myself up to 4 other people's toxicity & sexism every single game is simply exhausting.
— imane (@imane) November 14, 2021
The everyday toxicity that female players have once they open their mic or just have a girly nickname is rampant and very shameful for the gaming community as a whole. We've all watched streams and experience games where females are instantly targeted with sexist insults regardless of their gameplay, and we believe this issue is not just a Valorant issue as it's in the whole gaming universe but is very present in our beloved game.
Talking about female players, be sure to check Kyedae Valorant Settings & Hardware, as she has some pretty nice setup you might want to steal.
Smurfing & Boosting
First game on valorant in a week a cheater detected screen pops up next game a throwing Smurf I hate valorant
— StepSisAbbie (@AbbieSimps_) September 17, 2022
Yet another issue that affects any competitive-like game that is similar to Valorant. Smurfing and boosting are inevitable elements of every popular game since there will almost always have a supply and demand for these services, thus it creates a market that will attract both sides. If you wanna learn more about Smurfing in Valorant be sure to check our Smurfing in Valorant Explained where the term is explained in detail.
Experiencing a player far better than your or any skill bracket is a very tilting situation to have. From the moment you understand that the enemy or even ally is a smurf you can predict how the game will end up, thus your gaming experience and enjoyment will suffer drastically.
Instalocking Agents
This problem has been debatable as if it's toxic or not, but regardless it does cause tensions in the game once it occurs. We won't go much into detail as we are preparing a separate article which will explain instalocking and whether it's toxic or not. Since this is a popular issue nowadays we will temporarily put it as one of the reasons for toxicity in Valorant.
To cut it short, instalocking basically means picking a certain agent immediately once the game starts. This causes toxic eruptions since picking an agent instantly prevents the others from picking, and for example, if a Sage main can't pick his Agent he will be quite sad.
Ego
how fragile does ur ego gotta be to throw a valorant game when there's a girl on ur team
— GHOST soph (@super_sophia11) September 20, 2022
Football fans will understand this issue quite well, as Ego is a very bad trait to have as a human being and harms anyone around them. Ego in Valorant manifested in a lot of ways and usually produces toxicity once a person's Ego gets hurt and he has to validate himself by insulting or just not playing the game. As Valorant is a super exciting but also competitive game, a person with a bad Ego will not take a bad game of his easily and will thus ruin the gaming experience for anyone else in the game.
The Big Question: Is Valorant Toxic?
We've explained a bit about what can be connected with toxicity, how it happens, and what it does in the gaming world. The point of this article was to explain if Valorant was toxic. The answer is quite simple, NO! The game itself is super fun, and very carefully as its intention is only to cause joy and satisfaction to its players. The toxicity comes only from certain parts of its player base and it usually brings history with it.
QUICK TIP! Dont stand in a corner with a toxic player nearby, this is what happens @PlayVALORANT TOXIC VALORANT.mp4 pic.twitter.com/wbKuidkDFQ
— alchemmi (@alcheMMiace) September 15, 2022
Valorant's player base is mixed with players coming from a variety of games. The most notable ones are Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Overwatch, and League of Legends. These are not new games, and we could say that the roots of this toxic issue might have started there. When you mix all of this together you can only imagine what the final result will be.
Riot's report system usually proves to be quite successful and those toxic in the game get their punishment quite fast. Always remember to report anyone that does anything toxic in the game as that is the only way to get rid of them and make the player base less and less toxic as time passes. To motivate you, we will provide a picture of what happens to people that are toxic in the games and can't control their emotions!
That is all for this wholesome and non-toxic article explaining how beautiful of a game Valorant is for all of us! We truly hope you enjoyed and you are seeking more good quality content like this, check our Valorfeed Guides Section where we have a special guide coming about How To Avoid Tilting In Valorant