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Sportsmanship is crucial in any game. Some players have noticed a rising trend of bullying and even threats in Valorant. In-game anonymity allows some people to let out the worst parts of themselves. Fans remind everyone that being horrible isn’t something anyone should be proud of.
Bullying Shouldn’t Be a Part of Any Game
The Redditor who started this entire movement, Albake21, shared their unfortunate experiences. This player returned to the game after a couple of years of not playing. They said: “I was truly horrified by this community. I received multiple death threats, throwing in unrated, s**t-talking for being new to the game. Also, I don’t even use my mic, nor even text chat unless someone is directly talking to me or to quickly say if someone is lit, but I can’t believe how toxic people were to me. I mostly only played Swfitplay, a couple of unrated, and two ranked games. Never again will I play ranked. I don’t want to be stuck with such miserable people”.
Another player, ohdearyyy, testified: “The community is awful. I’ve played the game for over 2 years now and have been met with some sort of toxicity that’s outside normal game banter/shit talk. Had games thrown just because I’m a woman, been yelled at for making the smallest mistake, been threatened with death/r*pe or some sort of harassment”. Reading comments like these made us question humanity.
Thankfully, there are still nice people out there. In the sea of supportive comments, several fans offered advice on how to avoid toxic players and still enjoy the game. Lazysnail00 said: “I just mute the jerks and trolls the moment they reveal themselves and report them later. With how responsive Riot is, those idiots get banned within hours and I get a nice little notification saying so”.
Another fan, irrafoxy, agreed. They said: “I will mute and report ANY toxic chat from enemies or teammates. I don’t have time to babysit man-babies. I love getting the message when I log back on that action was taken against their accounts”.
Some Fans Are Luckier Than the Others
Other players suggested that the OP was just unlucky. LordYamz stated: “Hate to break it to you, bro, but every FPS community is cancer these days. Just depends on who u match with that day TBH”. LadderTrash confirmed: “I think somehow I’m just extremely lucky? Yeah I’ve had toxic players but in my solo queue games it’s few and far between somehow. Like I’d say less than 1 in 30 games”.
RealMustang gave some great advice. They said: “Play with people from Discord servers. Trust me. Find a good one”. Several players, including radicalminusone, chirped in with an invite. This fan said: “I help moderate a discord server of mostly over 25-year-olds who play Valorant. We are pretty chill and play pretty consistently. Feel free to drop in”.
This is the kind of community that every player dreams of. The entire purpose of playing a game with others is cooperation and a sense of belonging. Valorant players uniting against bullying is incredibly heartwarming. The act itself shows that there is something to hope for. If you are dealing with bullies, reach out to your community, they will support you and offer you a place by their side.