In LoL and Dota 2, the Elo and MMR craze has always driven players to invest time and effort into the respective genres. This unfortunately results in a toxic environment for players. Like in most competitive sports, victories are always the priority, and we are emotionally invested in securing one.

On the surface, a rank is nothing more than a label with an underlying number. Yet players often get frustrated when this number decreases. More often, putting the blame on a fellow teammate – which is always the case, right?

I’m sure we’re all familiar with the eternal LoL vs Dota rivalry, and have probably heard a lot of discussions on the theme “which of the two is the better game or esports?”. Although we could argue that in the esports side of Dota 2 vs LoL, the prize pool of Dota 2’s The International series is enough to solely proclaim is Dota 2 community is better than LoL? Well, that wouldn’t be fair for the LoL fans, whose community certainly has a much larger player base, viewer count, and a more developed esports scene as a whole.

Yet, we’re here to tackle a different question: Which of the two games has a more toxic community?

Toxicity in LoL

League of Legends undoubtedly has its fair share of toxic players. This ranges from the usual trollers, typing ragers, and intentional feeders, to the more sophisticated Tyler1 and L9 pro-player wannabe types, who rage for the show.

While League has an extremely toxic community, the level of toxicity varies throughout the world as some regions may be much more toxic than others. Not only this, but each region has a dominant type of toxic player.

Take North America for instance, whose stereotypical toxic players are commonly those who surrender ten minutes into the match. Quick quitters are present everywhere, but when a player in NA decides he’s done with the match, he really is done. A large number of “inting” clips on Reddit usually feature popular North American streamers. However, the region isn’t that toxic overall. Reddit users are largely from NA, so it’s no surprise that most videos calling out toxic players in hopes of getting them banned come from the region.

Then, there’s Korea, which is widely regarded as the strongest region in LoL, consistently producing the highest level of competitive talents such as Faker, Canyon, and Peanut. Yet, the region is infamously known for its abundance of “inters” and players stream-sniping pros and mess up their games. Apparently, there are people willing to pay to make certain players lose games. If you’re a good enough player to play at the top of the ranked ladder, you might be making a living by doing so in certain games. All of this is theoretically illegal, but there are no ways to actively punish them.

Many pros, including Faker, have been actively asking for harsher penalties for griefers, and Riot Korea has been more severe in recent times, especially when it comes to the highest parts of the solo queue ladder. Unfortunately, toxicity is present across all levels of ranked play and most do not hesitate to throw or AFK in games the instant they think it’s a loss.

Things like that also happen in the Chinese regions as well, although it’s technically easier to filter out the toxic players. This is because the region has many different servers, as well as the super server, which puts all the strongest players from the other “normal” servers and reunites them into one single space. Considering the popularity of the game and how active pros and esports enthusiasts are, negative behavior can be quickly condemned and punished.

Now, let’s move to what we think is the most toxic region in the world: EUROPE!

Europe has always been a notorious region for flamers year after year. Not only is the European server filled with volatile flamers, but the competitive scene also has trash talks and bad blood among pros, and no, it’s not always friendly banter. Toxicity in Europe is dominated by anger-fueled-keyboard-warriors who can insult both the enemy team and their own teammates.

This isn’t that severe in a stranger-filled match, and thankfully, we have the mute player feature to solve this. Moreover, Riot Games have added new features with the hopes of further reducing toxicity, by giving all players the ability to mute chat, pings, and emotes to all players. While that does partially fix the problem, it has also increased the risk of having players looking to deliberately troll games from a gameplay perspective as their only way to vent in case things go south.

If we were to choose a special type of toxic region, the reward would go to Oceania. The folk down below have their fair share of toxic players during the day and night. One would think longer queues and low player numbers make everyone not want to waste time waiting around, but you’d be wrong. You will find yourself playing plenty of matches where at least three players are heavily inting and make it their mission to ruin your day. During the night, “smurfs” from China and Korea come over to hard flex and flame you as well. It’s just a well-rounded circle of abuse.

Read more: Does LoL use Vanguard?

Toxicity in Dota 2

Toxicity in Dota is a very nuanced topic, but for a start, just read these game reviews from Steam:

My Blood pressure before playing: 110/70. My blood pressure after playing: 200/95. The salt is real. Recommended.”

– tastemyspear –

 

“If you are worried your children are doing drugs, show them this game. They will be too busy fulfilling their innermost masochistic desires while hopelessly right clicking that they will not have the time for drugs or friends or anything else really.”

– samwisethebravelotr –

 

11/10 game (including updates). 1/10 community (including myself). Quit playing. Try to be a better person.”

– Alk_ –

 

Horrible experience and teammates yet I keep getting back into the game once a week. +taught me many languages like Russian +always mid or feed +always shout at your teammates if they aren’t doing a good job.”

– Demonic Odd –

 

Dota2 community is seriously the best I’ve ever seen for my entire life. They’re so concerned with us players to the point where they ask you are you blind, are you stupid? Never in my life have I seen someone who asked me such a thing, it touched my heart. They’re legit concerned if I’m blind and stupid, probably they want to take me to the hospital if I really am. They even suggest to delete the game as I’m playing it too much! Best!”

– Monika –

 

Dota 2, just like League of Legends, is a complex MOBA game played in a team vs team format. It also involves people emotionally, like watching Schindler’s List for the first time level of emotional reponse.

Which means you’re going to war (digitally of course) with your army of randomly selected teammates and hoping to win (you must, right?!). But, (surprise!) not everyone in this world is calm, patient, thoughtful, polite and emotionally stable. And that of course leads to certain misunderstandings (aka shouting matches), especially when the “game is hard”.

The thing that makes Dota 2 such a perfect flame simulator is its rich and versatile communications system.

Use team chat

This provides a more personal way to flame your own team even before the game begins. The most common reason is, of course the fact that someone picked the wrong hero for their selected role. Or perhaps someone wants to afk jungle for the entire early game. But even these pale in comparison to the bitter taste of watching your ally decide to end the game prematurely by feeding mid.

Say, their signature hero got countered because they didn’t bother analyzing the draft. Ain’t that the perfect seal of disapproval for the horrible and unfair things that happened during the hero selection phase?

Use global chat

Then, there’s the people on the other side, who you might as well be rude to as well, because why not. Have you just managed to get a lot of kills after the enemy team overextended or making a comeback? Spam the question-mark icon! Have you killed an opponent like Pudge after he killed you multiple times throughout the game? Unleash your pure hatred by telling him how you enjoyed being with his mom last night!

Or are you completely dominating your opponents? Tell them “tutorial completed” or a more cultured phase among Dota 2 players, “GG EZ”. Like it or not, these are more often than not, the tactical mind games that Dota 2 players pull, just to strike a nerve on both ally and enemy players for the emotional revenge. Otherwise, you just aren’t playing Dota 2 the right way!

Ping the hell out of them

Whenever you feel like someone is overlooking something crucial and don’t have the time to type in chat, you can always ping them like a madman. Make sure you’re disruptive enough to prevent them from actually focusing by pinging on top of their hero.

Go full Picasso on the minimap

Feeling artistic? Wonderful. Dota 2 allows you to visually bring out the worst in you; when the going gets tough, fill your teammates’ minimap with beautiful drawings. After all, Leonardo da Vinci’s latest discovered painting sold at an auction for half a billion dollars, so why not try your mouse at art too? You never know what masterpiece you come up with during your moments of rage. And maybe your creativity inspires your team and leads to an unexpected victory.

Use the chat wheel

In recent updates, Dota 2 offers predefined phrases that you can wisely misuse just to let your teammates know how you feel.

Did everyone on your team die after a stupid mistake? Spam “Well played!”.
Are your enemies in your base while everyone on your team is dead? Spam “Push now!” or “Nice”.
Are you constantly getting ganked and killed mid in the laning phase? Spam “Space created” or “Thanks!”.

Let your roamer feel like he’s actually the one losing the game. There’s even exclusive chat wheel voicelines that can get annoying at times, when spammed at the right situation. But hey, if there’s one way to improve your Dota 2 skills, it’s to learn from the pros. Team OG, the two-time International champion, has become synonymous with toxicity. Notably for their excessive use of chat wheels when things are going south for their opponents. Some wiser opponents have taken measures to mute them prior to match start.

Use your microphone

In Dota 2, using your microphone to flame is probably the best way to get your words across instantly. Use it wisely and respect its cooldown (I’d say a solid 120 seconds). Otherwise people will simply mute you. Also, try to think of the meanest thing that you can say in 5-10 seconds (brevity is key) and then deliver it with emotion, preferably while shouting.

That gets the best results and is a guaranteed way to make people hate you and really try their very best to lose the game, just because they have you in their team. You know, losing the game while getting revenge on someone who flamed you isn’t the same as losing. It almost gives people a certain satisfaction in a weird, twisted way.

These are some of the methods of spreading discomfort and toxicity around while playing Dota 2. However, people do say that actions speak louder than words, don’t they? So let’s get into some of the trolling techniques that are available to those who want to let it all out.

Feeding

Ah, the good old way of making sure the game will be over very quickly. Killing yourself over and over is no doubt the path to freedom (to start your next match), but it’s slightly inefficient, simply because of the low respawn duration in the early game (you’ll mostly want to do this from the very start of the match), which forces you to be active in order to prevent abandoning the game due to afk-ing.

Blocking jungle camps

This is a more sophisticated approach to trolling, often used by people who want to show their afk jungler that jungling is not a thing in Dota. The method is simple: you just buy all the wards and block your own camps at all times.

Leaching XP and taking farm away from your cores

When players want to show their teammates that stealing one’s preferred position doesn’t go unpunished, they often do this and lay the foundation of a slow, painful and memorable defeat.

Throwing

This is probably the most unethical trolling technique because it lures people into a false sense of security. You really do appear to try your best to win and act as if you have forgiven your teammates for whatever happened in the early phases of the game. But then (plot twist!), you show your true face, creating an unforgettable moment of betrayal.

In a lot of cases, the feeling of disgust simply makes people uninstall the game. Which is the whole point of it, right?

Is Dota 2 community better than LoL?

Hell no. Both communities employ exactly the same methods of abuse. Even the “catchphrases”, playstyle, and the wording are the same.

Should LoL implement voice chat?

Many people from the LoL community, including pros like Darshan, have been begging Riot Games to add the possibility to use voice chat with all the players within the game team, not just the same party. Darshan thinks the first step to improving toxicity is humanizing the experience. “Even when we are upset, when we understand clearly that the other player we are talking to is a human being and not just some pixels on a screen, we can be a lot more understanding in our response,” he added.

One Rioter named Honest Pillow, however, thought it wouldn’t solve all behavioral issues and it will definitely introduce some new ones, stating how it can be harmful to women and POC who might get unfairly targeted by simply participating in voice comms for example. In other words, while it may fix some problems, voice chat will guarantee a new level of toxicity and it will go from written-form harassment to voice one, potentially becoming even worse than it is already.

LoL vs Dota Communities: Final Remarks

The gist of the entire segment is that playing LoL nd Dota 2 can be a gruesome experience at times. Some optimists would say it shapes you as a better person in real life. While others believe that toxicity is controversial as it can often lead to real-life instances of players having depression.

Dota 2 vs LoL comparisons can be abundant and one can find differences in almost everything. Yet, when it comes to toxicity, these games are one and the same. After all, “best-case practices” from one game easily transfer to the other. And despite the repeated tries to reduce toxicity, that aspect of the game is always going to be present (unfortunately).

Regardless of your reasons to continue hurting yourself by playing League of Legends or Dota 2, let us know which one (Dota 2 or LoL) has the more toxic community in your opinion, and maybe share a personal experience that scarred your gaming life.