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Since the inception of esports, players and organizers have fallen victim to tilting behavior and BM (bad manners) in important moments, and Valorant is no exception to that.
From harmless taunts using chat-wheel lines to blatantly teabagging an enemy’s in-game carcass, tilting behavior or BM has been seen even by veterans of esports.
While some believe that tilting behavior and BM are acts of disrespect, others think that these are simply a part of the game, which can even be used as a tactic to unsettle the opponent. A similar incident was witnessed recently during the European Valorant Champions Tour where team G2, even though told not to, teabagged dead opponents in a competitive match.
Toxicity in Valorant
When it comes to online games, at one point or the other, one is bound to run into a situation where they face toxicity in various forms. Irrespective of genre, toxicity has always been a factor in online games, especially competitive ones.
Ranging from trolls hurling verbal abuse using the in-game communication system to an opponent trying to tilt the player using techniques such as teabagging and chat-wheel spamming, toxic behavior can be outright game-ruining for many players.
Valorant being the newest addition to the competitive genre with a huge esports community backing, toxicity has so far been unavoidable despite the dedicated attempts from the developers.
Even in the past, when Valorant faced toxicity, Riot talked about changing the punishment system to deal with toxic players. But at the end of the day, it’s a person’s character, and nothing Riot could do after some extent.
With the increasing number of teabaggers and players shooting at enemy corpses just to vent their frustration or to exert superiority, Riot looked to the professional players for fair play, hoping it would change such player’s perspectives towards the game.
Team G2’s toxic behavior in VCT EU
In a professional match between Team G2 and DfuseTeam during the Valorant Champions Tour EU, a similar form of toxicity was shown by G2’s Patryk ‘paTiTek’ Fabrowski. Right before the match started, a lobby admin posted a message regarding fair play and asked the players not to show any form of toxicity and especially not to teabag or shoot corpses.
However, the warning turned into a meme for their team at just a moment’s notice when the founder of G2 Carlos ‘Ocelote’ Rodríguez told the whole team to go berserk and show toxicity in the form of having fun. G2, having secured a 9-0 lead in the first map, started to teabag their opponents even though they were explicitly told not to.
Impact on community
Innocent players and those who work hard to keep the game as friendly as possible have always been the prime victims of Valorant's toxicity. But such an incident coming from professional players is less than desirable, given that it is a competitive title with international exposure. While some are against such a shameful act, others think Riot should not intervene with matters of individualism in this.
Until Riot implements any official rule, there will never be an end to such things, even in professional tournaments. Considering the fact that there is no official rule or protocol against teabagging in Valorant, even professional players sometimes have the urge to have some in-game fun.
