With Toxicity On The Rise, Can Overwatch League Help Kill It?

Toxicity in video games is nothing new. It seems every day there’s some new controversy, spitting vitriol and hate throughout social media. For years, people have clamored for some sort of policing on these actions, but the major players in the social media world seem to be reluctant to do so.

Let’s start with the DrDisRespect situation currently playing out. Dr. DisRespect treats streaming the same way a “shock jock” would, with an over-the-top character and persona that includes a pair of sunglasses and thick moustache. But, he’s just a character, right?

Dr. DisRespect won the Trending Gamer award at the 2017 Game Awards last December, beating out multiple qualified contenders. Shortly after, Guy “DrDisRespect” Beahm removed himself from his Twitch channel temporarily, citing the need to re-evaluate his life after admitting he cheated on his wife live during a streaming session. His return earlier this month garnered 388,000 concurrent viewers, and within a week of being back he was accused of being a racist after using an ethnic accent, an accusation he called “laughable.”

This situation is actually pretty tame compared to some of the other horror stories that can be found online. However, Twitch’s inability to police this guy, touting his massive viewership upon his return instead, is the kind of disconnect that allows the toxic environment plaguing all video games to foster and grow. YouTube comments on game-related videos are notorious for their content, containing slurs and remarks that would make a sailor blush, but rarely is anything done about them. Facebook and Twitter is another whole can of worms, riddled with persistent, toxic peregrination.

There’s a new name on the scene, however, that finds itself in a much stronger position to police this sort of behavior: the Overwatch League. This is currently one of the mainstream leagues that the esports scene has to become closer to being “on par” with American sports powerhouses like the National Football League and Major League Baseball. If this league is to reach those heights, the toxic environment cultivated by the internet and multiplayer games cannot be able to permeate the league.

The Overwatch League suspension of the Dallas Fuel’s Felix “xQc” Lengyel is a perfect example: after xQc livestreamed an expletive-laden rant targeting other players in the league, the OWL was quick to suspend him for the remainder of the First Stage and a $2000 fine. While this isn’t ideal for xQc or whichever of his fans supported his actions, this is exactly what OWL needs to be doing.

We wouldn’t be against full-on suggesting that OWL should treat every instance like xQc’s situation with zero tolerance. If a player is found to be making inappropriate comments targeting a certain group of people, or any toxic behavior, he or she should immediately be punished. Fines, suspensions, expulsions from the league in the most severe cases, all of that should be on the table and deployed at a moment’s notice.

That sounds harsh, and it is, but there’s more at stake here than just Overwatch League’s success. This is about video games, esports,  community, and competitive gaming as a whole. Think about this hypothetical scenario:

• The Overwatch League has the public eye on them, thus the need to squash toxicity with an iron fist, leaving no acts unpunished. Their image is at stake, after all.
• Fans of the league (and Overwatch itself) lash out at first, but eventually these punishments start to deter players throughout the entire Overwatch community from their behavior.
• Those players branch out to other communities, bringing this new “hey, maybe being this way isn’t the best idea” attitude with them.
• Toxicity as a whole may start to wane if other scenes also adopt that original model of zero tolerance. Then respect and sportsmanship throughout various arenas can more easily replace the awful behavior that exists now.

This is obviously a pie-in-the-sky idea, sure, but the Overwatch League is in a position where they could have a lasting influence on the young, impressionable fans that tune in every week. They would be a rare breed: an organization that just doesn’t talk about how bad toxic behavior is for gaming, it acts swiftly and without remorse. The NFL can’t say that, nor can the MLB, the NBA, or any other sports league out there.

The Overwatch League is more than just a top-level sports competition, it is the dress rehearsal for esports on the grand stage of the public eye. With some strict policing and encouragement of good sportsmanship, this league could blaze a trail for all of competitive video gaming. If not, then the same issues that plague social media, YouTube, and Twitch will be the hook that pulls it from the limelight.