Full Disclaimer: I am not a professional psychologist who can predict the exact effects. Rather, I will draw upon personal experiences and readings to conclude common trends.

Esports, defined on the most trusted encyclopedia on the Internet, Wikipedia, is a form of sports where the primary aspects are facilitated by electronic systems. In eSports, there are generally separate teams competing to fight for some kind of common goal. Players have to coordinate with other teammates, make strategies based on analysis of the other team, control a character and execute precisely in situations where milliseconds make all the difference. But one of the most important aspects of eSports and any other team sport is communication. Some organizations pour thousands of dollars into creating facilities, dubbed “gaming houses”, in order to boost team chemistry because they understand that communication is vital in the execution and performances of their teams.

For the millions of other online gamers, communication still remains a key component in the success of a team. Generally, there are two kinds of players gamers commonly come across: the friendly player and the toxic player. The friendly player is an enjoyable teammate who supports the team and remains calm when the team is struggling. On the flip side of the coin the toxic player, simply stated, can be viewed as a someone who constantly creates a bad atmosphere and interferes with the overall gaming experience. For example, a toxic player may vent his or her anger towards a player if the player fails to execute correctly. He or she may use insults and profanity as a way to convey his or her disgust. Whether the person had planned on doing it beforehand in an attempt to “troll” other people or end up snapping and exploding in a fit of rage, a toxic player is detrimental to the entirety of the community.

On a superficial level, toxic players may be “trolling” because of their nature. They think its fun to ruin the experience of others. In most scenarios, this is the case which unfortunately has no easy solution. However, a deeper analysis exhumes the buried unconscious as a potential source. M.S Tartakovsky reveals that a toxic person is often “deeply wounded and for whatever reason, they are not yet able to take responsibility for their wounding, their feelings, their needs and their subsequent problems in life”. From a psychoanalytical perspective, the toxic player attempts to resolve these conflicts by projecting them onto others, which in this case are the other players in the game.

It is quite common to perceive that players perform better after constructive feedback after a mistake. After all, as humanists would suggest, it is in human nature to want to be accepted and loved. Teams that are positive towards one another generally have a higher rate of communication.Higher rates communication lead to a higher idea of responsibility. Consequently, higher communicating teams generally execute strategies and resist obstacles better than teams that have lower communication. Therefore, teams that have toxic players result in more internal conflict, less communication and worse performance.

Simple reasoning deduces that companies should just ban all the players exhibiting negative behavior resulting in a better experience for everyone. But this simply cannot be implemented effectively because of one fundamental flaw: everyone is angry at some point. Someone who has never been reported, may have had a bad day lowering his/her tolerance for acceptable behavior causing him/her to express disgust. Furthermore, the discrepancy between good-natured trash talk and the kind of vitriol that is worthy of punishment ultimately creates a rift and gray area. Unfortunately, there is no easy solution to eliminate all toxic players. Companies must utilize their resources to create a system for this system of negativity.