While toxic players have plagued online multiplayer games since their inception, League of Legends has gained an infamous reputation for abrasive community members, like when a Twitch streamer was suspended after banning a LoL stream sniper. However, one dedicated fan has attempted to create a data-driven way to find out which players are the most problematic.
In a post to the League of Legends subreddit, Reddit user and fan Celianna posted the results to a player survey and explained how the results were obtained and analyzed. Although the report began with basic demographic data, comparing how many male and female players there were, it quickly delved into information about player location, various classes and reasons for playing the game.
When determining the toxicity of the player base, Celianna found that 98% of players reported that they had been harassed in-game, while 79% reported that they had also been flamed after a game had ended. However, the player was also able to determine which class of players was the most toxic. By assigning specific point totals to toxic behaviors, like flaming or allowing teammates to die on purpose, and asking players whether they engaged in such behaviors, Celianna then grouped the players by class and added up their point totals. While 174 total points could be achieved by doing every behavior listed, any players that got 86 points or above were labelled as "Extremely Toxic." In the final report, the Slayer classes were labelled as 26% "extremely toxic," and one of the largest contributors to League of Legends' toxic culture.
Although some Reddit commenters accused Celianna of cherry-picking data to reach some of the survey's conclusions, the survey creator's explanations and analysis appear to be sound, and to come from an attempt to be neutral. Celianna could have easily asked players who they thought was the most toxic player group. But she instead attempted to define toxicity with consistent mathematical criteria and judged every player through this system. While Celianna also admitted that there could be some mathematical errors in certain parts of the survey, the errors should not warrant any accusations or harsh backlash from League of Legends fans. After all, the author also pointed out that throughout the report, she did her best to include any extra data that did not fit her conclusions.
Despite any mathematical errors, Celianna's report is still an impressively detailed feat. Like when the Riot Games Twitch channel became the first to hit 1 billion views, the large number of participants and the amount of data that was drawn from the survey are proof of how massive the LoL community truly is.
With the Pro League still ongoing and more new skins and events to come, both toxic and regular players alike have a lot to look forward to in 2020. It's no wonder that League is still one of the biggest eSports games in existence.
League of Legends is available on PC.
Source: Celianna/Imgur