Dealing with Griefers in Esports
Are you tired of encountering hackers and griefers in your games? Do they ruin your gaming experience and make you feel anxious about matchmaking? If so, you’re not alone. Griefing has become a major issue in the esports community, especially at lower skill levels. As a Gold Nova player, I have been experiencing an increasing number of griefers and hackers in my games. This week alone, I’ve had multiple games with griefers, and it’s time to address this problem.
Griefing has hit me hard. I’ve been in four games where I won only because the other team was griefing. On the other hand, I’ve also had games where my own teammates decided to mess around or derank. It’s frustrating when you make great plays and feel angry because of your team’s behavior. In my last game, there was a player who had very few kills and constantly trolled. This behavior infuriated me, and I started making fun of him. Admittedly, I wasn’t in the right either, but his reactions negatively impacted our team. Despite my efforts to contribute to the team, they were not performing well, which added to my frustration. This has become an all-too-common experience for me, and I’m sure many others can relate.
Dealing with griefers is a mental challenge. These individuals have difficulty controlling their behavior and often lash out at others. They fail to understand the purpose of competitive gaming and the impact of their actions on others. Think of a time when you were angry with your team. Remember how it affected your mood and gameplay. Griefers are like that, but they haven’t learned to cope with it. Some are simply trolls who don’t care about anyone else. When combined with players prone to anger, it creates a toxic environment that ruins the game for everyone.
Ignoring griefers in the hopes that they’ll stop doesn’t work. They seek reactions and often harm your games out of frustration or an inability to remain calm. To address this issue, we can either help them or punish them. Helping them means showing them the right way to behave rather than punishing them. This strategy has worked for me in the past when I used to rage. Someone would talk sense into me and make me realize the negative impact of my actions. While it didn’t completely change me, it had a temporary effect that made me feel guilty and more aware of my behavior. However, there are some players who can only be changed through isolation and consequences. They need to experience the negative effects of their actions and be shamed into changing. The effectiveness of each approach depends on the individual, leaving us at a crossroads.
In short, there’s no perfect solution to fixing this problem, but there is hope. We need more vocal players who are willing to communicate and support those who are feeling down or getting angry. We need to discourage toxic behavior and demonstrate that we take the game seriously. By doing these things, we increase the chances of the right person stepping in and helping troubled players at the right time.