Voyboy speaks out about toxicity in League of Legends

Last night, one of League of Legends‘ oldest personalities had some strong words about his favorite game. Joedat “Voyboy” Esfahani released a video that quickly went viral on YouTube and Reddit about toxicity in ranked Solo Queue.

Voyboy has been playing League of Legends since the very beginning, playing professionally for Dignitas, CLG, and Curse until he retired before the start of Season 5. He began streaming after his departure from the LCS and continues to stream now.

The player was originally notorious for his top-lane Akali play but has since played as a mid-laner and experimented with many different champions over the years. He is also known for his fun, polite, and positive attitude towards the game, making his pointed thoughts about League a surprise.

What’s wrong with Solo Queue?

Voyboy states in the video that the state of toxicity in Solo Queue is worse than it has ever been. He discusses multiple experiences he has had personally recently where players are intentionally griefing him while he is streaming. He then discusses how he gave Riot a visit two years ago to address the problem. Voyboy allegedly told them that if they didn’t act, it would continue getting worse. Riot did nothing, and it appears the problem has indeed gotten worse.

Voyboy presents a solution

Fixing toxicity in gaming is difficult for anyone. It doesn’t matter if it’s League of Legends, Overwatch, Counter-Strike, or even Valorant (which is still in beta), players in each community recognize the toxicity within their games, and each company has a different approach.

The issue, as Voyboy sees it, is that Riot isn’t coming down hard enough on griefers. Their punishment system only recognizes bigoted or vulgar terms, so players know that they can get away with being toxic as long as they don’t use this kind of language.

Voyboy is calling for League of Legends fans to let Riot Games know that they aren’t happy with the state of Solo Queue. He wants the message to be loud and clear that Riot needs to take a stand against toxicity to ensure a fun and fair gameplay environment for players. Given the initial response to the video, a lot of people seem to agree.