Dear Community (Racism post 294)

Before I start, I want to acknowledge that I expect a lot of people in the community to respond to this with responses such as “Toughen up”, “Just ignore it”, “That’s what the mute button is for” ect. The post does discuss why it is not effective.

TL;DR: Stop being a Racist prick and learn about other cultures and you’ll learn more about yourself and your own views. There’s more to a game and people than ethnicity and nationality

So, a bit of about myself with regards to DOTA. I’m a low Guardian player currently at around 1k mmr on the Aus server, meaning this is where a lot of the in-game observations are based on. Like (I am assuming) most of the people on this subreddit, DOTA is my coping mechanism and escape from the real world especially with the current global situation. When it comes to the community, there are patterns that will be a part of the game until it dies such as Techies spammers, but there seems to be an agreement within the community that racism is a part of DOTA 2.

Every few weeks, there is a report of absolute distasteful comments out of rage and hatred based of the game, this is coming from a person who does consider themselves moderately ‘toxic’ due to natural bluntness and tendencies to at times lash out in game (I am improving). But why the consistent barrage of comments stating ‘covid this’ or another country being full of dogs? If you want to roast someone do it properly, make them look dumb and play it smart, there is an art to making someone look like a fool, insulting them for their birthplace and ethnicity only makes you look like a bigoted tool who doesn’t understand how to communicate and needs help with consistent dehumanization.

As for the comments such as “Toughen up”, “Just ignore it”, “That’s what the mute button is for” ect. There is only so much individuals can ignore. Majority of people have experienced bullying within their life, eventually it gets to people, no matter their age, gender, life experience, mental strength ect. It gets to you. As much as people say they ignore it, it lingers there. Look at the whole implementation of Sports Psychology for example, the smallest bit of doubt, hesitation or distraction within elite level performance can influence careers, home life and general happiness because these comments linger there. Time heals wounds but there is no healing needed if the right precautions are put into place for the injury to be mitigated, less time will be needed to heal said wound or injury.

Please look at yourself and think why you love DOTA. Is it winning? The enjoyment of having 5 people that don’t know each other from a bar of soap come together and spend 30+ mins trying to win a competitive game? Is it going Dark Seer Aghs-Radience-SE with Shard because it feels fun? Is it feeling strong by solo carrying as PA? Is it the self-improvement? Why?
No matter the answer, insulting and effectively being a dropkick makes no improvement to this. Even if it is for the banter, straight up racism is not quality banter, it kills it majorly and just creates an uncomfortable environment that just hurts the enjoyment for the community.
All I ask is for people to think about their actions and work on improving themselves.

Thank you