4Game

That in itself is toxic behaviour.

Doesn't matter if you've had a stroke of bad luck for 2 weeks with internet dropouts. Even though you fixed the problem now, Valve is going to mentally abuse you.

Doesn't matter if you've been a genuine toxic scumbag but have decided to be a better person and clean up your act. Valve is going to mentally abuse you.

You see, Valve is lazy as well as toxic. Doesn't matter which of the above you were guilty of, Valve will put you in the same shadow pool together. Well… you fucked up right? There has to be some sorta punishment right? Even if that punishment does not fit the crime?

So you're still determined to clean up your act and become a good citizen. Ok… well now Valve is going to match you against 5 incredibly good Dota opponents every single game for 100 games.

On top of that, they're going to give you 1 team mate like yourself (somebody looking for redemption) + 3 other team mates who will do everything in their power to make you lose those 100 games.

Those 3 toxic team mates will swear at you, feed intentionally, AFK jungle and then they're going to report you even if you don't react to them. They will TP you into the enemy fountain. They will astral imprison you around 4 enemies so you can't retreat. They will cast Winter's curse on the enemy carry that you just Chrono'd. You get the picture. Anything to tilt and frustrate you and make you lose.

Do you really think this is a good way to make people be more chill and cool to each other? Or is it a failed concept that encourages more toxicity?

Me and my classmate found this to be the case after creating a couple of new dota accounts for a psych study. We collated our data and findings over a period of 2 months queuing for non-ranked AP. For the first month my friend concentrated on swearing and insulting people via text and mic, while I concentrated on dropping and abandoning matches once every few games or so. The second month was spent (by both of us) trying to do a 180 and redeem our behavior scores. The aforementioned outcomes above are what happened when we tried to become 'good citizens.' During the second month all we did was stay silent and try to win our games. But for some reason, the guys at Valve who implemented the BS system don't seem to want people to rehabilitate. It's more like they want to frustrate and enrage players instead. Maybe so they quit the game altogether? Either way, it's not a very positive method of conditioning.