Thought I’d give a wee say in this whole discussion. Quick note, I skimmed through all the responses quite quickly, so if I’m saying things that have already been said, disregard them.
I usually play on 2fort US 1 & 2. From my experience with toxic players, I believe two people can clearly show two types of “toxic” players.
The first is a player named “trash”, who I usually see on 2fort US 1. This player is notorious for talking like a cunt to people, saying fuck you every time you kill him, baiting/taunting you on text chat when he kills you, all of those kinda minor “toxic” things. If you frequent that server and you’ve played/talked with trash, you’ll know this is his “bit” and that he’s just screwing with you, trying to get a rise out of you and being a shit disturber.
Some may argue the way he conducts himself is toxic and unacceptable, yet I disagree, because he’s made it quite blatant all of it is meaningless banter. Players like trash are ok because they use so called “toxicity” to joke around with their friends and other players.
The second player, by the name of “Krash!!”, couldn’t be more different. To start, this player comes off as friendly and don’t always display their toxicity to everyone. Anyone who talks to Krash (that he doesn’t hate) will find him pleasant, those who’ve known him for a while will usually engage in lengthy conversations, once again, being pleasant. While this seems all fine and dandy, things quickly change when someone “competent” joins the opposite team and proceeds to kill Krash a couple of times throughout their session.
The response from Krash is almost, if not always the same. He’ll get suspicious, start to call the player out, focusing them, and continue doing both of these until either he leaves, or the player leaves. One of my friends gets constantly harassed by Krash every time she plays on the server, being called a slew of names and insults, along with cheater obviously. Outside of skial, his actions towards these people have varied. He’s been seen trying to call people out for cheating on their profiles and steam statuses, constantly messaging admins to ban whoever he thinks is cheating, talking shit about them after they leave or when they aren’t on, etc.
I could go on for days, and possibly write a 6 page essay with a thesis statement about Krash and how players like him should have no place in the community. The point I’m trying to get across is that I strongly believe if a player is being constantly toxic, towards multiple people, and don’t seem too keen on stopping anytime soon, why should they be allowed to spew their garbage and ruin other peoples fun?
It’s simple, people like trash, who have no meaning behind their toxicity, should be left alone. People like Krash, should be warned, then muted for toxicity, for they add literally zero value to the community.
Anyways, there’s my “wee” say in this. Being a former admin and server manager preciously for another TF2 community, I thanked the heavens everyday when I was permitted to mute someone for “excessive toxicity”, and to my knowledge, so did others playing on the server.