Interacting with toxicity in games like Valorant is never easy, and it’s especially difficult when you’re in the public eye like Twitch star Imane ‘Pokimane’ Anys. What matters is how you deal with it.
Like any other competitive FPS, or game for that matter, Valorant can be shocked full of toxicity. Whether it’s your Jett failing to correctly use her dash, or your team deciding to choke a five versus one, more often than not you’ll be met with not so very kind words.
This is more apparent with female players and for someone like Pokimane, who has such a huge presence in the gaming space due to her streams and content creation, it can be very difficult to deal with.
She found a way to circumvent that.
Pokimane’s response to toxic Valorant player
During her stream on December 10, Pokimane was playing competitive Valorant. In the match’s 15th round, she was left as the sole survivor in a one-versus-three situation in which she ultimately fell. This prompted one of her teammates to comment “you are so scared to play the game.” Not wanting to respond, she just talked to her stream explaining her reasoning for doing playing the round the way she did.
Those first words weren’t her teammate’s last as he proceeded with, “This game’s a little too scary for you, go play Minecraft — it’s a little less scary. But I don’t know the creepers might scare ya too.”
Pokimane didn’t respond and instead chose to take a deep breath in order to stop herself from saying anything. Instead, she once again spoke to herself and said “Don’t do it, girl don’t do it,” going on to once again comment on her play.
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The teammate wouldn’t let up with his remarks, not just referring to Pokimane but the other players as well going into the next round.
Unfortunately for him, he would be the first one to be picked off allowing for the streamer to find a way to retaliate to his words by teabagging his body.
At the end of the day, dealing with toxicity is difficult to deal with, no matter how much of it there is.
That’s why sometimes a response such as Pokimane’s is all you need to help you finish the match.
