We are all too familiar with the comment that Dota 2 has lots of toxic. Some even say that trash-talking is what makes the charm of Dota 2. They give the example that in traditional athletic contests and sports, trash-talking serves the target of intimidating or demoralizing the opponent. However, more than often it becomes hateful and personal, just like racial attack full of racism rather than just light intimidation.
Dota 2 Racism, Why It Happens
Endless trash-talking is pretty common things in Dota 2 these days. Like when the match turns bad for a team, then the scene we usually get to see that the members blame on each other. Then the heated arguments would turn into racial and personal attacks.
What is the reason? Very simple in fact. An attack on the personal level supposes to have more impact than an insult on game skills. But, the most effective is a radical offense because it attacks a person's cultural origin.
Hate Speech And Racist Comments From Pro Players
Racism has existed in the community of Dota 2 for a long time, but only recently it has become a big issue. It started when Skem ( Complexity player) wrote "gl CC" in a professional match after losing to a team from China. In fact, the c-word is a derogatory word against the Chinese and the other team felt insulted by Skem. Thus, Complexity got Skerm out of the team and also publicly apologized to the other team.
Not long after that, TNC's Kuku (a Filipino player) used that c-word again in a match. TNC has released a public apology, they also attempted to cover it up with many fake excuses. All were mess up so Valve jumped in and gave Kuku a ban from that tournament ( which back then took place in China). TNC and Valve gave Kuku several punishments include a close call from International 9.
The Stance of Valve
Recently, a Reddit user published a chat collection of professional players in public matches. From that post, we could see that many pro players have made racist comments.
So, profanity and racism are wild spread in the game. And from the latest statement of Valve, they confirmed that it is their responsibility to manage the attitudes of the users. But still, there is no defined policy from Valve yet.