How does toxicity change depending on rank in League of Legends?

Abstract: This thesis aims to investigate toxic remarks in three different ranks in League of Legends, Bronze, Gold, and Diamond. The purpose is to understand how toxic communication between players would change depending on rank. A framework from Neto, Alvino and Becker (2018) was adopted to define and count toxic remarks. The method relied on participant observation to gather data; three different ranks were specified for data collection. Fifteen games were played in each of the ranks; Bronze, Gold, and Diamond. Each game was recorded, transcribed and analyzed by dividing each toxic remark registered into Neto, Alvino and Becker’s predetermined categories. The study concluded that domain language is more often used by players with a higher rank, meaning that high ranked players tend to use toxicity that requires previous game knowledge to understand. On the contrary, low ranked players tend to stick to basic complaints and insults when using toxicity to remark teammates while playing.