Team Spirit Psychologist Explains the Benefits of Swearing and Emotional Outbursts During Gameplay

Not everyone objects to ‘toxic’ behavior in communication.

A follow-up to the Team Spirit documentary was recently published on the YouTube channel “VPISKA LIVE.”

The team’s psychologist, Alexander “Nokeepeesh” Kuznetsov, was asked whether he had to “work with donk’s excessive emotionality.”

He observed that the player’s emotional outbursts rarely produced harmful consequences; if anything, they often had the opposite effect — in that state he tended to perform well:

“…quite superficial, I would say. In my view, his emotionality seldom leads to negative in-game outcomes. Yes, he can trigger a teammate or draw attention to himself, and he might even receive a warning from officials for shouting obscenities at the opposing team.

But from a pure gameplay perspective, when he reacts vividly and emotionally to something — that’s usually beneficial. It’s an asset. It’s worse when he goes quiet and withdraws. Sometimes he shuts down and becomes the ‘angry donk,’ the one who’s like ‘I’ll destroy you now.’ Other times he’s the ‘sad donk’ — quiet, uncommunicative, not really playing. [This typically coincides with a dip in his performance].”

Source: iXBT.games