I am not very active in the Team Fortress 2 competitive community, but I noticed this thread, and I'm glad that I did. This was very obviously a cry for help, from someone as many of you know and noted who had been a positive force in this community until nearly a decade of targeted harassment and bullying broke her down. Do you have any idea what this does to a person, especially when you isolate them and shove them off? So many people in this community have been supported through hardship; what does it say when you decide to show this kind of intense apathy and even hate towards someone? This kind of inclination towards harassment, vile toxicity, and weaponized apathy is breaking so many people in this community. So many people are eager to "support" victims when it furthers their own causes or beliefs, yet leave others ignored in the vacuum, encouraging this abuse to continue. We can do better.
I know it can be hard for people to do mental support for others. I know that we need to be concerned for the safety of everyone, not just one person. But this clinical approach towards mental health is NOT helpful and is either incredibly ignorant or outright malicious trolling. No one needs to be shoved off to professional help when they just need a friend. No one needs to get swatted when they have a breakdown. No one needs to get drama videos posted about them, constant harassment in messages, etc, endlessly. The disgusting levels of harassment, even in this thread, and the inability to keep your mouth shut when all that can drip out is toxic sludge are unacceptable. I mean, come on, what kind of degenerate posts "bring marshmallows" in response to something like this? What kind of ignorant asshole brings up completely irrelevant shit about their performance in a video game nearly a decade ago? You people are depraved and soulless. You should be ashamed. Truly, look inward. And the others in this thread who feel the need to "hope they get the help they deserve" but then post such sentiments with such extreme apathy and recklessness really should be reflecting on their strategy for helping people, if they're truly being earnest about it. A little bit of support goes a long way in this, I can't believe you think this is the correct way to treat someone with mental health issues.
Anyway, without knowing much about the situation and having little prior history with anyone involved, including RoL, I did reach out and contact her. She shared her side of the story, and I do hope and believe she can get through this. I genuinely want to support her to get the help she needs. I was asked to summarize it for her, so that she can focus on healing and healthier output. I can't verify everything, but from what I can tell, it seems like a classic story of harassment and isolation, a vicious cycle that ended up breaking her. She loves this game like all of you do, she loves playing, and banning her, even if justified at the very end, got rid of the last way she could keep connected. She needs a better support network who can be supportive and get her through this healthily. Here goes:
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Basically, over the years, RoL has been harassed and goaded into reacting and standing up for herself. She has been chased all over the Internet with harassment, faked videos, bullying at LAN, during pugs, etc. It went from maybe being some playful poking a decade ago to being genuinely concerning with the level of repeated and ceaseless toxicity thrown at her. She has been dealing with constant trauma and isolation from the TF2 community, as well as loss at home in her family. This is such a stressful time, and over time, she has been developing mental illness, which she is medicated for. However, through the medication, she has developed Parkinson's disease, which makes it that much more challenging to play her favorite game. It is very distressing for her. Despite that difficulty, prescribed medical marijuana proves to be useful in resolving the tremors and other symptoms of Parkinson's. Yet, with this newfound hope of being able to reconnect with the game, she was denied coming to LAN for using substances even though it was prescribed. She got punished for being transparent about her prescriptions, while others can just freely go to LAN, even recreationally using substances in private. The organizers then made up excuses for the ban regarding her responding to someone else's harassment. She essentially got thrown under the bus while her harassers roam mostly free, even being at the top levels of the scene. Her reports and cries for help all this time are all ignored and ridiculed. When she came after these people/organizers who wronged her and tried exposing all of this, she got banned from RGL. And now for a year or more she has been trying to find other ways to live her life healthily (and despite this, gets hounded by her harassers), and her mind only naturally drifts back to wanting to play and reconnect with the game, hoping that one day she will be free of this harassment.
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I know that with everything that's happened as well as these posts, that may make people feel uncomfortable to interact with her. And yes, it will take some time for RoL to heal to a point where she can come back stably. But please, I only ask, give her that chance. Be understanding, empathetic, hopeful and supportive. If you don't find yourself being able to do that for a fellow human being, I would suggest staying out of it and saying nothing at all. And if you find that you might have been involved in this dogpiling against her, a little grace and apologetic attitude can go a long way in this process.
EDIT: Please note that the above in "---" is a story from the perspective of RoL, and I haven't verified it. Some details may be missing, inaccurate, etc. Some posts below clarify information from other people's more general understanding.