Fifa superstar Donovan 'Tekkz' Hunt revealed that he has experienced 'a lot of toxicity in gaming' ahead of charity stream to promote positivity in gaming with Marcus Rashford and UNICEF.
The Fnatic Fifa pro rose to stardom at the age of 16, when he won the Fifa FUT Champions Cup and has since gone on to lift countless trophies and has established himself as one of the best Fifa players of all time.
However, despite the fame and victories, Tekkz admitted that he struggled with dealing with toxicity early on in his career and still receives numerous hate messages to this day.
He told us: "I've experienced a lot of toxicity in gaming ever since a young age, to be honest. Obviously, I'm quite good at Fifa so when I used to play online and beat people, I'd get quite a lot of hate messages.
"Depending on who you are, hate messages can get to you quite easily. If people say things like 'I hope someone in your family gets cancer', it can cause massive issues because you might be going through that or experiencing that in your life.
"I actually receive a lot more hate messages now because more people know who I am. For example, if I don't win a tournament people would tell me I'm bad or rubbish and stuff which doesn't really get to me now. It did get to me when I first started but it's better now.
"It's difficult because at times I was expected to win every tournament so even if I got to a semi-final or the final which is meant to be an achievement where I feel like I did well, people would still tell me I was bad. It's a case of not believing that I'm rubbish just because people tell me that because I know I'm good. It's hard to deal with the toxicity but I'm used to it now.
Tekkz isn't alone when it comes to dealing with toxicity in gaming. The anonymity which comes with social media and games with online modes means anyone can be a target of abuse but Tekkz has urged gamers to stop engaging in such behaviour.
He said: "If you're being toxic, please don't behave like that with people online where you have no idea what they're going through. They might be experiencing issues behind the scenes that you don't know about because you could say things that can get to them quite deeply if you start hating on them."
One of the ways Tekkz will be raising awareness for more positivity in gaming is through a charity stream hosted by Fnatic and UNICEF alongside Manchester United's Marcus Rashford.
He revealed: "Me and Marcus will be playing some games of Fifa on stream which I'm excited about. We're going to try and play some 2v1s and 2v2s so Marcus and I will be on the same team so we can play against some viewers. We'll also be donating some money to UNICEF.
"I'm a Liverpool fan and there have been many times where Marcus scored for United which I will never forget about. There was one game where he scored two goals for Liverpool and I still don't forgive him for it so hopefully I can get some anger out and whack him on Fifa!"
