I'm not sure who is in their circle, but someone really needs to get RoL some help. I think a lot of people have watched them post stuff leading up to this and just brushed it off, but they need legit help and support before this gets even worse.

Also forgot to mention this but please please PLEASE don't use this to harass or make fun of rainoflight. I don't think they need anymore mental stress.

Respectfully they really should be an inpatient at a psychiatric facility. Hope they get help

posts like RoL's I believe are in the criminal territory, I think they're passed just being put on a psychiatric hold if someone knows who they are/can contact their local sheriff's department. months of posting actual death threats, whether fueled by a mental health crisis or not, is serious enough that the authorities absolutely should be involved.

in some legal sense, that's a terroristic threat. Any threat of harm against another person, sarcastic or not, can be treated as a terroristic threat in a court and thus is at least a misdemeanor (depending on whichever state or territory rol resides in, actions like this are prosecuted on the state level).

i wish rol luck on his way to recovery and safety to everyone within this community.

A friend of mine in NA had was sent to mental institute when 13 for writing on Facebook about school shooting as a joke, so I think this one warrants police intervention.

Surprised to see as a long term b4nny sub myself, RoL was never like this in Twitch chat.

Is this caused by their real life situations or just gaming??

Why all the concern now? RoL had been showing signs of falling into a depression pit for years now. People brushed it off. Now that it has turned into serious threats, NOW we should be concerned? You should've been concerned BEFORE all of this transpired. This community loves to talk down to people and shit talk and then when the people they're constantly bullying turn into depressive messes (I am guilty of this too, I will admit), they suddenly care and want to help them? It's sick. I hope RoL gets the help they need but this needs to change. People can't be pushed to a brink so often.

Go ahead and downvote me. I will not be replying to this or anyone's replies. Go ahead and hate me.

while i agree with the sentiment that we aren't considerate enough to each other generally, there's nothing hypocritical about being more concerned when someone starts making threats of harm to themselves and others imo

This community has failed another person and I honestly cannot feel bad for anyone here. Collectively as a community RoL's emotional state has been a constant and continuous punching bag that was allowed to be toyed with by the worst actors within this community. The pleads for help were there and she was shunned, ignored, and berated heavily, you name it. Now when RoL's passed her boiling point, people throw around generic statements about "hoping that she gets the help she needs" and talking about the fucking legality of her statements instead of the real issue at heart here. This community has allowed a cyst of deplorability to fester and slowly eat at its long-term health while acting none the wiser. You can't just try to "thoughts & prayers" through this one because lives are now at stake.

Either smarten up and do what needs to be done, or allow this to happen and have another RoL pop up in the future. Adapt or die.

What can TF2 players possibly do to circumvent this? Let alone cause it

I don't understand what you mean by "what needs to be done" or by adapt. We can't stop extremely toxic and horrible people from saying things over the internet. RGL does ban the people who are that extremely toxic, but that doesn't stop them from continuing to say those things and to harass ROL in various ways. I don't know what the "real issue at heart" is supposed to be.

Obviously ROL needs help, but what is the community as a whole supposed to do to help, or even prevent this? Mental illness does not excuse threatening others with death. We are not babysitters, and most of us are not friends or even close to ROL in the first place. We already try to exclude people that are horrible toxic and not good for the community.

Most of what I have experienced and heard about regarding ROL's pleas for help, is that they are mostly about being banned from RGL. It could be possible I am completely mistaken but, that is my experience, and with that information I obviously chose to do nothing because what was I supposed to do?
99.9% of players in this community are not like ROL, and would not threaten RGL staff members because they got banned from RGL.

A sad reality of some mental illnesses is that they don't get better with time. Sometimes they become worse and become more difficult to treat. Someone who was coping well a few years ago may struggle more in the present. It can happen regardless of what a person's life situation is like.

I don't think ROL would have threatened RGL staff and b4nny if she never got banned from RGL, but that isn't an acceptable response to a situation she put herself by her own free will. I don't think RGL can do anything. The only community leader we have other than RGL is b4nny, and I don't think he is at fault for ROL's behavior. Is b4nny supposed to have done something to prevent/stop ROL from snapping like this?

I don't think the response to ROL's posts/threats is to unban her because she will kill herself. That is very self-explanatory I hope.

Ultimately all we can do is hope she gets treatment that can help her, and for those who are actually close to ROL to support her. I don't think our community can help her by bending the rules and putting others in possible danger.

*edit - I removed parts that said ROL threatened b4nny. I don't think ROL has ever threatened b4nny with any violence. She was banned from RGL for supposedly threatening to harm RGL staff, but I have no evidence for what threatened means, and the specific staff may have actually had a vendetta against ROL. I am sorry for that.

i fully agree with you, ultimately you can't do much except trying to let people in their circle know about the fact that this is happening and wish they could do something about this
this person clearly does not see any problem in what is happening and they need some close person like friends or family to make them realize that their behaviour is a problem in a nicer way than i just put it here and lead them to a professional who could deal with the problem because i am pretty sure with all respect but tftv or tf2 communities is like one of the last places of all you should seek for help simply because most of us don't know how to help

seems like typical all bark no bite attention seeking behavior to me but just in case

1) https://tips.fbi.gov/
2) report tweet
3) inform lan organizers
4) continue giving this person 0 attention

if all else fails bring marshmallows

yooo new thread creating public drama about a schizophrenic person just dropped

rol is already (deservedly) banned from every tf2 site and event and has been for a while. these posts are very likely (often demonstrably) attention seeking. no one trying to help via online has been met with anything but aggression and threats. dont know what else u want out of the thread

probably sending her to federal prison is also not the solution

where did rol threaten to shoot anyone but themselves? the FBI is concerned with terrorist threats, ie. threats of violence against a civilian populace to coerce for some sort of ideology. i see someone desperate and alone lashing out (in a way i obviously don't condone). It's the same reason the average school shooters is explicitly not defined as a domestic terrorist.

the fact that people wanna use rol to jump in and say extreme shit they don't understand for upfrags (like what the fuck does the phrase "in some legal sense" even mean???) or even completely useless things like 'thoughts and prayer' equivalents tells me very few of you actually give a shit or even remembered who rol was until interesting drama came along. i've spent many hours of my time trying to talk people in this community who are not very popular out of suicide and it sucks hearing about the insanely fucked up shit they deal with from other tf2 people online on a regular basis. obviously none of them are perfect people, but they definitely don't deserve your callousness and uneducated virtue signalling.

i do want to say that i think funhaver is right that the average person who's just trying to enjoy the game can't on an individual level do much about this kind of thing and obviously isn't "at fault", but i think what dish and okya are getting at is that there is a palatable apathy against, and in some circles of the community, tacit approval, in the way those who are not considered socially standard are treated, and it is a contributing factor to results like this.

Again it's obvious that threats like this are not acceptable and that rol needs help of some kind, but I don't think this thread is going to accomplish anything except incite rol's chronic harassers, perhaps some new ones, and cement the persecution complex further. especially since I don't think rol has the money or irl support network to get the help you all seem to think will fall out of the sky for them.

Massively agree, too much niceness/apathy to people that no one should have to put up with. If you stick up for yourself against these bastards or otherwise just say openly "these people are horrible and shouldn't be people i have to join a server with if they keep behaving in this way" you risk getting called soft or obsessed by even people who can correctly recognise how horrible some of these behaviours are, or end up getting punished for it.

I spent actual real life years trying to teach this kid how to be normal and not get 45 deaths per game on flank scout. The team I was on went through multiple suicide attempts and meltdowns, whi h he had the decency to leave mumble for. I remember 5 or 6 years ago him telling me that he had gotten a couple actual diagnoses and was medicated, but obviously this goes a lot deeper than him not taking his meds. In any case, I did my time and couldn't help him. I doubt he will ever get close to grant but I hope he gets locked up anyway.

They took 800mg of thc and it had zero effect on them. They have schizophrenia, persecutory delusions, the memory of a goldfish, and zero fucking dopamine left in their brain, and nobody should be interacting with her except for her family at this point. I legitimately thought rain of light was cool as fuck when I first started playing this game, and seeing her like this is awful. Every tf2 league and related community needs to ban her to protect her from herself. It should have happened when she faked her own death twice in a row. Maybe she does need to be put in a mental hospital, maybe not, but we need to stop feeding their disorder by interacting with them, and allowing them to interact with us.

Imo there's no real good scenario in this, she doesn't have a support system or any friends its not like the state will do anything for her Either. you cant save everyone and ROL Imo is too far gone for just anyone's help besides trained professionals.

Worst comes to worst she gets kicked out of Lan's for now until she gets real help which will never happen.

Hey why are you posting stuff like this here and then commenting "get his ass" on rain's other twitter posts at the same time? C'mon, these posts were sent within an hour or two of each other

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1141929370563391518/1265763998796873850/image.png?ex=66a40396&is=66a2b216&hm=ec963f96c3a1cabf9c41c29999e4f761258f77e5ace9e0bfe7ee1991f734576b&;

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:

---
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.
---

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.

The unfortunate reality is that someone with severe mental issues will only get worse with constant access to the internet, so building a support network via internet friendships will basically guarantee the person never gets better. The entire TF2 community can decide to not react to her overnight, and she will find refuge in another community (maybe another video game, a hobbyist discord, a message board) where the entire process repeats itself.

If you think that isn't true and they can surely get better if they just have a couple of good friends to DM, then I wonder if you think the best course of action for an addict is to learn moderation instead of practicing sobriety. As long as someone with issues who has access to the internet where she can obsessively check old posts about her that upset her, have parasocial relationships with top invite players to feel valued, and interact with any troll or bully that comes their way, it's only going to get worse. A TFTV thread dedicated to a single person is way more harmful than helpful even if the intention is to spread awareness. Now RoL has something she can obsessively refresh and get mad at for the next few days.

RoL is well past the point of any of us being able to help and it's absolutely not fair to put that kind of responsibility on any individual or community. It's unfortunate that kindhearted people will be easily manipulated by these kinds of tragic stories. It IS tragic, but no one will benefit if you don't put your personal safety and wellbeing first, and also that of the community.

We can have other discussions about toxicity, bullying, the harms that do go on in this community. But no amount of kindness or goodwill will cure schizophrenia. RoL needs a real life intervention and unless people are working towards that, then these discussions are fruitless and only serve to make her mental state worse through rewarding her behavior.

Edit: Also, for people who have just found out about this for the first time, it's very important to understand that this has been going on for so long. So many people TRIED for YEARS to help and got burnt out doing so because none of us can treat severe mental illness through the Internet. This didn't just come out of nowhere. Eventually people remove themselves from the situation because they realize that they are sacrificing themselves pointlessly over and over, and they should not be blamed for that.

Sure, I can understand this sentiment. I'm not addressing my post to anyone who has tried to help, or has tried to be neutral or even slightly positive. I'm just saying that what's happened doesn't justify some of the behavior in this thread which has been very toxic. If there's nothing nice to say, it's best not to say it. And at least let this be a lesson for what happens when we don't stop hate in the community. I don't mean to say anything about what to do to actively help her; that's certainly something where it's going to be important to get real-life and professional help. But let's at least not damage the situation further.

I already reported this to acardia when Rain posted this, he said "Thanks for sending this, we will address this as we can".

Agreed, I understand better now where you're coming from and agree on many points, thank you for explaining further.

He need some milk

ima just lay this here...
https://imgur.com/VAfnXhU

Someone please give the tldr history with rol I’ve only had fleeting encounters with them and they were relatively normal