With the upcoming patch 11.21, League of Legends will introduce a major change to the in-game chat. The ability to interact with opposing players during matches will be disabled to reduce toxic behavior. However, many players are more afraid of their own team.
What exactly is this change? Riot Games is currently focused on improving player behavior in-game. There have already been adjustments regarding AFK players and how to deal with players who keep running into death.
The next change now pertains to the in-game chat. The /All chat will be disabled in all modes where players can queue. Custom games, on the other hand, are exempt from this change.
From now on, you will not be able to chat with opposing players during matches. Emotes and Champion Masteries will still be visible. Even after the match, you will still have the chance to interact with opposing players in the stats overview.
MeinMMO author Philipp Hansen has experienced this toxic behavior firsthand:
The “Death of GG EZ,” but the team chat is often worse
How is the planned change being received? The deactivation of the All chat has already met with a mixed response on reddit. While some players welcome this adjustment, others will miss the exchange with other players:
- The reddit user Falbindan reports that he has had positive experiences more with opponents: “Some of my best experiences have been with the opposing team. I like to start the game by congratulating my lane opponent on their new skin and maybe even giving them a few tips if I see they’re struggling against my main.”
- User Megachaser9 will miss the remarks at the end of matches: “This is the death of GG EZ.”
- Even the Riot employee “EarthSlug” spoke out against the decision on Twitter, although he has since deleted the tweet: “I don’t like criticizing the decisions of other teams at Riot, but I don’t think this is the right decision. Sure, /all can be toxic, but the percentage of games where I enjoy the chat outweighs the bad ones.” (via reddit).
User Vayatir is also confused about the change since players can already disable the All chat on their own if they want to.
A large part of the comments sees a completely different problem in the chat. They experience toxic behavior not in the /All chat but often within their own team.
Where do many players see the actual problem? In the team chat:
- For instance, the reddit user WeDoDumplings states: “I can’t remember the last time I was insulted by the opposing team, but I get flamed by my teammates in 5 out of 10 games.”
- Similarly, Own-Iron-207 shares experiences: “Is it just me, or does 95% of the toxic behavior happen in team chat? Disabling /all won’t change that.”
Both users received more than 1,000 upvotes for this statement, along with a lot of support in the comments. Other users also report that team chat is the much bigger problem. And until now, this could not simply be disabled.
The user Novaeth comes to the following conclusion about the change:
The logic in this decision likely lies in the desire to merely give the impression that a massive change is being made to combat toxic behavior. […]. Anyone who has played multiple games in LoL knows, that:
1. a large part of toxic behavior comes from teammates
2. the /All chat can already be disabled…
What do you think about the change to /All chat? Do you have issues more with opponents or teammates? Feel free to share in the comments.
