On October 19, 2022, the League of Legends Patch 12.20 was released on the live servers. Riot Games, in this patch, not only made champion adjustments but also updated their speech recognition systems. After the outcry over toxic players has grown recently, they addressed the issue.
What exactly was changed in LoL? Riot Games regularly brings updates for their game. In a subsection, Riot Games explained in the latest patch notes that they have revised their behavioral systems. This includes in-game chat messages. From now on, “unacceptable language” should be recognized during active gameplay.
This leads to players who send abusive messages in chat being “muted” by the system. The messages are then filtered out, and the affected player cannot send any further messages in the chat during that game.
At the same time, teammates are notified that the player has used unacceptable language and is thus violating the terms of service and community guidelines. They can then only communicate with this player via pings.
Not long until the new champion is released. Here you can find the trailer for K’Sante:
LoL finally takes action against toxic teammates
What is meant by toxic teammates? Some players in League of Legends intentionally seek to get banned. For example, the streamer “Lionl9”, who has been permanently banned 708 times. While other players simply display toxic chat behavior. This involves abusive messages in chat.
More often than not, this leads to games being decided even before they begin. Or it makes players focus more on chat than playing beautiful League of Legends. Players insult each other in team chat, which often even spills over into the general game chat.
Until now, the only option was to report such players after the round. This then led to a chat ban for a certain number of games after an examination. With the change in speech recognition, toxic teammates are directly recognized in the game and banned from chat there.
What does the community say about this? The community is pleased with this adjustment. For example, @zzepic111 writes that this is the only feature that would make him start playing LoL again (via Twitter).
User @KingofEloHell states that he has only had good experiences with the system. A player who had insulted his teammates was banned from chat by the system. After that, he managed to focus on the game, and the team was able to turn the game around. From a 0/2/0 statistic, it became a 6/4/7 statistic, and they won the game. (via Twitter).
Other Twitter users talk about a restriction of their freedom of speech. However, they are directly reminded that these are community guidelines if “unacceptable language” is used.
People are also already busily trying to circumvent the system. On Twitter, first tips and tricks are being shared. Some terms like “fat” or “fuck” are not banned individually. However, the combination does provoke a ban (via Twitter).
The speech recognition system is still not fully developed and is to be further adjusted and revised. However, it is considered a first step to reduce toxicity in League of Legends and is accordingly received positively.
What do you think about this adjustment? Do you often have teammates who display toxic behavior and throw games? Let us know in the comments.
Toxic behavior can occur not only in chat; sometimes it is enough to choose a champion:
Toxic champions ruin League of Legends – Professional jungler Jankos condemns slow gameplay
