Riot Games is removing the ability to talk to your opponents to reduce in-game toxicity.
League of Legends has, unfortunately, long been known as one of the most toxic communities in all of gaming. While many factors contribute to this, the long-standing tradition of trash-talking your opponents in chat during the game has been a huge factor. It seems Riot has either finally realized this, or has watched you tell your lane opponent they suck one too many times. Instead of trying to police /all chat and make it a more friendly place, Riot has decided to take the nuclear option and remove it altogether.
Why remove /all chat now?
"While most of our focus around behavioral systems in 2021 has been on gameplay-based behaviors like AFKing and inting, we've heard from you that verbal abuse has been a rising problem this year, too," League of Legends Game Director Andrei "Meddler" Van Roon said. "We're working on a number of changes to systemically address this at both the League and Riot levels."
Riot did go on to say that while /all chat will be disabled, your opponents will still be able to see you emote, as well as ctrl 1/2/3/4 spam. End of Game chat will still be cross-team, so you'll have to wait to get your barbs in. As for teammates flaming you for bad plays, it seems that will still happen - it has to be for coordination purposes.
"We're aware that verbal abuse happens in team chat too, so disabling /all chat won't get rid of abuse altogether," Meddler continued. "But team chat also plays an important team coordination function, so the potential value it brings is much higher, even if it can also host some negative experiences."
Riot is listening to see how change impacts League of Legends
Ultimately, this is something that Riot seems like they did not want to have to do. It's up to players to play nice, and maybe they'll get their toys back someday.
"While /all chat can be the source of fun social interaction between teams, as well as some good-hearted banter, right now negative interactions outweigh the positives," Meddler said. "We'll evaluate the impact of this change through verbal abuse reports and penalty rates, as well as surveys and direct feedback from you all. We know this sucks for those of you who just want to compliment your lane opponent's skin, or ask for a dance party in Baron pit. But we believe the tradeoff is worth it to cut down on the growing negativity /all chat has been creating in your games."
This change will go live in League of Legends patch 11.21, which goes live on Wednesday, October 20, 2021.
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