This League Of Legends Change Could Be A Breath Of Fresh Air

Many online games are unfortunately full of toxicity, and "League of Legends" is no exception. While the game got serious about toxic players earlier this year by rolling out harsher punishments for players who AFK, grief, or just intentionally lose the game, the changes weren't quite enough to clear the air. Now, "League of Legends" is looking to go the extra step by completely disabling /all chat, a feature where players can talk to the enemy team.

In patch 11.21, /all chat will be removed from the game entirely, according to a blog post from Riot Games. The post acknowledged that yes, there have been times when /all chat was friendly. However, the company has found that "negative interactions outweigh the positives," so the feature is being completely removed. According to "League" director Andrei van Roon, 

While Riot has cracked down on toxicity in the past and has encouraged players to be better with various versions of an Honor System, this approach will be the first time a feature is actively being removed from the game because of toxicity. And though the change has the potential to feel like a breath of fresh air, not all players have been excited about the news.

Some "League of Legends" players are excited about the changes, but a surprising (or not surprising) amount of people have been upset with the idea. One player pointed out that /all chat was never a feature that was automatically enabled in the first place, so removing the feature didn't seem to make sense for many players.

Another Twitter user pointed out the fact that new players have the hardest time with toxic enemies — and sometimes teammates — because they're not automatically great players. In theory, this update could help these same new players stay with the game. With over 140 unique champions to play as play against, as well as over 200 different in-game items to buy, learning "League of Legends" isn't an easy task. For players that genuinely don't know what they're doing, toxic enemies can make or break their experience with the game.

According to "League" director Andrei van Roon, Riot plans to gauge fan reactions to the change after the big patch. The company will take this feedback into consideration before deciding whether or not to make the change permanent.

The 11.21 update is scheduled for October 20, 2021. Once the update is live, players will have to wait until the end-of-game lobby to directly communicate with the enemy team.