Riot Patches Out /All Chat In Matchmade League Of Legends Games

People can have fun playing online games together. Sometimes, playing online with strangers can prove to be stressful. Riot Games has undoubtedly had that latter issue in its popular MOBA League of Legends and is now taking more significant steps to curb inappropriate language during games.

Riot posted today in a blog posting that it is removing the “/all” chat function from matchmade League of Legends games. It will also eliminate all global written banter within a match between players of different teams. Riot has released a statement about this change.

While most of the attention on behavioral systems for 2021 has focused on game-based behavior like inting and AFKing, it has become clear that verbal abuse is a growing problem. We’re working on a number of changes to systemically address this at both the League and Riot levels, but one direct change you’ll see soon is that in patch 11.21, we’re disabling /all chat in matchmade queues.”

Riot’s post notes that the “/all” feature being disabled is all there is to the matchmaking chat system. The blog states that “enemies” will be able hear and see your champ mastery and emotes (unless they are muted) as well as CTRL+1/2/3/4 spam. The cross-team End of Game chat will continue to be available. Allies still have the ability to communicate with one another in team chat.

Although the chat in global games may be stopped, your team members will still be able to communicate with you. Riot acknowledges harassment and abuse can come from your own team. Although Riot acknowledges the importance of keeping communication channels open among allies, the benefits are much greater, even if there can be some bad experiences.

While it is not an ideal solution, anything that improves the experience of pickup gaming is a good thing. Riot hasn’t yet announced the date of patch 11.21 going live, but it should be within the next few weeks.