Riot Games has introduced a big update to tackle player toxicity in League of Legends’ in-game chat.
Those who type the most toxic messages in chat will now be automatically muted as part of a new language detection system update in the latest patch.
Riot says ‘zero tolerance language’ will be detected and stopped live in game, in its latest bid to make solo queue and in-game matches free of toxicity.
Riot Games said in its patch 12.20 patch notes yesterday: “Zero-tolerance language will now be detected live and in-game. When detected, these messages will not be sent to other players, the offending player will be system muted, and all players will be notified.
“With our growing confidence in feeding detection, we’re increasing the strictness of the model for high-level play in Ranked Solo/Duo. We’ll continue evaluating play in other queues and make adjustments as necessary.”
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“Recently honored players will now be visible in the Add Friend and Friend Requests menus. We want to make sure it’s easy to keep playing with those players you’ve enjoyed playing with in the past!”
The news comes after Riot added a small feature a few months ago, where LoL players are now be able to see which teammates honoured them in the post-game lobby. And earlier this year, Riot announced plans to introduce a new LoL skin and recall VFX for Honor 5 players in a bid to reward good player behaviour in League of Legends.
Riot announced the update in its patch notes and a press release, and when the community caught wind of the update, they reacted very positively:
Some did say that you can actually still read the chat even if you get auto-muted.
Regardless, it’s proof, then, that using pinglish and turning off chat in solo queue can indeed work, and will probably boost your mental wellbeing by a substantial amount at the same time.
Elsewhere in the recent patch notes, Riot confirmed new Bewitching skins (like LeBlanc, top) as well as usual nerfs and buffs to champions, including changes to items such as Frozen Heart, Demonic Embrace, Sterak’s Gage and more.
You can see the LoL 12.20 patch notes here
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
