The “toxicity” of League of Legends, especially in solo queue, is a well-known issue; arguments and insults happen daily in-game, and players have gradually gotten used to it. However, there are matches where things take a turn for the worse right from champion selection when you encounter players who like to contest lanes and pick champions unsuitable for their roles. Naturally, when the mindset is not right, gameplay suffers, and losing becomes almost inevitable.
Therefore, not long ago, Riot Games announced that they are looking for ways to mitigate these negative attitudes with a solution that involves chat restrictions and reporting from champion select. Of course, at that time, it was merely a promise, but today, Riot Games has announced that this feature will be implemented in patch 10.13, which is this weekend.
Specifically, from patch 10.13 until the end of patch 10.14, Riot Games will introduce chat restrictions and reporting during champion select. The first regions to have this feature will be South Korea and North America, and it will soon reach all regions worldwide. You’ll know that the Vietnamese server has this feature when special notifications appear during champion select.
Regarding the chat restriction feature, once you block a player from champion selection, you will not be able to see what they say in the chat box during the game. According to Riot, this is a test to see if early chat blocking can improve attitudes in-game.
Reporting is a bit more complex because Riot Games needs a significant amount of data to analyze the details and frequency of negative behaviors that may occur during champion select. In other words, Riot Games is building a new reporting system, in addition to the existing reporting for negative gameplay behavior.
Of course, Riot Games’ measures are only one-sided, meaning they come from the publisher alone. Riot’s statistics indicate that the most frustrating experiences for players come from misplays or dying too often, which relates to the attitudes of other players. Therefore, the best way to improve the “toxicity” in League of Legends may come from the players themselves.
