For many years, League of Legends players have continuously found innovative ways to taunt their teammates, whether it was the infamous question mark ping on the map or some classic trash talk in-game through the chat. In the game’s next update, however, Riot Games is continuing its takedown of toxicity by removing another classic BM ping from the game.
League’s product lead Chris “Auberaun” Roberts said today that the developer team is making a significant change to the communication system in Patch 13.19, making scoreboard pings for allies only visible to those who are activating them.
This means players can no longer ping a player and have “Champion Name – Alive” be spammed in the chat if they make a mistake or are being harassed by a teammate. In a similar vein, players can still ping certain items in inventory or ultimate timers to have them show up in the chat, but they will not be seen by the other members of their team.
The bait ping, another controversial addition to the ping system, is also being removed because, according to Auberaun, the common reason for its usage in solo queue and other game modes is “unacceptable.” It will be replaced in a future patch.
There are, however, some community members who think these adjustments are removing useful communication tools that don’t require typing. For example, in a late-game situation, players can ping a teammate’s spawn timer so that a splitpusher doesn’t have to recall to defend the base.
“Can we not remove communication tools in a game where communication is important because some people are dicks?” one user on the League subreddit said. Others agreed with the sentiment as well, voicing a possible middle ground for the ping system, like putting the pings in question on a relative timer so that spamming is not possible.
Overall, these upcoming changes are only one part of a wider effort to help alleviate toxicity in League, especially after Riot revealed it will soon be forcing any toxic summoners to play out remedial non-ranked matches—like blind pick, draft pick, or ARAM—before they are allowed to play in the ranked solo queue once again.
League Patch 13.19 is expected to hit the live servers on Wednesday, Sept. 27.
