League of Legends Considers Adding Voice Chat to Game

League of Legends, like most MOBAs, is a team-oriented game where your ability to synergize with your team is paramount to success, unless you lock in Tryndamere and just split-push all game. However, despite being one of the largest games in the world right now, and certainly a preeminent figure in eSports, League of Legends is a bit behind the times in that there’s currently no in-game way to voice chat with your team. You can use the in-game chat if you want, and a series of smart pings make it easy to communicate intentions, it’s a poor substitute for using voices.

Well, players have been nagging Riot for a while now for an in-client way to use their voices to plan their strategies and flame their allies, but Riot has resisted those calls… until now, it seems. In a Q&A session with Riot Korea, a spokesperson said the following:

“In-game voice chat is currently being internally reviewed.
Previously we worried that voice chat would lead to toxic behaviors, but after rethinking, we ultimately decided to provide an in-game voice chat feature.
League of Legends promotes team-sport oriented teamwork, and we think that voice chat brings value to when players are matched with random players, so we are reviewing the feature at the moment.
After the game client update has been applied, we expect concrete plans and preparations to be possible.
It is difficult to say exactly when, but we would like to let you know that we are working progressively on bringing this feature ready and working."

So, it seems as if Riot has plans, if nothing else, to toy with the idea. Later in the Q&A, another spokesperson made it clear that these were mere internal tests, and that nothing was promised, but it’s still an encouraging sign. Riot has withheld from adding voice chat out of a rightful fear that it would only hurt their efforts to reduce toxicity from their game, but maybe they found a solution that fixes, or at least dampens, the issue.

Here’s hoping.