Pings During LCS Matches

UvulaBob·Jun 25, 2015·1 votes·1,890 views

Can Riot please consider turning off ping sounds for streamed matches? Pings are for the benefit of the players - not the audience. There's no reason we need to hear twice as many pings as we normally do during our own games (since we're hearing pings from both sides).

There are people who seem opposed to this idea and downvote without comment. Can these please explain how hearing constant ping sounds adds to the broadcast? I would really like to understand your point of view.

3 Comments

WordsMeanThingsJun 25, 20151 votes

I could potentially get behind the idea of turning the ping sounds down, but IMO I like hearing the pings because it draws my attention to the map to see how the teams are communicating/rotating/focusing/etc. I know it isn't like the communication "matters" to the audience, but it can be an interesting insight into what the teams are planning to do. Granted, a lot of the time the shoutcasters immediately comment on pings that are made, so I wouldn't really be upset if the ping sounds were disabled, but I can also see why some people might want them left on.

UvulaBobJun 25, 20151 votes

The thing is, these pings are constant. With how frequently they happen, do you really look at the mini-map every time you hear one? If so, then you must spend 80 percent of a match looking down there. If they turned off the ping sounds, people who were interested in watching that part of the screen could still do it, and the rest of us can enjoy the match without the constant PING PING PING. They're the equivalent of the World Cup's vuvuzela.

This is all, of course, barring the improvement of the ping system as a whole - such as different sounding smart pings or some kind of dynamic volume adjustment in the spectator client itself.

WordsMeanThingsJun 26, 20151 votes

Constant? Apparently I'm not noticing them all that often - I'd say I only notice pings constantly in the first few minutes of a match, and then they're more sporadic throughout. However, I'll concede that maybe I'm simply tuning them out after that point. As I said, I wouldn't really be upset if they were removed, I was simply trying to state a potential reason people might want to keep them, as you'd asked for. :)