"Pings issued" statistic suggestion in match history

SaltyPretzelMan·2/18/2015, 5:01:33 PM·1 votes·297 views

Last night I played a few games with teammates and friends where I was the only one not on headset because of using a different PC. I noticed that, or felt like, I was pinging a lot in general whereas they were not as much (or with certain kinds of pings like "otw" or "defend" etc) probably due to them being on headsets and it being an "extra" to do since they were verbally discussing movements or objectives. As support, my adc wanted me to go in multiple times and did ping the enemy adc, but I couldn't communicate otherwise besides pinging "caution" regarding river vision or concerns about the enemy support or jungler being in the bush. In soloQ and in normals I find that I ping a lot there also with a lot of complaints from all kinds of players regarding "missing" pings (eventhough maybe they need a little more map awareness...lol) or haphazard attempts at dragons or barons with no communication possible besides typing or pings. I started pinging more last season after discussing this with friends as well as watching various videos, guides and the LCS. Caution pings definitely sometimes save lives or stop adamant chasers from bloodthirsty death jaunts through unwarded jungle, and target pings when seiging a tower or picking out a carry right before initiating a teamfight can make all the difference and mean an ace or a throw.

That all being said: the new match history is an awesome tool for looking at farm, build pattern, gold lead, objectives... But sometimes even more important was death/kill location; and the MOST important stat to compare those games I feel is WARDS. Wards save lives and win games. We all know this. That's why so much effort has been put into changing wards, duration, what they can and cannot see, and how many each player can have out. I feel that pings are the next thing after wards in importance that instantly communicate intention, plan, or what and where teammates should use abilities and items to be effective, on whom, and when.

Jungler is top and bot lane just killed the enemy adc, with the support flashing away for his life? Ping jungler in top lane, target ping bottom tower to push.

Enemy mid goes back into the fog right after putting out a ward in bottom side river bush? Enemy support just disappeared toward tri-bush after bot lane pushed up hard with jungler in the bush with a full minion wave? Better ping missing/question marks on dragon and assist from mid and jungler to go see whats up.

There are so many situations that should constantly be pinged in every game.

I think a "pings issued" statistic, either just total pings or at best each amount of each kind of ping issued, in match history would be a great additional learning tool for teams as well as individual players. It won't make you play better on it's own (or at all necessarily...), but it is a good measure of healthy, proper communication in general and Riot has been very adamant over the last season about rewarding good communication and attitude. A lot of vitriol in the game comes from poor/non-communication and when people do get penalized for bad communication behavior they are chat restricted and HAVE to ping. If you don't look at things like statistics I can understand not wanting to "clutter" the match history any more, but otherwise I don't personally see any negative reasons to add this as a statistic to help better ourselves as players and teammates. It would help players be more mindful of whether or not they're communicating well or at all, and how.

Thanks! (SaltyPretzelMan in game)

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