Rush Baron? Riot introduces revamped ping wheel and objective voting system for League’s 2023 preseason

In an attempt to make communication clearer than ever before, Riot Games has showcased a whole new ping wheel and communication system headed to League of Legends for the 2023 preseason at the end of the year.

The developers showed off a plethora of new options available for players when they bring up the communication wheel in-game, including more specific directions for macro play and teamfighting. At the moment, there are only seven different pings ready for use, with four pings in the game’s smart ping system. But in this preseason, there will be twice as many pings on the wheel.

Along with the basic Retreat, On My Way, Assists, and Need Assistance pings, Riot is adding a ping for players to mark when to bait enemies, when to push a wave, when to hold and wait for the action, and when to go for an all-in play. Altogether, the new wheel remains functional and fluid, while providing plenty of options to be more specific when you can’t use your voice or type out instructions.

These four new pings, for example, should help matchmade teammates as they try to set up plays for dragon, Baron, or even during teamfights when players don’t know when someone wishes to bait out a play or dive forward. Most League players know solo queue can be extremely frustrating to play out alone since you have almost no way to strategize effectively with teammates without taking precious time to type out plans in chat.

Additionally, Riot is adding a simple vision ping wheel so players can let their teammates know when a ward has been placed or if a ward has recently been cleared by an ally. This way, junglers and roaming teammates can be accurately notified if their path to a gank is clear or if they’ve been spotted on some vision by the enemy.

There is also a special objective coordination ping being added to the game that allows players to ping an upcoming or existing objective like dragon and Baron. This ping will activate a voting prompt on the side of your allies’ screen, asking them to vote on whether or not they want to take an objective. Voting on this objective won’t give any bonus damage or buffs but is simply a better way to communicate with teammates on the fly.

These new additions and more are set to be introduced when the 2023 League preseason kicks off on Nov. 16.