The League of Legends community has always been split on whether Riot Games should implement in-game voice communication for ranked solo games. Superstar AD carry Doublelift has taken a side in the debate, saying that the solo queue experience would be improved if voice comms were put into the game.
“I think League would actually be way more fun to play,” Doublelift said during a duo stream with support Biofrost. “There will obviously be the occasional AIDS player, but overall, it’s gonna be so much better, I think.”
He quickly talked about how it would be easier to tell players what they were doing wrong and how to fix it. Many people in his chat disagreed, however, due to the rampant toxicity problems that plague almost every facet of the game’s ranked scene.
There are plenty of problems that could rise up from introducing a voice communication system for solo queue due to toxicity, but the upsides cannot be ignored either.
Teamplay and communication could be improved greatly since players are able to talk to one another to plan ganks and teamfights. In higher elos, this can help people improve their map knowledge and macro skills, since mechanical skill should be relatively similar at high ranks like Diamond, Masters, Grandmasters, and Challenger.
Some people on the League subreddit also pointed out that voice comms could “humanize” players, so that people would be more willing to talk things out and strategize, instead of seeing their teammates as random faceless people they can flame without consequence.
Before Riot thinks of putting in voice comms, however, they need to improve their system for dealing with toxic players. Even without voice comms, players aren’t scared to abuse their teammates in chat and by throwing games, which is in need of a long-overdue fix.
