League of Legends is making a major change to how players communicate, as Riot Games is expanding its voice chat system to let players speak with their entire team, rather than limiting voice communication to premade groups. The change is part of Riot’s latest developer update, which also puts a major focus on music for the upcoming Season 3 Act 2 and introduces voice skins that let players change how they sound.
Think of it like ARC Raiders’ voice modulation. You can tweak settings on the fly, giving your voice a completely different tonality. How these ‘skins’ sound – well, you can be the judge of that when the update drops. League of Legends’ expanded voice functionality will come with several improvements, including better noise cancellation, faster connections, and increased stability. However, there is a catch: the feature won’t immediately be available to everyone.
Players need to reach Honor Level 3 or above to use the new team-wide voice chat. The restriction is intended to help provide appropriate moderation as more players begin using the system, while also encouraging better in-game behavior. The rollout will initially begin in North America and Oceania with Patch 26.20, with Riot planning to expand it to additional regions based on performance and player feedback.
It’s a potentially significant change for League, where communication is crucial to dominate your opponents. Riot has previously limited voice chat to players who enter games together, so opening it up to an entire team could substantially change how players communicate during matches. Alongside these changes, Riot is also putting a focus on banging tunes. Season 3 Act 2 will put a spotlight on music, with the developer promising its first musical reveal shortly.
Riot has a lengthy history with musical acts, with in-universe acts such as K/DA, Pentakill, and Heartsteel becoming major parts of League’s wider pop-culture presence. For now, though, Riot is keeping its next musical project under wraps. Team-wide voice chat could make coordination much easier (or considerably more chaotic), while the upcoming music reveal should give us a better idea of what Riot has planned for Season 3 Act 2. Either way, League is about to get a lot louder.