League Of Legends: Announcer Packs Delayed Due To COVID-19
| Tags: League of Legends
| Author David Hollingsworth
Riot Games has shared the news that the announcer packs, due to launch at the end of 2020 will now be delayed into at least 2021 due to continued complications of COVID-19.
Earlier in 2020 Riot Games teased the addition of a much-requested feature, announcer packs. Sadly, the feature is set to be delayed. This is due to issues surrounding getting voice talent into a booth and with the current lockdown in the USA. Ultimately, the safety of external partners such as VO actors is Riot’s primary concern.
The feature would bring League of Legends in line with Dota 2 and Heroes of the Storm. These other two have had announcer packs for most of their lives. While it hasn’t been confirmed yet who the announcer packs are, esports casters from the LCS have been widely speculated.
Dota 2 has gone a slightly different route with its announcers — while the game uses some of its characters as announcer (much like Heroes of the Storm). Notably, however, Dota 2 uses other pop culture figures such as Rick & Morty, Portal, The Stanley Parable and even Gabe Newell turned a cameo as a Mega-Kill announcer.
Legendary (Skin) Delays
“This is impacting more than just announcer packs: Legendary skins and champions are also facing new production challenges,” says Bellissimoh, Director of Production on League of Legends. Bellissimoh goes on to talk about how the timeline for these delays isn’t clear, and each issue will be tackled in its own way.
However, it seems at least in the short-term things will likely remain the same. Bellissimoh adds “That said, we’ve been able to find solutions for upcoming Legendary skins and champions thus far, and we’ll be sure to update you if anything changes.” So, right now all we can assume is if things continue as they currently are we’re likely to see a reduced slate of cosmetics, which will likely also impact future LoL Passes and esports contents.
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David has written for games media outlets for the last ten years. With his first major esports role being with Esports News UK covering mostly UK League of Legends. David is also a member of the British Esports Association and is an advisor to them on World of Warcraft Esports. More recently David has worked for Esports Insider and Red Bull as an esports journalist.
David later became Editor at ESTNN and now leads the current team.