[2023] Neither The ward System or the off screen pings are in the game did riot lie to us?

Correct

Howdy friends, we're still working on both of these, but are holding off on them to give them a bit more spit n' polish.

Specifics, you want specifics!
For the offscreen pings, working on a few separate bits:
- some icon readability issues
- Making it work well for colorblind players
- Making it properly snap to the HUD
- Providing some small onboarding so folks know how to turn it on/off

So yeah you could have it now but we'd prefer it to be nicer before we release it. Currently targeting 13.3

Ward updates are also in progress but I think may be a bit further out.

Still coming, delayed due to tech limitations (using the AOE targeting reticle to display where the ward is going to go looks pretty terrible). We're still planning to have it out within the next few patches or so