Why I Quit League and Other Stories
THE BEGINNING
So these boards are filled with peoples' two cents worth, so I'll add mine. I left shortly before preseason 8. On top of having less time to devote to the game and my skills not adding up to other people's, the game was getting frustrating. The meta changed every patch. Top lane wasn't fun because when I first picked a tank, I'd get countered by a Jayce or a Kennen. If I picked decently well as a counter, the over-charged jungler would level three or four gank me and kill me, even with wards. Every game, even with meta change, felt one of three outcomes:
- Do poorly in the beginning, middle, and die quickly/ff at 15.
- Do well in the beginning, start to lose in the middle, die quickly in the end/ff at 20.
- Do well/mediocre, ADC starts to snowball, stomp at 15/20.
ADC SPECIAL TREATMENT
ADC got the special treatment since I started really getting into this game at the end of season 6. It's stupid to talk or feel like it, but I can't help but talk and feel like it. ADC is NOT the only class that has a poor early game, yet they're the only one that gets a full-time babysitter a la support. The other two lanes are supposed to lump by with just a jungler, and even he or she has to gank bot as well to even succeed in the game. In addition, there is no true downside to being ranged. Full stop. They could easily build in a mechanic that severely reduces an ADC's damage the closer they are to a target, but that would require them to actually care about making ADC positioning a little more important. Riot claims that ADCs suffer for their range by having other downsides, such as the fact that they suffer once someone gets sufficiently close to them, but that's the problem, they still deal full damage and many have mobility moves, like Lucian's dash or Vayne's roll, no matter how short, that help them with the problem of distance.
LACK OF GENERAL DIVERSITY
There were a few dozen "A" list champions across all five roles. Another couple dozen "B" list champions that were acceptable, and then everything else was only friendly to OTPs or just flat-out bad. Some just weren't favored by items, while others were straight up neglected. Having an amazingly diverse, huge roster is great...... assuming at least half of them don't suck or aren't even touched for dozens of updates. I always felt bad for playing something like Garen top because it was fun, rather than playing something a bit more conducive for my team.
TOXICITY
I was guilty of it, a lot of people have done it before, toxicity was rampant in the community. From a simple "EZ" at the end of a game, to full on flaming and trolling, toxicity is a cancer on this game. Playing another game like, say, Overwatch, which is famed for its nicer community, is like a breath of fresh air. The honor system is a nice way to reward nice people, but it also is just a bandaid.
RIOT ITSELF
Don't get me wrong, I love how talkative the Riot mods are. I loved and still love seeing (since I check the boards occasionally) Meddler's mini-updates to us. I love seeing a Red-posts playing along in Memes and Games, responding to our problems in Gameplay, and just having a general presence. I can't stand, however, the full focus on competitive scene. Everything is balanced and catered to competitive play. This works for Overwatch, since the roster is small. League of Legends, however, has too huge a roster for them to balance everything around the top 0.1% of players.
MY PERSONAL SKILL
It's difficult to really learn to play this game when you can only play a game or two per day, and gets even more discouraging when the people you play with are dissatisfied with how you play, but you're just playing to get better. It's a vicious cycle. It made it even worse when games continually got shorter and shorter, leaving less time to play, and more time sitting in queues.
IN CONCLUSION
When I left, the game was going downhill for me. Looking at how the game has updated since then, I'm glad I left. The problems I dealt with seem to have only been exacerbated. Maybe I'll come back, I don't know. I still love this game and the characters and some of the people I met are amazing. I'll have fond memories of the game, but the bad memories are starting to outweigh the good, sadly. Good luck, have fun, and play nice everyone. <3
