The Good Ole Times

I've been playing since season 2, and this morning I started remembering some of the good ole times in this game's history.

I remember when we could buy green wards and place as many on the map as we wanted. There was one game where I was suffering through horrible DC issues as Ryze top. Decided instead of just afking, I'd sell all my items, buy mobi boots, and dedicate my gold income to placing as many wards on the map as possible. Had between 10 and 20 wards placed at any given time, and my team was able to win 4v5.

I remember when LeBlanc, Kass, and Talon had silences. Malz was my main champ for the first few seasons, and boy were these guys scary. Taught me a lot about managing cooldowns, positioning, and knowing when to all-in though.

I remember when bushes were so long and all over the place that most of them couldn't be exposed with a single ward. As a support, if up against a heavy gank jungler, I'd sometimes invest in 5+ wards to be able to double-ward particular bushes that were near the junglers gank paths. Wasn't too rare that you could be in the same bush as an enemy and not see them lol.

I remember when oracles was an awesome investment, and pinks were invisible to the enemy team. Vision control felt like a mini-war all on it's own, especially given the aforementioned lack of cap on green wards. Entire team fights would revolve around vision control near dragon or baron, and sometimes games would be lost over a couple of pinks. There was always the exciting mini-game of trying to single out and kill the enemy who invested in an oracles, as it would expire upon death.

I remember all the crazy items this game has cycled through. Atma's, Force of Nature, league of Cleavers, league of Warmogs, Heart of Gold, Bulwark, Philos, DFG, etc. Metas would revolve around some of these items, albeit sometimes very temporary metas. I still haven't completely recovered from the removal of FoN tbh. That was one of my favorite items. I would grab FoN, Warmogs, and Thornmail on my support Alistar (if the game reached late, which it usually did back then), and just feel like a (damage-less) god.

I remember when I was first learning how to play the game, I encountered a Teemo top as Galio (lol). He went into a bush at one point, and I decided to investigate, not knowing of his stealth mechanic or of his shrooms. Entered the bush and didn't see him, ran into a shroom, and tried to walk away, confused and with low HP. He appeared seemingly out of nowhere and finished me off with his blind, which had me instantly convinced that he was overpowered.

I remember jungling as Alistar. Shurelya's ganks were so satisfying and impactful, that it enabled me to become interested in the role of the jungler and expand my knowledge on the game as a whole.

I remember the holy trinity of adcs; Corki, Ezreal, and Graves. Back then, I got a friend of mine into league and he preferred Cait for her range and net. He was constantly insulted for playing a "useless" champion, and had a hard time enjoying himself in the bot lane because of it. A season later, Cait was played in the pro scene and people were spamming her left and right, exposing to him the herd mentality that some of this game's community adheres to.

I remember when red team was purple team, and how frustrating this was for me as a colorblind spectator. I also remember all of the purple caster memes that sprouted through the creative minds of the community when the switch was being made. Some of those stories broke my heart.

I remember when the support role was only filled by actual support champions. I began experimenting with Fiddle support after playing him in the jungle and deciding his fear would be easier to pull off in lane. I was insulted heavily when I wasn't duoing. Not too long after, Annie and Fiddle started seeing some popular acceptance as support characters, and I felt like a visionary. I also enjoyed Lux and Nidalee (pre-rework) support, but those never seemed to catch fire on a larger scale.

I remember when ELO was visible to you at all times, and there was no Leagues system. You just one day realized you were gold or silver or whatever, as there was no special announcement or promo series or anything like that. Hit a certain ELO number, and congrats lol.

I remember the horrors of overpowered releases like Zyra, Diana, and Darius. You would have to insta-lock these champs if you wanted to play them, and sometimes it was hard to even get a game going, as people would dodge if they weren't able to lock them in first.

I remember having a long discussion with a friend of mine when trying to teach him how to build Pantheon. He was convinced he needed attack speed, and so I had to use a pen, a paper, and a lot of talking to explain to him how AD casters differed from ADC's.

So many good memories. This game's changed alot when I really take time to reflect on it. I'm not a fan of the current state of the game in all honesty, but you never know what changes are to come. Hopefully they'll be more my cup of tea. Any fond league memories guys?