After a near two year break, last season i got back on track in LoL and went from S3 to D5....

... and I want to share why i believe I find myself losing interest into the game. If you look up my profile on any site, you'll see that last month or so, I've played mostly ARAM games, one per day... and this comes from somebody that in all those years of following League, couldn't give two shits about ARAM. I realized that this is a symptom of my lack of interest and motivation to queue up for a summoner's rift game. And I believe that this behavior is a common descending parabola for many players about to abandon the game. I also believe that Riot's is well aware of said parabola.

First off, I want to differentiate myself from a consistent number of venting threads that we can find on those boards by saying that I LOVE League of Legends. I want to keep playing this game. I want to buy skins to support Riot whenever I feel right. I really, really don't want to stop playing the game. That's why I'm writing this post, out of love for League of Legends. And while this is meant to be a negative feedback thread, I can't stop myself from briefly praising Riot for the amazing work they have put up recently regarding the out-of-game systems and client. Many awesome features have been introduced in this last years (loot systems, replays, universe page, etc.). The quality of skins and champions has gone through the roof. I'd spend more time complimenting, but I must go straight to the point.

I'd push myself to say that everything outside of the game has made giant steps forward. The problem i have is, however, with the game itself. I consider myself a somewhat mature user of the game: I understand metagames rotate and why Riot had a legitimate interest in keeping them rotating. I like to play certain classes, namely fighters, tanks and some assassins. I like being in the middle of the fray. As a player, I can endure an unfavorable meta for some time, and find a compromise between adapting my champion pool and be faithful to those champions i genuinely enjoy playing. I also understand that some champions will be OP for a while, and some champions UP. I have no problem with that. That said...

**I feel deprived of agency on the course of the game. I feel a slave to my carries. I don't feel self-sufficient as a tank, as a bruiser, as an assassin. **

When I dive in as a bruiser, I don't feel like a threat to the backline, but more of a punching bag buying some time for my team to do something. They don't run from me anymore.

When I dive in as an assassin (after a certain game time), i often see the ADC's health doubling out of shields, and very often i have to face a more reliable burst coming out of the ADC than what I can pull through as an assassin.

When I play a tank I don't actually soak damage.. and this is heartbreaking. It's years I don't feel immortal behind enemy lines because I'm fed. I immobilize a carry and wait my team to kill him. If they fail, I melt and the fight is lost. Just look at this world clip i believe it's explanatory:

https://youtu.be/yLJoPe0YCJg?t=32m45s

Throw everything you have to the enemy carry. If shields make him survive, you lost the fight and might as well retreat. If you succeed into taking him down, you have won the fight. This mindless clash is what league of legends is since 8 months. If you don't believe me, look up competitive games and pay attention on how the teamfight unfolds.

Season 7 has been traumatic for me. I played through this preseason and I realized that the problem isn't in a particularly unfortunate streak of unfavorable metagames, but what Riot's vision of the game has become. Don't get me wrong, even if I'm not a fan of it, I don't mind Riot's stance of pushing for shorter games. If that's the direction they think is more profitable for their game, that's a fair objective i sincerely wish they can pull through. What I despise is, however, how this has been achieved, that is by having extremely heavy snowballing. Compressed game time and importance of snowballing exacerbate the issue I'm about to point out.

Even if they are by far the worst offenders right now, I don't want to focus on ADCs, but talk about that tainted game design that is forcing me out of this game: the CARRY MENTALITY. In my opinion, Riot envisions the game as a hunt for the carry, an endless battle of those damage dealers forced to "DEFEND" themselves from the big bad evil bruisers, assassins and tanks coming at them. Riot puts every effort into packing carry kits with kiting, CC, mobility; similarly supports are packed with extremely impactful itemization and spells to knock off those pesky players. Dying to assassins is unfun, so they're reworked to be gated and delayed. Dying to assassin is unfun, so have Locket, a 500 hp point and click instant shield. The carry survives, he's happy. The support made the carry survive, he's happy. The assassin endures a year of this shit and eventually becomes fed up with the game.

I wish I could go more in detail to point out all the faults in how those class interactions and designs are handled, but I must keep the topic relatively "short".

There is zero interest by Riot's side into making bruisers, tanks or assassins a successful class in the game; all Riot's interest is focused on keeping them in check so they don't disrupt too much the carry classes. A single knockback by Azir ult is often enough to render a juggernaut dead meat, yet Azir has mobility and CC to spare, on top of extreme DPS. For them a single slow can be a hard CC, and yet there is no itemization to help them out. Oddly enough, their itemization is the most expensive in the game, while ADCs, which scale multiplicatively into demigods, abuse the cheapest. This is evident not only in systematic choices like itemization, but also in everyday balance handling: Riot absolutely wrecks and forgets about my boy Nautilus, and leaves twitch unchecked for a year. Bruisers overperforming are promptly nerfed, overtuned carries are handled with extreme caution god forbid they lose too much power. ADCs have an entire RUNE TREE designed SPECIFICALLY for their needs, and yet Riot """FORGETS""" to give 40 bruisers a decent keystone? And when confronted with the issue, what do they do? Try to shove bruisers with tanks, with detriment to both sides (thank god that awful grasp change didn't make it through).

As a result, many players like me feel alienated. I feel like i queue up for a coinflip.. do i have the winning carry? Who gets FB and FTB? My player agency is to make my carry fed, or protect my carry, or buy time for my carry, or immobilize the enemy carry for my carries to kill him. I don't matter in League of Legends. Riot doesn't care about my enjoyment when I play the classes I like to play. I had this feeling since I got back with the game last year, and now I don't think I wish to endure it any longer. The classes I enjoy playing have been neglected for too long, and now i have realized that this is a deliberate design choice, so i have no reason to stay hoping for a more fitting meta.

I don't want to leave the post with the idea that I'm angry and done forever with League. I will gladly come back. Probably I will play games once in a while, and if I will find myself having fun, I will be happy to get back on track. That said, i't's undeniable right now i genuinely don't enjoy the game and (very sadly) won't play very often unless something changes.

TL;DR: I wish Riot had a more fair approach when balancing and designing champions, runes, itemization and class interactions, paying the same attention to the game fantasy, fun and success cases of ALL classes. I don't enjoy League of Legends right now because I don't feel like a protagonist of the match, but more of an enabler of someone else.