Riot, I can't believe the things you're doing.
Long post about some random gold player, skip to the bottom for tl;dr, feel free to ignore it or comment with your own opinions and shit, I ain't judging.
I've been stuck in Gold for a couple of years now, sitting at a slightly above 50% win rate the entire time. So, if you're a platinum player or a diamond player, or a bronze player who says that a gold can't know anything, so be it. I started playing league back just before Riot released Lucian as a champion. I remember seeing the Forecast Janna screen for two days, not knowing a single thing about who the heck the weather girl was before suddenly my screen was turned into to a black guy dual-wielding some weird light-gun pistol shooter things whenever I logged in for a bit. I remember my first game of league ever, at a friend's house, where I played old Rammus. I never put a single point in E, because I couldn't aim that for the life of me. How could a game demand me to move by right-clicking an area, then suddenly, move the mouse over an enemy character, and click them again? It seemed atrocious to me.
This was a time back when my friend, who had gotten me into League, was also starting out. He talked about how broken Fiora and Akali were. He built Udyr with Runaan's Hurricane; "Because the little claw thingies he makes when he's a tiger count as projectiles." I remember the first time I played against a player with a skin, which I thought was amazing. I remember when on my old potato computer, I would be stuck in the loading screen for three to five minutes, and while occasionally there were some complaints, there was nothing too serious.
And as I played League, I learned more and more. I remember avidly watching Champion Spotlights, learning what all the champions that you guys released did. I remember Phreak's cold, for the Trundle spotlight I think? Don't quote me on that. League was a fresh new game and a place where all this learning could be fun. I remember the Summoner's Rift rework, I remember being sad that I had never played a game of dominion when they finally took the dominion map down, I remember the whole Gangplank dying and Miss Fortune Bilgewater event thing, and I remember being sad that I didn't get a skin from the event for Gangplank because I didn't own Gangplank :c
Now I'm finally playing ranked, back in season 6. Syndra was my main champion, who I would play due to her "fun" mechanics. (Comboing people then mechanically outplaying them with R, Veigar mains can appreciate this.) And while I never was really any good, it was still a great game to play, and fun at that. My rune pages were flat AD or AP, and I only owned two of them. I never really knew what the heck all the runes and the masteries did, my team never pushed for a dragon or a baron, and yet I somehow still got to Silver 3. I'm actually kinda proud of myself.
Season 7, Keystone masteries. Big things now. Assassin rework, and with it, came my sudden new love/hate for Leblanc, Fizz, Talon, and Katarina. In fact, I loved the latter two so much that I started to main them as well, replacing Syndra as my number one mastery point champion. My account still didn't own all the champions. Maybe I played every day, all day a week, and maybe I didn't play at all a week. It was fun, and that's what a game was supposed to be, right? I ended that season Gold 1, with maybe 400 games in or something. I was rather sad that I could never get to Platinum, but I was happy I was finally getting a skin.
Which finally leads us here. Season 8, what a grand time to be alive. A complete overhaul with the runes and masteries, giving us keystone runes instead, or "runes reforged." I got my girlfriend to start playing with me. (She's a Leona/Alistar player at the moment.) I started playing ranked some more. Got placed back in Silver, and climbed my way out back to Gold 2, where I am currently. A lot has changed with the game. Supports are strong, ADC's seem to be getting placed on a pedestal, and my assassins either always swing or miss. And, I'm still enjoying the game as much as I did back when I first started, probably more. I never owned all of the runes, so the rune rework really gave me a boost, and it's especially nice to new players. I know my girlfriend would've gotten lost in the game quite easily if everything wasn't as simplified as it still was. Outplaying is still there, at least, in the ELO where I am, and if I ever get tilted from a Malzahar or a Fizz, I can simply play a couple of blind games with some friends.
I don't know where all this hate's been coming from, or why it's been coming for so long, but dear Riot, I truly can't believe the things you do. I wouldn't have met up with a lot of my friends for this wonderful game, and it's the only game where I've stuck in maybe two hundred bucks by now? I'm not too sure about the number. Every game is a different experience, and while I understand the complaints and cries and shrieks of terror from other people, talking about assassins or ADC or ardent or tank meta, it's your game, you get to run it how you want. Personally, I've enjoyed every minute of it, and my love of the game is still growing. Thank you, Riot, for making such an amazing game, and one that I can personally say I enjoy. While other's complain about the dev's overbuffing or overnerfing a champion or an item, I look forward to the changes. Because even if I might think they're a little too weak or a little bit too much (You guys barely gave Talon any compensation c'mon rito q-q) I still get excited, because it just means the meta shifts a little bit more, and I get to learn to either adapt and get better or get lost in the dust. The game constantly changes, and while it's not the one that I played when I first started, it's one that I've learned to enjoy even more.
tl;dr I'm a little bit sad about all the hate threads going on right now, we oughtta give Riot a bit of love too, they've made a wonderful game that a hard stuck Gold player can still enjoy every day. Inb4 downvotes for actually giving rito some appreciation and being called a "white knight" :^)
