Long Time Player Saying Goodbye

Disclaimer. I understand that nobody likely really cares, and I am not here for attention. For the most part, I only need to scream into the void about the loss of one of my favorite games in one of the only places it could be relevant, and if anyone else identifies with that, then great.

I've been playing since about season one, and throughout even the worst metas the game felt special, unique and worth the time spent. It felt like mastering your champion and sinking hundreds of hours into the game made a much more significant impact on whether or not you could carry yourself and your team out of a tight spot. Win or lose, the game (mostly) felt satisfying to play, and I never had anxiety hitting the 'Play Again' button.

The game has been in a steady decline for quite some time, but never more than now. Since runes reforged was released, the problems have been mounting and piling up. Before, the unsatisfying things were manageable. Overloaded kits, mobility creep, exploitable build paths and 'set in stone' meta picks that forced a ban or a bad experience. Damage is through the roof, 'comeback' mechanics that punish you for getting kills or farming, turret leaf gold, massive mobility and low CD/costs on almost every new release/rework. It goes on and on.

The game feels bad in its current iteration. It feels like it is out of control. I have been waiting for a while to see if Riot would try to get back to its roots, and try to re-capture what made League the fun and relatively accessible game that it was, but it doesn't seem like it's coming. The game is not dead to me, and there will be a time I likely play again for old time sake but the hope still remains that things can be brought back to a better time.

I hope there can be a time kits can be made simple again. That everything can go back to a place where not everything and everyone one shots with a low cooldown or resetting rotation. I hope that the game can become methodical and stategic, and snowballing can be put under control and individual player impact can be increased again. But, until then, I have to say goodbye. I would rather let go than become the increasingly toxic and unproductive member of the community that I have been due to my frustration with the game. It was fun.