League isn't fun anymore

I've played since Season 1. I used to really love this game. I played it fanatically for quite a long time. Nothing was better than getting some friends together and playing some matches of League. However at some point, it's hard to say when, the game just stopped being fun for me. I'm the kind of person who can play the same game over and over again and not really get bored, so it's not that I got burnt out or anything.

I think the biggest thing that turned me off of the game has been the direction Riot has taken. I remember back in the day when it was so amazingly fun to play champions like champions like Cassiopeia, Morgana mid, Anivia, Nocturne, and Ashe for example. Champions that felt unique and interesting. When you pulled off a play with a champion like the ones I listed above it felt so satisfying. To land that clutch Morgana binding on the AD Carry or to perfectly split their team with an Anivia wall. It was challenging, but immensely rewarding. Nowadays it feels like the only viable champions have dashes, blinks, and leaps and overloaded kits. The current crop of popular champions feel insanely boring to play. For me, getting ahead on the current crop of viable champions doesn't feel rewarding and fun like it used to and hasn't for quite a while.

The other thing that is extremely frustrating is that Riot doesn't seem to listen to or particularly care what the player base wants. Both Cassiopeia and Xerath were in an okay spot, but Riot decided to go and rework them anyway despite the fact that the majority of Cass and Xerath players were against the changes. And they did it all because "not enough people play them". Then of course, there were the Skarner and Olaf reworks that were a complete and utter disaster.

Riot seems to be way too focused on the whole e sports thing. Rather than focusing on keeping the game fun and trying to improve the balance the game just feels like it has turned into one giant ego massage for the flashy 'professional' scene. And 'big plays'. They allowed champions like Lee Sin and Lucian to stay overpowered for way too long to appease the pros.

Perhaps it's a symptom of the focus on the pro scene, but in the past couple of years it feels like the negativity and toxicity of the game has gone up. Perhaps it's just me, but it feels like ragers and AFKers have become more common than they once were. Back in Seasons 1 & 2 I got a rager or afker maybe once in every 8 games. Now it seems like every other game someone has to throw to a tantrum.

Overall, It feels like Riot isn't prioritizing the right things. They have been focused on catering to the small pool of people who play the game competitively at the expense of most of the playerbase that just plays for fun. Games have become stressful and repetitive and despite the fact we have more champions in the game now, the viable champion pool has shrunk. To top it all off, Riot has seemingly ignored the server issues and ping issues for east coast players like myself.