League is my most played game in my life, a story.

So up until League of Legends came out, my most played game by a long shot was Starcraft. I had reached GM multiple seasons in a row, the grind was super fun to me. League came out and I thought nothing of it as I was busy playing Heart of the Swarm expansion. At this point I had around 1100 hours in Starcraft. At the start of season 2 is when I started to play League, I was rather bored with the grind of Starcraft, clans just weren't working for me, I wasn't good enough to go pro, but I could play really well and compete decently well on ladder with pro players. I considered the option of trying out a season of pro play with my girlfriend at the time, now wife, she said no immediately haha.

League was a fresh game, amazing idea, really beginner friendly, and having moved from Starcraft I thought I would see alot of success. I did not, I was utter trash at the game. I was spamming Udyr the whole season, but with friends it was so fun to play. Season 3 I didn't play much. Osu! was something I had gotten into, and I was spamming beatmaps like they were my job. Still play the game frequently today.

Season 4 was the season where I seriously got into League. Spamming really just Kha'Zix at the time as it was my favorite champion and still is. I played well over 1500 games that season across 6 accounts and also saw my first account permabanned for toxicity. Did I learn my lesson from that? You are about to hear no haha. I ended the season Gold and was pretty content with that.

Season 5 preseason had started and it was a tank meta, Enter Sejuani into my champion pool. Iceborn Gauntlet combined with that kit worked so well for me. I started playing on an account with a friend, switching back and forth control of it while we climbed. I will not reveal the account because we still do the same thing. I was spamming Sejuani, he was spamming meta junglers, and we climbed from Silver to Diamond. I personally put in alot of work over the preseason to just get better at jungle pathing and if I got lane last hitting. It worked really well to my favor and I saw huge jumps in skill during this time. I had 2 more accounts permabanned for toxicity this season, stupid me, just stop flaming silvers haha

Season 6, the last season I personally enjoyed. I didn't see much wrong with the season in general, I understand in gaming there will always be classes/champions that are broken as hell, and that definitely happened here. I was still spamming Sejuani/Kha'zix, my friend spamming the meta champions. This was the first time in a season I had felt helpless, and there was nothing I could do to help my team win the game. In previous seasons to this I felt like I could always play better and win the game. Not here. We did peak in Challenger 450LP, having started the season in Plat 3. We did not end Challenger, it just did not work out that way. I don't think either of us was actually good enough to keep the rank.

Season 7 preseason is the downfall of this game. This is where League abandoned competitive ladder in favor of making it so everyone has an even chance to win the game regardless of how good or bad they are. We still peaked challenger here again, but again did not end there because we were not good enough to hold it. This is the first season where I felt like I did not enjoy the game. It was many things, the rapid changes, the inability of Riot to stop reworking champions into broken monsters, the fact that matchmaking during this season saw its first major issues. Alot of things made the game just not enjoyable at all. At this point League was still my favorite game. Also during this season League passed Starcraft as my most played game of all time.

I don't want to talk about season 8, we hit challenger early in the season spamming Vi, have been struggling since in the depths of Diamond. There are so many blatant issues here in this season, but so many people in denial of those issues. Is the game fun to play, yes because of how stupidly chaotic it is. But there is 0 balance, and skill differential doesnt matter unless its a massive difference. They say they will fix things in season 9, but that is sincerely doubtful. The good thing is, during this season I have discovered an absolute gem of a game.

In my childhood I played alot of Diablo 2, loved the game, super fun. Path of Exile, when I finally got into this game, oh my I havent stopped. Have put in 300 hours in the last 2 months.

Despite having absolutely 0 hope in Riot at this point having been here since season 2 and understanding that they only talk, they do not actually do what they say they will, in the way that they state they will: I do enjoy the game in its current state because all I can do is laugh at how stupid everything is. I see league as I did in season 2 and 3. An arcade game to play with friends, something you cannot take seriously. Between then and this season, it was a competitive game that any skilled player can climb in.

I'm not going to quit playing entirely, but I'm done with any hope for seeing a competitive environment that rewards players for being good. You do not have to put in the work you had to back then. To be fair they have done a good job of making nearly every champion in the game easily accessible, and easy to play. They have also done a really good job of dumbing down the game significantly to the point where I am certain anyone who learns matchups for a single champion can climb to challenger if they play either Jungle or Top, regardless of how bad they were before. The fact that the game still hasn't recovered from people getting boosted by Dynamic Queue, is insane.

Despite all of this over the past 2 seasons, the game is still fun to play at times. And my advice to someone frustrated, just stop taking it seriously and you will have fun. League will remain my most played game forever, nothing will ever top it. I think I have well over 3000-4000 hours in the game now. Nothing is even close anymore. And to be honest, this game provided me 7 years of great entertainment and will continue to do so for years to come. But this is not my favorite game anymore. There are other games that are better to invest time into because League just doesn't have that same mojo.

So thank you Riot for the years of entertainment and way to get away from the stress of life. I do appreciate it greatly. That'll do pig, that'll do.