Putting the new League of Legends into perspective.

The new Blue Essence and leveling system has a lot of issues... but I think the biggest one people don't seem to realize, or can't seem to articulate, is this.

Summoners Rift no longer feels like the focus of League of Legends.

With this new system, Playing a game on Summoners Rift now feels like an ends to a mean. The focus of League of Legends is no longer about logging on and fighting in a 5v5 Arena... it's about leveling up, completing missions, collecting Blue Essence, and spending all those resources on collectibles. Players no longer look forward to playing a single game, instead they dread having to grind through 10+ hours in order to be rewarded. It's not about the game anymore, it's about the reward.

League of Legends used to be a game you were rewarded for playing. Now, it feels like a game you play just to get rewards.