Goodbye, League of Legends. I'll miss you.

EDIT: Wow, so many upvotes. I'm glad you all appreciate my insight. I'm not here to say that League of Legends is a bad game, or that it's even on the decline persay. Riot has just chosen to pursue a different audience: new, casual players rather than the veterans. That's their business decision, but just know... many of the veteran players, me included, feel like the game we started playing is shifting into something unrecognizable. If that's how Riot wants to portray their game, so be it... but it's not for me. I'll keep an eye on this game, because I really do love League of Legends. I just can't support it in this iteration because it's not the game I signed up for and poured money into. If Riot changes their strategy of game development and I start to feel attracted to League of Legends again, you can bet your ass I'll be logged back on in an instant. It's just terribly sad that this got so far, far enough for quite a few veteran players to feel so disenchanted that they've found a replacement. So, until the time that League of Legends resembles the game I fell in love with, I bid you all farewell. Good luck in your games, and I hope to see you on the Rift in the future._

I'm officially quitting League of Legends.

I've been holding out, hoping that some of the changes I disagree with would come to fruition and make me enjoy them, but they just haven't. I've lost hope in Riot as a company, because this just isn't the same game that I started playing in 2014.

There are so many things that make me upset about the state of the game that it's hard to find a place to begin. I think it's normal to find some things in a game that make you unhappy, be it a balance issue, a gameplay fault, or just some decisions of a company... but when I find no joy in playing at all... then there's no reason for me to stick around.

Dynamic Queue

I'd say the main reason I don't enjoy League of Legends anymore is the implementation of Dynamic Queue. I'm and almost exclusively solo player in both normals and ranked, so it makes me quite unhappy that I'm at an inherent disadvantage for taking my own rank and skill seriously. I can't find a way to have fun when I'm always either stomping alongside a 4 man premade or being stomped by a 5 man. Ever since Riot announced that Solo Queue would return, I told myself that I could wait. Weeks turned into months, and months turned into never. I waited as long as I could, hoping that Riot would find a way to make solo players feel welcome.

In Riot's most recent words, the type of gameplay they want to support simply can't be found in split queues or a strictly solo queue. Solo players aren't welcome in League of Legends, and Riot isn't ashamed to make that known anymore. They waited such a long time hoping that we'd forget, but I never did. The words they used were always so vague, and now that they're concrete, it's certain that solo queue is never returning (at least not in this state of the game).

My issue isn't even that Dynamic Queue favors premades, it actually rewards them. The introduction of Hextech Crafting literally gives reward for playing with friends, alongside the inherent advantages of playing with a premade. Riot is sending a message: solo players aren't welcome. If this is the type of game that Riot wants to make, then it's obviously not for me. Dynamic Queue makes my individual rank meaningless, because even an unskilled player could be carried to my rank and beyond by a 4 man of Diamonds. There's no reason to even have a ranking system with Dynamic Queue around. If Riot really wants to promote a completely social and team-favored game, then it'd be best to remove solo play completely and force people to only play as groups of 5. It's disgusting and blatantly unfair to tease solo players with the illusion of a fair and balanced rank and gameplay.

However, this doesn't mean that Dynamic Queue is bad. Many pro players agree that Dynamic Queue is a bad system, as do most solo players... but Dynamic Queue is only a bad system when combined with Riot's previous intentions for the game. If Riot wants to make LoL an easy game to pick up and a casual experience for friends, then Dynamic Queue is absolutely the way to go. If they want to retain any semblance of competitive gameplay, then Riot has completely and utterly succeeded at destroying all of the success they're brought about.

Probably the most unsettling part about all of this is that even Riot is afraid to know if they screwed up. The only poll since the announcement of Dynamic Queue was a poll that was completely biased due to a mix-up of Dynamic Queue and the new Draft Pick. If Riot was really confident in their decisions and really wanted to know how to please the playerbase, they'd ask us. Riot is afraid of tarnishing their pride by admitting a mistake, and so Dynamic Queue will remain even if it is a mistake.

...and now onto the more minor issues that contributed to my decision.

Hextech Crafting

Before I rant on this, let me just say that I'm not complaining about free stuff. I'm not entitled to it and we never had it before, so I'd just like to say I'm grateful.

However, I'd just like to explain why Hextech Crafting was the wrong way to go if Riot wanted to reward players for doing well.

The main issue with Hextech Crafting is champion shards, blue essence, and their interaction with Champion Mastery. Having Champion Mastery rely on RNG is a truly dumb idea, because it has absolutely nothing to do with “mastering a champion.” I understand it was an idea to help get rid of the blue essence and champ shards that many veteran players accumulate, but this is exactly why Hextech Crafting is a faulty system. It rewards new players much more than Veteran players, which is the opposite of how it should work. A player who has played for years has done a lot more for Riot than someone who picked up the game 3 weeks ago, but somehow it makes sense that new players gain more from Hextech Crafting. Either find a new use for blue essence that is useful to Veteran players rather than making their mastery of a champion rely on RNG, or scrap the system. Simple.

Midseason Changes

Jungle Timers For some reason, it seams that Riot has been trying to make the game more geared to casual or new players. The best example is Dynamic Queue, but there are a ton of other smaller changes; one being the Jungle Timer changes. The new Jungle Timers remove a lot of the skill that it took to play Jungle like warding enemy buffs and invading to get buff timers. Now, getting vision on the empty pit gives timers for free. This was a change intended to make jungling easier, but it also favor premades (yet again) who are coordinated enough to take advantage of the information. It's unbelievably hard to get a team of solos to go for a 4 man invade, while it's a piece of cake for premades.

Dragons Oh look, another buff to premade play. Dragon buffs stack, and are even further amplified later into the game based on how many dragons you got earlier on. This system rewards early dragon control, which is abused by... you guessed it! Premades!

Bloodrazor Because it's an awesome idea to cripple an entire class of champions and leave them that way for two patches. Every Devourer jungler (aside from , who benefits from % HP damage) was left completely destroyed after the removal of Devourer. It's been two patches, and all of them are still sub-50%, and most are closer to 45%. The best part: Devourer wasn't the problem. Guinsoo's was.

Class Reworks/New Champions

Riot's new obsessions is giving every champion a gimmick or niche, even if they're fine in their current state. The whole premise behind the class reworks was to make every champion have a specific purpose. That sounds fine, but why exactly can't a champion just be a jack of all trades? And why is Riot encouraged games to be decided in champ select, due to the champions picked filling their “niche” or not that game? Not only that, but many champions that are completely healthy are reworked for no reason. is a prime example. He didn't need a rework, and he didn't even receive many changes, but now he's supposed to be some sort of tank-shredding tank. There wasn't anything wrong with his previous iteration, but Riot wanted him to be specifically FOR something. It's these unnecessary reworks that create toxic kits that won't be fixed for awhile simply because they were JUST reworked. and both have incredibly unfun-to-play-against kits, but because they were so recently reworked it's unlikely that they'll be changed for years.

If class reworks weren't enough, this ideal spreads even to new releases. Every new champion for over a year has had some sort of stupid gimmick that their entire gameplay is balanced around. 's gimmick is a 3-hit/eat ability that takes up all of his damage, and has so much utility packed into it that the rest of his kit has to be useless. is so dead-focused on the vision games that she can give no damage to her team; her burrow is everything to her kit. Not every champion has to fill a hyper-specific niche to feel powerful and interesting.

Runes and Masteries

Riot is reducing the price on lower tier runes (more noob and casual friendly, yay) but leaving veteran players with weeks worth of games to play to even have an average amount of runes. I've been level 30 since Season 5, and I still only have 2 Rune Pages and just enough runes for AP, AD, and Tank. It's not because I've spent my IP on champs (I only have 50, and most were from 3150 and lower), it's just that there isn't enough IP given through level up to get up to par. The current Rune system is a very odd gate to gameplay that lasts even into years of play.

Masteries, on the other hand, aren't a gate to gameplay. They're just a flawed way to give extra stats. Masteries have always been a way to empower your champion in a fashion of your choosing, but the introduction of keystones favors only champions that have a high synergy with one. It is a requirement to go all the way down a tree, and anyone who doesn't is at an inherent disadvantage. It also puts champions without keystone synergy at a disadvantage... they just give way too much power for how exclusive they are. Champions have been balanced around their best keystone path more than once.

Balance

Riot picks favorites. Plain and simple. Popular champions will never be gutted, but any unpopular champ that rises in winrate is swatted immediately. Champions like , , , , , and are immune to heavy nerfs, and when nerfed they are always compensated becaue they're playmakers and popular. Less popular champions are gutted when they become good and are left to die, because they're boring or Riot doesn't like them ( , , , , , ). The removal of mana regen and no introduction of AP counters to AD are just bad decisions in trying to balance the damage orientations when AD has Sterak's, Maw, etc. Riot often gets hung up on some odd gameplay fantasy that they want to work, and refuses to nerf a champion that fulfills it. A prime example is . He is what Riot wants a Utility Assassin to be, but it doesn't work and never will work. Anyone with heavy Utility will be built tank to abuse the Utility. should have been gutted the second he became oppressive, but because Riot doesn't want to abandon their fantasy, he'll remain playable in this state.

Toxicity and Punishment

I would go into my thoughts on the current punishment system, the mute function, language filters, and the report function, but my ideals are unconventional and I'd prefer to not invalidate my previous statements because of people not agreeing with my thoughts on this. I'll keep it to myself, just know that I have problems with this.

Closing

I don't have fun playing League of Legends anymore. I've tried waiting it out, hoping that the game will magically restore itself, but it's clear that it just won't happen. I've wasted enough time trying to make myself enjoy the game, but it's just not the same game that enchanted me from the beginning. Too much has changed, and Riot is catering to the wrong group of people. I don't feel the same excitement to log on that I felt when I first started playing. I get on to make YouTube videos, but playing a game shouldn't feel like a chore. It should be something I want to do. I'm not here to bash Riot; if they want to change their game to cater to a different audience, then that's their decision. Just know that I was a dedicated player, and you've lost me. You've obliterated the game that I loved for so long, and I just can't bring myself to play the game in this state. So, with this, I bid you my final farewell.

Goodbye, League of Legends.