Daily Reminder: New Player Experience Is Still Atrocious

(LONG POST)

So recently I've been attempting to create a bronze account by leveling up my level 5 account to level 30 and seeing if I can climb my way to Plat from Bronze, just something to do for fun, trying to test my limits and my skill.

Now when I made these accounts back in early season 2, playing on low tier accounts was something that happened but didn't happen too often and most of the time consisted of maybe 1-2 smurfs playing Katarina and getting fed out of sheer boredom. However, games still were majority newcomers trying out League and seeing if the game was worthwhile, the community was ever expanding because of this. Newplayers still were trying to 1v1 towers, builds were mediocre at best (AD Teemo, AD TF), players were learning items and how each stat affected each champion, they were learning champs and buying their favorites from the weeks Free week Rotation, and overall outside of that one game where some smurf would get fed the new player experience was fairly good.

Now, not so much.

Now the game consists of Ragers, Feeders, AFK'ers, people who are playing cause their main was banned, low elo players trying to feel good about themselves by killing level 5's etc. Most players now just play a few games, buy their favorite champion, and then just go super tryhard and rage and talk shit to everyone. My first game on the level 5 account consisted of 5 enemy players all in a clan called "Smurfs unite" who after every kill would just all chat about how bad everyone was, a raging shaco that threatened AFK after every death, a Syndra that AFK'ed after she got first blooded and said "Going on my main, peace", a Lux who said "Going adc try to stop me", and a Garen top that kept telling shaco to Kill himself. I thought "Maybe I just got unlucky and got placed with a bunch of smurfs." Nope. The next 4 games consisted of similar teams, it was not until my 5th game where i met my first non-smurf player. She was playing Jinx and learning the champ, so naturally I decided to go blitz and help her out. She gave up first blood, then second blood to a smurf bot lane, I didn't mind, but the rest of my team did. After the second death this was what the chat was like

Lucian: "Report Jinx, Garbage" Jinx: "Sorry! Im new" Lucian: "I don't care, im diamond and you suck (kid had the mechanics of a bronzie and the farm of a bronzie aswell, definitely no diamond player)" Jinx: "Once again, Sorry :(" Lucian: "Wow, look at your build, its awful" (Dorans, Longsword, boots) Jinx: "What do i build?" Lucian: "Muted"

It was honestly saddening to watch this unfold, I put on my try hard cap and started landing hooks for jinx and making flashy plays, telling her items to build and why, how to position, how to maintain a good balance of rockets/minigun stacks ETC. We lost but she ended up 8/12/4 she told me that was the best score she had ever gotten, checked her match history, sure enough every game she had 20+ deaths vs smurfs who had 40+ kills. She added me and I told her to add this account and that I would play some games with her when she hit 30, or play some Arams some time. She thanked me and told me I was the nicest person she had met yet.

This is a trend I've been seeing a ton recently. And I know what you're saying "But SkaterKid, you are playing on a smurf, you are part of the problem" Yes, this is true, I am smurfing and I am technically part of the problem. But let me clarify, most of my games consist of me playing support and helping out true newbies if i ever run into them. The account is used solely to get to 30 so that I can try to make a new account to level up. I only try if I know that everyone is a smurf.

It’s nearly impossible for any new players to join because of how awful the New Player experience is. Everyone I’ve told to play League has leveled an account to at least level 10 and the 2 most common reasonings for quitting were this:

1. Not my type of game (understandable)
2. Toxic community

So, please Riot, instead of trying to reform toxicity, giving us Hextech crafting, Mastery tier, or even friggin Draven heads (why?) learn that you are missing out on a huge fanbase of people that may want to get interested in League but can’t due to how awful, toxic, and abusive the New Player Experience is.