League's Current State
League of Legends is seriously becoming unenjoyable/unplayable. Games are ending in 15-25 minutes and people are so quick to give up it's insane.
Games are so snowbally that people just give up on comebacks and immediately give up hope. My last 3 Ranked games had 2 AFK's and both in the bot lane.
- Soraka was intentionally trolling the enemy team by staying around in fountain until 3 minutes and leaving--preventing a remake and screwing the entire team. ADC just called quits and opened the lane calling for Soraka reports and giving up (ironic because that's also reportable).
- The second AFK game was with the enemy Lucian. He died once, called quits and AFK'd at level 3. Again, screwed his entire team and wasted another 15 minutes of my life.
How am I supposed to enjoy an either 'smash or get smashed' or 'first to AFK loses' game? It was so odd that I enjoyed the AI missions but thinking about it now, I know why. Bots don't AFK on you, spam in chat for reports, flame, or open lane. The best experiences I had in League were actually the 45-55 minute games where everyone was more or less evenly matched. The ones that came down to the skill of the player--not instant 100 to 0 combos--that determined the outcome of the game. Of course, some people find those games tedious but I find it extremely refreshing since longer games are rarer than ever.
Ranked is so try-hard that people are AFK'ing after a single death. I don't even know if it's worth my time--before, Ranked was the one place where I could find solace in a game where everyone was serious and wanted to win. Now, it's typical for someone to die once and go "oh no, I died once--let me go AFK" or "oh no, I died once--let's spam in chat 'gg ff' and surrender 15". I find that longer games are more frequent in Blind Pick simply because few people care about dying once because it's just Blind--bottom line is: they don't care enough to leave after a single death. Normally, this kind of mindset would be bad but it's actually benefiting gameplay positively. Since your mind isn't so 'die-hard, try-hard', you aren't as inclined to call quits after something goes wrong and you have less stress which makes you enjoy the game more.
Is creating quicker games worth the fun? There are some people who enjoy the one-shot meta but I'd honestly prefer it gone. I play a lot of Zed and now, 100 to 0 is so normalized that it's actually considered odd for you not to one-shot. Things that were once-a-few-games is now once-every-two-minutes and its ruined any ideas for outplays. Everyone is just speeding, dashing, and blinking that there is no longer any point in playing immobile champions. Dying before you can even press a key is simply ridiculous and if a champion's only counter is to "stay out of my sight or else you die instantly", that champion doesn't deserve to be in the game.
The 15-minute surrender is encouraging quicker games/giving up mentality because people actually tend to look towards ending the game and losing over a single death. What kind of game is fun with no challenge? How are you supposed to enjoy open-lane games? It isn't even player vs player anymore, it's player vs minions, turrets, and AFKs. It's gotten so bad that I seriously have to pray for no leavers in my games nowadays and the thing is I quit going to church a year ago. If you look at my match history (Ranked), games that lasted less than 25 minutes are everywhere while the ones that are longer than 35 are spotty at best. I even have a Ranked game that lasted 11 minutes and this is supposed to be Platinum. I've been playing this game for around 3-4 years now and I'm starting to look for other alternatives. I'm currently playing off obsession alone but I'm not finding much fun in League anymore.
