Fun in League of Legends

I have noticed something. League of legends is slowly sucking out the fun.

Backstory, i've had a league account since season 3 but immersed myself fully in season 5.

When I was horrid at league, I could still play champs and have fun. I realized that every champion was relatively viable, with the exception of a few OP champs that were banned out in ranked anyway (like max 3 op at a time). When cinderhulk received a slight nerf, and runeglaive was introduced, I think the game had reached its peak. I could play AP rammus with smite TP in both the jungle and top lane and have fun.

The game was diverse. Everything about the game, from potential build paths to unexpected teamcomps (AP Tank Burst was my fav, with rammus, maokai, orianna, and alistar full AP and a corki or ez in the back), and from variety in game modes to fan made modes, allowed the game experience to be rich. I used team builder to practice a champ or play with friends in a team comp, draft mode to practice counter picking, dominion to learn a new chmp and practice mechanics, and aram to learn the art of teamfighting, and then bring everything into ranked on the rift. In my off time, I'd play any game mode, or join customs to have fun playing hide and seek.

However, I've noticed something Riot is failing to address. When I began watching LCS, I noticed players picking diverse comps and strategies. However, now they pick and ban the exact same champions and play the exact same strats. The difference is that the team who wins is the team who is better at the strat. Nothing exciting happens anymore. This also translates to solo queue and normals. The whole concept of funny team comps and wacky item builds that worked have been removed. Homeguard teleport AP Rammus is no longer viable at 13 mins, and even now with the removal of homeguard on TPs, all for a higher level of "Competitive Play". This is nice and all, but now the game is too competitive, stressful, and no longer fun. In addition to all this, instead of a FEW OPs, Riot has created a firmer tier list, as in THESE ARE VIABLE and THESE ARE NOT. For example, in this patch, Udyr, Xin Zhao, Talon, Zed, Yasuo, Lucian, Quinn, Graves, Ezreal, Trundle, Alistar, Mundo, Rengar, Tahm, and Fiora are OP, and I'm missing a few if not even more out. Basically you ban ONE champ you hate from this list, and pray that the other team also bans off of these lists, and doesnt pick them. You also hope in lower elos that your team doesnt pick these simply cause they're OP. I remember in season 5 where if I could ban, I'd ban sejuani, diana, and yasuo. Sej was broken with cinderhulk, diana was broken with runeglave, and yasuo was... yasuo. For the rest, every champion was still viable to an extent, and it was more skill oriented. Then came the fiora and ryze reworks. I played the new ryze only to realize he's braindead the minute you get tear and another mana crystal, and I got a triple with the new fiora while my mouse moved off screen, so I didnt see but apparently I got a triple easily. instead of NERFING or BALANCING, however, they launched a GP rework, and a juggernaut update. This lead to a boring worlds tournament with the same picks over and over again, as well as a horrendous league experience, cause these 6 were MUST BANS. This lead to a player no longer having the option really to ban something they hate playing against because they want to pick a certain champ, and in case one of those 6 were not banned, your game would turn into a horrendous experience. But again instead of reworking their reworks and fixing the problem they caused, they released more OP changes, such as the marksman update, causing graves to literally be freeelo, the introduction of thunderlords making the likes of zed or other burst champs overpowered, the windspeakers blessing causing soraka to be freeelo too, the buffing of dr mundo amongst other champs, the release of tahm, the introduction of the AD equivalent of Deathfire Grasp, the buff to xin zhao, and the reworked AP jungle item, causing the likes of udyr to be broken as well.

I can no longer play the champs i used to play, because the game forces you to play a certain way now. It's no longer a matter of counterplay or something, it's the matter of picking the most optimal champion to ban, and hoping for the best. Now, they are showing evidence that they indeed only care about the rift, which makes sense and all, but the removal of teambuilder and now the removal of dominion is eliminating game modes that allow you to practice, or to just have fun. you only have the option of banning ONE champion, so you have to rely on the others to ban according to either their or your selection. Also, you now have to build certain items, because otherwise you're not playing the champ to max effectiveness, and risk losing the game. where on EARTH is the fun in that?

Also, why are you making all these unecessary changes? Poppy was in need of a rework, but shen wasn't. He was viable, and had a decent kit, but now it's a mess. Why not release a taric or yorick rework instead? I know youre working on them, but why on earth aren't they out yet? I just discovered mordekaiser prior to his rework only to see him become a different champion, although he was perfectly viable before. Same goes for darius and Garen.

Why is riot making such strict build paths, picks and bans, and playstyle, and ruining the diversity of the game that made it both fun to exploit certain features, and fun to practice with? AP Rammus and smite blitzcrank gave me so much joy in playing them, but now the AP scalings are reduced and the entire rammus strat of TPing in at 13 mins with surprise homeguard is gone. Riot has also now made AP mages completely useless throguh focusing on AD Assassins this patch, much like they made tanks useless for a while (aside from mundo) by buffing AD champs, then buffing tanks too much making AD useless, all in the period of a few months. So now I don't get to play veigar in the midlane cause the meta is so strictly encouraging players to play zed or talon or something, and discouraging veigar.

TL;DR, I feel the game is making a negative change towards competitive precision, and less so to fun video game catering to a variety of audiences. Now that Riot is rich, I feel they are just focusing on the money making aspect. The majority of the players are in silver gold bronze, but they cater to diamond+ now. I understand why. But they want to enforce competition, and remove the likes of An Trolling Noob, the Old Sp4zie plays, the variety in SivHD plays, etc. to focus solely on Summoner's Rift Competition in High Elo. It's successfully enforcing competition, but eliminating SO MANY elements of fun. It's a shame really, cause that's why i fell in love with the game.