The reason why YOU aren't having fun at League

Many threads pop up every week with the same statements.

"I'm not having fun anymore."

"I quit League; this meta kills it for me."

"Season X was so much better than this season."

"Diversity is dead."

What if I told you I absolutely have a blast playing League? What if I told you I actually have loved Season 5, and have generally tremendously enjoyed most of the changes and updates, such as AP item changes, Juggernaut changes, etc.? Would you downvote me for saying that as a Garen player, I actually enjoy the Garen updates, or as a Mordekaiser player, I actually am having fun learning the new Mordekaiser?

This isn't about balance, though, so I won't be going into much about that. Of course, it's obvious that huge changes like the Juggernaut update can throw balance awry for a patch or two. They'll get in place eventually.

But why are you not having fun with League?

"I play Vel'Koz. He's not viable."

"I play Brand.. He's not competitive in this meta."

"I play Varus ADC. He's not good right now."

"I play Singed, but he's too weak right now."

I know this is not true for every single player. But for many, I'd even argue most of the time, people look at high elo 5v5 organized play, recognize through these compositions and builds their champion wouldn't fare very well, and they give up even trying to play their favourite champions, based solely on the 0.0001% of the games played by professionals.

Instead, they try to learn the new, "OP" or "broken" champions.

And they don't have fun, even when they win games. They don't really enjoy playing the champion. They play the game with the main goal being victory, not fun.

At the soul of any sport, competition, or game, if victory is your top priority, you will not have fun.

Even professional players in League admit they play champions because they're strong, and sometimes you even hear players talk about how much they hate playing X or Y champion but do it anyway to win. That's their job. They aren't playing TO have fun in the LCS.

On the flip side, if you play this game with the intention being "have fun," rather than "win," the game becomes SO much more fun. Winning is more fun. Even losing is more fun. You can ignore the fact that Singed isn't the best top lane and enjoy Singed for Singed, and when you DO win, not only will you have won playing somebody you love, but you'll also get the enjoyment of winning. And when you win against those "OP" champions, it's all the more rewarding.

More importantly, if you're truly playing with the goal of having fun and learning rather than simply victory, you will come to regard losing in and of itself as a victory; you've played one more game with your champion, and you have now learned more about your champion.

TL;DR: If you're not having fun, check and see if it's because you're focusing too much on winning and meta rather than having fun and playing/learning your favourite champions. A proper mindset is much more than half of what makes League fun. If your mindset is off, it doesn't matter how much you win, eventually even victory won't seem rewarding to you.