You Even Managed To Suck The Fun Out Of Urf...
This rune system was a step in the right direction on paper. NOT in practice. You have had over a year to realize this, but you ignore it. Almost everyone agrees that the rune system is bad for the game, yet you refuse to acknowledge it, instead you decide to double down as usual. It has gotten to the point that even Urf, a gamemode that is supposed to be snowbally rng fun, is just a toxic shitfest. Even winning in urf isn't really fun, as there usually isn't a challenge to it. You just happen to have the more oppressive comp and you stomp the enemy team. Sounds familiar to another game mode that i know of, oh yeah summoners rift 5v5s.
The rune system is responsible for this without a doubt. It's been long enough that i feel fully confident in saying so. Champions do not feel nearly as unique and engaging as they used to be, their kits overshadowed by overpowered runes. Item builds don't even feel especially important anymore. The game has transformed into cookie cutter coin tosses, it's no fun, just a lengthy grind.
I'm not even going to get into your champion balance/releases/reworks, because that conversation would take forever. We all know how it is anyways, a disaster. Overloaded kits, unoriginal ideas, toxic kits that are either insanely op or completely useless, the list goes on.
It's your balance philosophy that agitates me more than anything else. When you clearly make a mistake or a bad call, which everyone is prone to time to time, you refuse to revert it, with a couple very rare exceptions. Instead you insist on changing other random parts and ignoring the issue all together. Take Leesin for example, waaaay back in the day, yeah he was broken, he had too much early pressure and damage, and you KNEW this, but instead you nerfed his safeguard into the ground, taking out pretty much the only part of his kit that was fine. It took you years to get him into a half decent place, and by that time, he had sustained so many nerfs and changes to his play, he wasn't fun to play anymore, and not worth the risk, when other junglers do what he can do more consistently.
Riot, you screwed up, and that's okay. I was excited for the rune system too, but its time to take it out to the back 40, like the sick dog it is, and put it down. Just remove them already, you don't even need a replacement. I would far rather runes/masteries get completely 86'd, then deal with this garbage system any longer. You clearly have difficulty balancing the game anyway, why make it so much harder with this system that so many people detest...
Just suck up your pride and do away with it, you are killing this game.
