Dear Riot...

Your game is stale. You're trying your little hearts out, but most of your changes are geared towards pro play. In a video game. A thing meant for entertainment. For amusement. For casual fun. All your "balance" is based around what a bunch of skinny 20-somethings with no real sense of ambition do in your game, and it's caused you to lose sight of the real reason this game exists: FUN.

You won't implement new things. When you do, it's for a very brief period, because heaven forbid people lose sight of the competitive circuit. Your champion releases have gotten fewer and further between with each passing year, likely because you're putting too much budget into the esports front, and too much focus on maintaining the delicate meta balance instituted by your pros. Your creativity has suffered as a result, too. Used to be you could play a new champion for the first time and it was fun just finding out what crazy builds worked. Seeing what champions worked well with the newbie, and just generally trying new things.

Now, you literally TELL us who to play with the champion, where the champion plays, and exactly how they're to be played. Because you make the champion with a specific meta in mind. I wouldn't be surprised if you make certain champions with a specific PRO in mind. "Wow, can you imagine Bjergsen's skill set with this kit?" I wouldn't be surprised if things like that have been said during development.

I realize a lot of this is baseless conjecture, but the general point is fact: You've constrained your creativity for the sake of the meta, doing all you can to enforce it, and it's destroyed the fun factor of your game. (Also, WHY IS IGNITE STILL A THING?!) In fact, let's talk summoner spells in general. You've culled a few over the years, but honestly, they shouldn't exist at all. None of them. All they do is lead to cheap steamrolls, because EVERYONE brings Flash / Ignite. It's a get out of jail free card and an easy kill card; two things that encourage players to NOT use their champion to its fullest potential.

Heroes of the Storm is a great game, and I realize you've taken some cues from them with things like Giant Slayer. But simply copying some passive effects over... probably isn't what you should take away from their formula. They actively avoided instituting a meta. In a pickup game, it's literally impossible to follow a meta, and I feel like they did that on purpose. You'll also notice they feature several different maps with very different paces and objectives, yet they're all a part of the "core" game rather than counted as secondary modes no one will play.

What does this do? It keeps every game fresh. You're not doing the exact same things in the exact same environment every game, and that does WONDERS for long-term enjoyment. They also fail to feature items, and this is a big deal. You'll probably notice that every time you overhaul the items in League with the intent of making players think a little and build contextually, it never pans out in the end. Because most players are so hung up on the pros you shamelessly promote in every hub update that they follow build guides to the letter, and those guides tend to be uniform across every champion of a given role, save for a couple unique items here and there.

What HotS does by removing items is replace that system with a series of upgrades on level-up that are literally tailored to the hero you're playing. Most of them actually alter the way a given ability functions somewhat. It allows each player to choose buffs that complement their personal play style, or that account for a specific problem on the enemy side. And this, coupled with the lack of the meta... You know what it does? It makes heores feel like INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERS.

This is another big issue I have with League of late. It's forgivable for the old champs because they were more or less inspired by DOTA characters. But more recently, every new champion has felt like a role to me rather than a character. Like it's not "Wow, Illaoi is such a cool character (HAHAHA I picked an ironic example)," it feels more... "Oh, another toplane bruiser." To me, there doesn't feel like a lot of difference between Garen, Illaoi and Darius. Their kits are different, but the way they play is the same. But when you take Nova vs. Illidan for example... Both are assassins, but they play VERY differently. You can even play Nova as a sort of carry, and when you do, she feels vastly different from Valla, who feels far different than Sylvanas.

This is because heroes in HotS are designed as characters first rather than "new playables to fill x role". They don't have to think too hard about how they fit into the current game, because there aren't any items. They don't have to synergize with the suite of items you can build. They also don't have to consider any kind of ADC-Support-Mid-Top-Jungle meta. As a result, they can go hog wild in taking a character concept and making a fun hero out of it. I'm not saying they don't fill roles, it's just that there's more identity there. Diablo is a tank, but he's not the same kind of tank Butcher is. Sonya might be a bruiser or a tank, but in either case she feels like a totally different hero than Johanna. You know what I mean?

I'm not saying you should copy HotS concept for concept, no. That would be absurd and quite honestly unprofessional. I'm simply using it as an example of concepts that counter my problems with what League has become. Or rather, what it's remained. When I say "stale", I mean it: the formula worked back when MOBAs were a new concept, but League hasn't really innovated a whole lot since its original formula.

To say nothing of FORCING the community to communicate with toxic players that ruin their experience. Yes, you can mute, but you can also report someone for lack of communication. So if I mute everyone in the game, there's a chance I can be reported for not responding to questions bout strategy or whatnot. And there are just so many other things, but this rant has gone one WAY longer than I expected, and I know it won't be read by anyone who would even have the opportunity to take it to heart anyway. It's mostly here to vent, and to let people who might feel similarly know that there are others who realize this game has shortcomings that could use addressing.

TL;DR, I'm uninstalling your game until major, sweeping innovations are made. It's been a ride, but it's time to move on, and Nova is quite honestly a much better character than Caitlyn. Or Illaoi, or Vi. Points if someone can guess why that comparison is even relevant. Farewell, and good luck. You're not a little indie developer anymore. I'm 100% sure you can make this game great again if you put your minds to it, and I'll be cheering for you to do so.