An Idea to Improve The New Player Experience

So I gave this some thought the other day and thought I'd give everyone my thoughts on the topic. Currently, the new player experience is very daunting, intimidating, and not very rewarding for just playing the game. Its pretty crazy, but I feel league is bordering on the level of world of warcraft in its hey day where EVERYONE played it, but what is keeping it from getting quite to that point? I ask a lot of people if they have heard of or played league and the majority who currently don't all have one or more of these reasons:

1.) I just didn't get it, it was way too hard to pick up 2.) the community was so mean I hated playing with people it was obnoxious 3.) I enjoyed it for a bit, but didn't really see a reason to keep going.

While the second is hard to attack as that is mostly out of Riot's control and they are doing everything they can to limit toxicity with no systems...the other two are easy to attack.

Firstly, the new player experience is god awful. I have met players who are a few levels into the game while leveling up my smurf who didn't even know that runes and masteries existed. Granted, they won't impact them too much at level 6, but they will need to get in the habit of using them now for when they are thirty. Not only that, beyond "take towers" people generally didn't understand the phases of the game. They didn't know when they could leave their bot lane, (when does mid game start), why dragon/baron are important, or any of that. None of this is taught in the tutorial and it needs to be as having a basic understanding of what your GOAL in a game in is pretty key. I mean imagine playing Legend of Zelda: ocarina of time and not knowing why getting key items like a bow and arrow or hook shot are important. you would never ever get past your dungeons because you had no idea why you were there in the first place.

Secondly, I have a great disdain for the current level up system. From level 1 it puts players at a distinct disadvantage to anyone else they play with who is a higher level which means even if they are against an equally unskilled noob, they are already playing from behind which is unfair and unfun especially in a game as difficult to learn as league of legends. You are taking a game that is hard to play and making it harder. Don't do that. Do away with rune slot unlocking from levels 1-30 as well as mastery points as these should all be unlocked right from the start. (unlock all three levels of tiers of runes from start because a player will buy what they feel they can afford to fill up and as they get closer to thirty will start buying the tier 3's that they need) Same with summoner spells being available and more. Honestly, not having these slots and spells does not motivate a new player to keep playing. all it does is frustrate them when they wonder why their opponent has them and they dont simply because they aren't new. Combat advantages should NOT be based on if you are new or not.

But, this leaves a dilemma. New players need an incentive to level up their account to get the accrued experience towards being ready for this game. the leveling system is fine because it gives you SOME experience while you learn how to play league of legends so you don't randomly jump into a ranked game and a have a terrible experience for you and everyone else as you get pubstomped.

My suggestion to replace the slots/spells/masteries upon level up is to give IP bonuses with each level and at major levels giving people the option to unlock a single champion of their choice. My reasoning is, I have found myself more addicted to this game for the vast amount of things I can try. Not by being LIMITED. Also, I feel since you need a certain threshold of champions to play ranked in the first place, giving people the chance to get at least a few of these at keystone level ups (10,20,30) would be huge in getting their champion pool expanded beyond the start pack. The IP bonuses at each level can be small at first and eventually graduate towards decently good chunks of IP. This could then allow the new player to feel rewarded with choices. They grind to get the IP and can get more champions, or since they know they will get champions at level 10,20,30...will more likely use this IP on runes to fill their two rune pages. IP is honestly very enticing for any player because they feel like they can "spend it" even if you can only buy champs and runes with it and not skins. In my opinion, this would feel much more rewarding for your grind to level 30 than having to earn things that everyone else already has. It also empowers the players to feel more like an individual when leveling up rather than just "im catching up to everyone else" which feels shitty. Let's say a new player loves Yasuo's thematic, buys him and is like "cool i got the bad ass wind samurai" and they know that not everyone else has that champion. It makes them feel like they have something somewhat unique to them even if a lot of people own yasuo too. It is still something that not everyone gets by default. and that is my point. Feeling empowered to be an individual and make choices is a big part of fun and is actually why in game league is fun. And I know this would dip into riot's money a bit with people getting "free" champions, but there are well over 100 champions. I don't feel three champions is going to hurt Riot that bad if it gets them more plalyers who in turn buy more skins. (look at the long term)

**TLDR= ** = update the tutorial to focus more on phases of the game and what key objectives mean/why they are important and replace the level up system of masteries/rune slots/summoner spells to unlock these all from start while making level up give scaling IP bonuses/a free champion at levels 10/20/30.