Retirement Post: I cannot get myself to play League passionately again

TLDR: Done everything in League, found other "healthier" hobbies, cannot bring myself to play passionately as I used to.

I guess this is my retirement post and I just want to share my league story with everyone. I don't know if anyone cares to read but I am sure every one of you had a similar story and I just wanted to tell mine. I started this game back in the end Season 2 and I was immensely intrigued by the game right off the bat. I was a complete noob and went from level 1-20 by purely playing cho gath, supporting my brother's Ashe botlane. I've never played any MOBA before so it was a complete hectic but exciting experience. I had my phone out in front of me reading builds off Mobafire as I play and wonder how anyone ever obtained enough money to finish RoA with a philosopher's stone and no cs (this was before they have recommended builds).

Luckily at the time, I also found out my real life friends were playing it so we started playing this game together. We became obsessed with it and would talk about the game during class and lunch breaks to discuss and learn the latest updates/strategies/lcs matches. We would screw around on ranked 5s testing all the weird team comps (all supports, all ice themed, undead..etc) and it was a lot of fun. Overtime, I slowly got better and better at this game and I really enjoyed playing ADC. Also during this time, I began watching a lot of Robertxlee stream when he was still famous and learned the intricacies of bot lane. With that and constant practice I was able to climb to gold by the end of season 3 and was extremely proud of it.

As season 4 came around, I became obsessed with climbing the ladder, however, no matter how hard I tried, I was only able to reach high Plat (got two accounts in high plat). This is the point I had the stark realization that I am taking this game too seriously and that the game took a negative toll on my academics and lifestyle. I was barely passing classes and was not doing anything productive in college. I also realized I was alienating myself away from my lower ranked real life friends because I do not enjoy playing with them in ranked teams anymore as there is def a stark difference in skill. As an ADC, nothing is more frustrating when your support cannot keep up. I never raged at them, but I didn't find it fun at all to play with them. With this realization, I decided to stop climbing, start a smurf, and learn roles I never main'ed. With that, I played a lot of jungle, mid, and top. This helped me tremendously in understanding the game. Yet along with smurfing, I also became less competitive and focused on having fun. I had superior mechanical skill relative to my tier and I focused on making flashy plays. This was another renewal of interest for me asI don't feel stressed over this game nor spent too much time on it. I was able to place all my accounts to plat by the end of season five. It was also at this time I changed my life around in college and decided pursue other hobbies.

As preseason 6 rolls around, I felt like I have done it all. I've gone through the learning phase, the competitive phase, the ranked 5/3 phase, the learn other role phase, and the fuck around phase. I just cannot bring myself to do it all again so I stopped playing all entirely. My gaming friends gradually all quit (got a job, moved on, got girlfriends..etc) and I just do not see myself playing this game anymore. I found other fun hobbies to do (go to concerts 'plurrrrrrr', travel, photography, eateries, or just hanging out...etc). Looking back, I am actually quite disillusioned staying home all day playing league. It was unhealthy, unproductive, and "uncool". After a half a year break, I tried picking this game up again today but it just felt incredibly dry. I finished one game and did not want to play another. This, however, suddenly made me felt incredibly sad as I've plenty of memorable memories with league. I guess this post is my way to part ways with a game I spent so much time on. We had a good run but I do not think I will come back again.