how league of legends feels at first and then how it feels now

I personally still enjoy league. At it's worst you'll have some toxic people doing stupid shit but with the steady stream of new champs and the variety of game play it's always a shit ton of fun.

That's true for any video game. League actually has a very good long-lasting appeal IMO

Honestly, I've had the opposite experience. I found learning the game and grinding up to 30 to be immensely frustrating. I made stupid mistakes, knew I was making stupid mistakes, and was having my teammates take it out of my hide rather than helping in the vast majority of cases. It seemed like I was playing with as many smurfs as other newbies, and they would just take over games and abuse the other players. I also had no sense of value for how to manage my IP, the relative importance of building a champion pool vs. runes, and so on and felt leagues behind. This isn't particularly surprising, and I don't really blame Riot for much of it. While they could improve the onboarding experience for new players it is an area they are aware of and working on. It is a difficult problem. League is a very mechanically complex game, with lots of moving parts, and enjoyment will naturally increase along with mastery.

As a result, I now enjoy League a great deal more. I've been able to gather people I enjoy playing with on my friends list, started climbing the ranked ladder, and start learning multiple roles. I started as a support main simply because it was the role that nobody else wanted, and that was the only way I could reliably get practice in a single role. I've now gotten to the point where I can pick up jungle and top, and am now working on mid/adc. There's a huge range of champions and playstyles to explore. I just got Yasuo as my free champ and tried him out in a custom vs. bots. I'm terrible with him, but had a blast. I'm going to train up on him incase I ever need to fill as an AD mid. The future is bright.

There is a lot of magic that you get at the start, its so great. You try out your first few champions and actually have fun leveling up. That magic just starts going away after awhile.

I remember when I was like level 16 and carried with Teemo every game. I laugh at that now. With that being said I enjoy it better to some degree now.

yup. I remember when the game seemed so cool and fun. Expansive and interesting. Then you realize everything is pigeon holed into specific roles, the community is full of assholes and you barely have the nerve to queue up let alone find the game fun anymore..

Made me remember my early days of carrying with "Useless Soraka who does nothing", rally promote with innervating locket aoe-healing, and the AP boots (sorcs used to give AP).. ahhhhh How Riot has ruined my favorite champion.. No longer gives armor, no longer has her resist aura, no longer restores ally mana pools, no longer shreds resist.. Lost her heal-over-time over 5 years ago, I still miss that (and Teemo's old passive. lol) Good rework anyway, but those are the reasons I picked her.

They really should make a support built from the discarded remains of other supports.

10/10 would agree again.

once you get used to trolls, feeders, and afks its not so bad :)

I've always had a simple rule with myself. Have fun. I don't play ranked (ranked still doesn't matter in my eyes, its all a game isn't it?) and I've always had the mentality that if you're playing a game and not having fun then you should stop playing that game. I have fun even when my team loses because either way, I'm playing a furry little dinosaur that turns into a big furry dinosaur, or a dude who really really knows his stuff about air currents ( ). I have fun because I enjoy the gameplay of the game, I enjoy the art style and I enjoy the characters. I still try my hardest, but I don't get stressed if my hardest isn't enough.

How ranked feels at first and then how it feels now.

I still enjoy it, but the poor balance, the struggling devs trying to push diversity so that the same op champs keep being played or someone exploiting an item, the toxicity really kill it.

I still really like it, but i always have to tell others like a sort of disclaimer "the game is has several new champs most if not all op, mean ppl everywhere, just unlock a few champs since the others just have identity crisis (including the op ones... an assassin that is tanky as Braum or Garen and takes sesveral turret shots and still gets a triple kills and walks away??? Makes no sense).

Still fun though.

TBH a lot of the issues with the game are with the poor management and the massively inflated champion pool. When the game was smaller it was easier to keep healthy. S5 definitely isn't my favorite season tho I think it'll get better as Riot has more opportunities to patch up their mistakes... tho they really take their time.