Hardest League Decision I've Ever Made...

I started this game right after Xin Zhao was released. I've played every single game mode Riot ever released, and more or less every champion. (I think I haven't played Aurelion Sol and that's it.)

I remember the game before there was any meta at all, before people even consistently jungled. I remember when ADCs laned mid. I remember (and loved) Metagolem. I remember every ADC, Assassin, Mage, Tank, Junlger, Roam, and Bruiser metas of all different types and kinds.

I remember when Fnatic won Season 1 Worlds, when M5 exploded into the scene and changed the meta into the basic outline that it has today. I remember when everyone thought TPA would never win worlds, and I predicted their 3-1 win and my friends damn near shit themselves that I was right. (Who could imagine someone would beat Korea!?)

I remember C9 exploding into the NA scene and then letting us all down in Season 3, and every single disappointment and success of all my favorite pro teams over the course of the past 6 years. (Dignitas, H2K, and C9 all the way! Good or bad, I root for my teams damn it.)

I remember the lore ret-con that destroyed the lore that I had invested hours into reading and re-reading. I remember Eve tier, and Olaf tier, and every other garbage canning that Riot has given champions (and some tiers that people never even talk about because it would be "wrong" for a "beginner" champion to be good).

I remember when people like Morello would talk with us on the forum, and god damn did I love GD. Even when Riot was getting more hate than a Satanist at a Southern Baptist Convention, badasses like Morello would still brave the gauntlet of shit to talk with the upset playerbase. And I remember when we switched over to these boards, and for all their nice little features it just wasn't the same.

I remember when Riot began shopping around the idea of teambuilder, dynamic Q, and the new champ select. I remember thinking that teambuilder or dynamic q would be great for normals, but would/should never replace ranked 5s or solo q... and how it completely replaced both anyway.

I remember ever single rework of a champion that lost its identity and of every champion that Riot got right. I also remember every knew champion they've released that basically replaced or wrecked an older champion.

And, through all of that, I've stuck around. The unbelievably good, the catastrophically bad, and the garishly ugly. But I won't stick around anymore. Make no mistake, I've never had as much fun with any video game as I did with League at its best. Whether playing with a team of friends or alone with randos, this game was the best I ever played from a fun perspective.

None of that changes the fact I won't stick around anymore. No other game has killed league for me, I honestly doubt whether any game could have killed league for me. No, Riot killed LoL for me. They broke the champions, they broke their queue, they broke their lore, and they broke their interactions with the community. I've spent several thousand dollars on this game, I had always come back to play before, but this time I know its different. I've thought about logging on, but nothing motivated me to.

Riot, you may never get me back, honestly. BUT, you may stop losing people like me if you just listened to us for a change. Give us solo q back. Stop destroying champions, and for the love of god let champions who have always been bad be good for ANY length of time. You may be right in the idea that we don't know what we want, but we sure as hell know what we don't want.

I'll miss this game like I've missed no other, not even WoW was as fun to me at its best (WotLK) as LoL was. But I learned the lesson a long time ago that when I go back to a game that has slowly ruined itself at best it'll be fun for a month or two before I remember all the reasons that I left.

I loved this game. Averaged more than a game a day in the past 6 years, probably closer to an average of 3 or 4 (and that's with damn near no play over the past 2+ months). I'll miss it, honestly, but I missed it when I was playing it. Its just not the game I loved so much.

TL;DR: I started LoL 6 years ago right after Xin Zhao came out, and played pretty consistently since. No game killed it for me, Riot did. And I'll miss LoL like I've not missed any other game because its was once the best damn game I ever played. I'll check this post a couple times in the next few days, but after that I'm out for good.