Why do I keep playing? It’s a question I’ve been asking myself a lot lately.
I first started playing because I was active on MTGSalvation at the time, but was mostly just staying to play Mafia since I was jobless and couldn’t afford to keep throwing money at magic. Some of my friends on there played League so I figured it was something to get into to replace Magic since it was free.
I joined just after Vayne was released. The first champion I feel in love with and bought was Garen. But once I got level 30 I found myself being drawn to the jungle. The season 1 jungle was probably the most satisfying of any jungle. Not the most fun or the best, that distinction belongs to Season 4, but you when you succeeded in Season 1 you felt like you earned it.
I don’t know how or why I stayed through Season 2. The jungle was awful and you felt bad playing it. Really it was probably just because I enjoyed playing Gragas mid that I stayed. There was something satisfying about playing a fat man and dealing a ton of damage with alcohol and body fat.
Season 3 was more about proving that I could be better at the game.
Season 4 was the best. The jungle was fun to play. Conservation was great. And Spirit of the Elder Lizard was the most satisfying item I’ve ever played with in league, especially on Garen. Also I could feel myself get better and by the time the season ended I was high Gold.
Preseason 5 was fun for the novelty of the changes and being able to do stupid cheesy things with Pantheon. But overall I would say that the jungle is average, better than Season 2 and 3, worse than Season 1 and 4. The smite changes while cool at first, soon lost their novelty. But thanks to honing my game and the introduction of runeglave allowing me to spam Poppy jungle I was able to achieve Platinum.
But at this point I am at a crossroads. I think I could reach Diamond. But it’s something I would have to dedicate myself to. And I don’t think I want to put in the extra time. I would have to give up other things I enjoy to make it possible. But at the same time I feel like I am around my plateau with my current amount of play and dedication.
Also I am beginning to think the drive to get platinum was what was really driving me to keep playing. I don’t mean to imply the game isn’t fun. Because it is still a blast to play. But it is the other stuff around the game that is making playing tough.
To understand why this is, you have to understand almost every single champion I have played a lot and tried to main gets changed into something I just don’t enjoy playing because they take away what I enjoy playing about them.
They changed Gragas from a burst mage to a tank. AP Yi which they just removed from the game. They changes Zilean’s reliable double Q into a hard to hit skill shot. I tried to learn Veigar after the Zilean change. But by the time I started to enjoy him they changed his Q to a skillshot and added a delay to his E, which just made him awkward to play. And Morde who they changed from a burst mage to a juggernaut (though I do love Ghost Dragon). And that is only mid lane.
They changed my ever reliable Garen into a champion that no longer has what I loved and thought was unique about him, a strong silence and the best early game in the game, for a mini game passive and a late game. And right now I am sort of resigned to the fact that Poppy is going to change soon, and she is going to lose some of the things I love about her.
At this point the only champion I play regularly that I feel won’t soon be or hasn’t been changed will be Nasus. But even then I do expect if Nasus ever needs to be nerfed, the nerfs will hit me harder than other Nasus players, because I don’t play Nasus the prescribed way. I don’t go out of my way to stack my Q. I don’t like mini games. But I love the rest of Nasus’s kit, which works out fine for me now because Q is his weakest skill. So I play Nasus in a way that maximizes the rest of his kit. But because his Q is his identity any nerf will probably be to the other parts of his kit.
At this point in time I am just beginning to feel resigned to the fact that Riot doesn’t want to support the way and type of champions I want to play. I can’t remember the last time Riot has released a champion that I said I want to main this champ. All champs (plus the champs they rework) nowadays seem to be all skillshots, overloaded, mobility, overly complex, have some sort of mini game mechanic, or some combination of these. Where I enjoy simple champions, with few to no skillshots (or at the very least easy to hit), no mini games, with strong reliable damage, but with a strong drawback(s) that has to be managed. I can’t remember the last time a champion like that was released.
I don’t really blame Riot for this. I understand why they want to go in the direction they are. But I won’t say coming to this realization has been easy. So if I had to say the reason I keep playing LoL would be because I want to enjoy it while I can. Because I expect someday there will be no more champions I love to play.
and running around like a headless chicken while laughing, and I love playing Final Boss 
and the particle effects. I hate how Pro-Centric the game has become, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't love playing 
or 
in my Low Elo games.
or 
because I don't feel Outplayed, I feel Cheated because anyone can get shut down through Hard Crowd Control. But at the same time, I feel an exhilarating feeling when I play 
and I land that Four man Gravity Field into a full combo, or if I play 
and I get off an uninterrupted Lifeform Disintegration Ray.
and I hate certain champions. I hate Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas because at the end of that twenty minutes to an hour I lose everything, but I can't pretend there aren't Highs too, like the time I 1v3ed with Old 
in the top lane and got a Triple Kill, or that one incredible time I completely controlled a match with a 21/0/12 Blackfrost 
and felt like a God among men.
becoming the god of utility while 
hasn't gotten so much as a peep. I hate some things that Riot does, and that this game does and is, but I'm going to keep coming back to these forums, and to my roleplaying community, and even logging on the game because at the end of the day the Good shines just as bright.
As long as Riot keeps making great champions like these, I'll never leave this game.
