@Riot A moment about lore

So assuming you are reading this and actually work for Riot, thank you for your time in advance, I appreciate it. If you don't work for Riot and you're reading this, thank you for your time regardless, I still appreciate it.

Onward to the actual post. So I ended up taking a break from playing League for about a year and a half do to not having a computer, and a few (personally) disturbing changes have apparently happened in the mean time, this being in regards to the lore of Valoran and even the existence of the League of Legends. Now for many people I'm sure this will not make a big difference, they simply want to play and that is perfectly fine, I on the other hand am an absolute lore junkie. I even have proof of this claim, in case you were wondering, I spent hours at a time pouring over every scrap of lore that I could find, the actual in game lore, League judgements, the Journal of Justice, every scrap I could get my hands on I read it, it took me nearly 6 months to hunt down everything I could and read it all.

That aside I began having a few issues during the Freljord overhaul, the amount of retconing made my head spin, completely unrelated champions were just getting thrown there to get rid of any champion with no allegiance to a major faction, yes I am referring to Trundle, Gragas, and Udyr primarily. Shortly after this overhaul I lost access to a computer and so I waited, I kept up to date with all the new champions coming out, watching gameplay, reading lore, I did everything I could to be involved with what was happening using nothing but a slow wifi connection and a cellphone. I recently got a new computer, and was joking around with a few of my friends in-game, saying that whatever summoner was in charge of controlling a glitchy minion needed to be fired. At that moment someone dropped the hammer and said that Summoners were no longer a part of the lore, and everything I could look up on the matter seemed to confirm it.

For a while now I have been debating both sides to myself, why it could be good, why it could be bad, and overall I have come to the conclusion that it is good for strictly gameplay. There is now complete freedom with champion design now that there is no needed justification of why a champion would choose to fight in the League, anything is possible, look at Bard's lore for example, four sentences. Four sentences of lore is the only thing within the in-game client. I remember when champion lore was a short story, a way to connect the player with their champion of choice, a way to make themed teams more than just "AOE Burst comp", I remember the outcasts team, the animalistic rage comp. I enjoyed the stories that came of games, a game where I was playing Singed and my team was all Noxians and Zaunites, and we were losing by four towers with two inhibs down, and the team was giving up hope, so I turned it into a roleplay, I became the leader of a group of broken souls mustering as much courage as I could before storming across the Fields of Justice, on one final assault to bring glory to our homelands, one last run in the name of Noxus, and for the glory of Zaun, one last run into the arms of oblivion. We won that game. Against all odds we broke over them like a wave across the beaches of the world, in that moment we were heroes, true champions of our respective lands, we had truly become legends.

In my opinion the game no longer has those moments. Competitiveness has gotten in the way of fun. I used to run Alistar top lane whenever I would have a bad day, just to feel like I was indestructible, now if you try your entire team just yells at you and reports you if nobody dodges before the game even starts. There is too much focus on how competitive the game is, the lore is meaningless now for the most part, most who have been around for long enough to remember the Judgements and Journal of Justice either don't play anymore, feel the lore is woefully incomplete, or have ceased to care about the lore. Every retcon and drop in quality of lore just makes it feel like I'm watching this magical, wondrous world decay and die before my very eyes, all for the sake of competitive gameplay and easier justification for why champions exist.

I'm not going to pull the whole "I'm not angry, just disappointed" stereotypical fatherly guilt trip, for one thing nobody would really care, for another thing it really isn't my place to try to make anyone feel bad. I just wish there was a way to keep the fun in the game without adding in new champions because everyone is bored of playing (Insert champion here), and I feel like strong lore like it used to have is what made people love the game from day one years ago, and not just the game, but love the characters within it. Side note here, because I feel it is necessary, Ekko's lore is a strong reminder of how all lore used to be, and I am pumped for him. I play Shaco exclusively because of his lore, I can say the same for Trundle's old lore, Fiddlesticks, Urgot, the old lore for Sion (May not have changed, I can't keep up with all the changes), I loved Soraka's old lore.

At this point I realise this is rapidly becoming a rant, and I apologise for that. Thank you for your time if you managed to read this entire post, I've just been holding this opinion in for a long time and it hit breaking point this afternoon. Please feel free to share your opinions on the matter in the comments, whether you agree or disagree with me, especially if you do work for Riot, I would love to hear from someone with a more inside view of things.