A letter to Riot: What League means to me

Now before we get too far into this. I want to point a few things out. This is more for the people of riot but I decided to post my thoughts to the general populous of this game. Many of you will not care, that is ok. Many of you might disagree, and that is also ok. But I wanted Riot to see what this game means to me.

There is no tldr.

First I want to share a little bit about myself and how I got into this game. I have been playing League since December of 2010, JUST before Caitlyn came out. Now I have a lot of games under my belt, almost 2k wins and slightly less losses (average of 100 games less). I don't normally play ranked but just enough to get silver for each season. I know I could be higher in the ranking system. But unlike what most people might think, I am not being held back because of bad teammates or afkers or elo hell or anything like that. I don't do better because I have no desire to BE better. I am happy and content where I am at so therefore I am not going to get better. Well consistently better I should say. And I am ok with that.

I saw the ads for the game on some websites and I honestly thought it was just another free to play mmorpg. a friend of mine wanted me to try. Said this game was different from any other game I have played. I didn't believe him but I decided to humor him all the same. And you know what, he was right, it was different then any other game I have played. I should say different in concept since I only played warcraft 2 and never touched any of the diablo-like games.

I remember being apprehensive about the first time going pvp since they didn't have co-op or anything like that. I wanted more training and practice first before going against other humans. Fortunately my friends had other friends to team up with me all the time. They basically helped me from level 1 all the way to 30. I will admit, this game can be very rough on new players who don't have friends to help them. Co-op helps a lot there but the people on co-op does not. I once witness a person getting mad at a new player (a friend of mine who was not even level 5) because he wasn't playing as well as he should have. Seriously? Getting mad at poor plays in co-op? Isn't that the place to learn what bad plays are?

I digressed a tad there. Everyone had their noobish moments. Mine came in two forms that I can remember. A) I thought the recommended items was the ONLY items I could get and B) I thought I had to buy the parts of an item before buying the full set. This mean I thought I had limited space so therefore I bought the items that took up the most space. I played Ashe starting so that was phantom dancer first. Boots and doran's blade last. Yep that kind of noob.

The reason why I bring these up is because they help explain why I feel a certain way about this game. All the memories I had of this game makes up the sum of what I feel.

I even remembered how I picked Lux, who became my main even to this day. I was looking at the store, thinking who to buy next. Since I was not even level 20 yet, I had no idea who any of the champs were and what they do or anything. All I had to go on was the picture. I did no research. Came down to Sona and Lux. Reason? Sona looked like she fought with an instrument, that looked cool. Lux fought with a staff of sorts. I do enjoy quarterstaffs. That basically was the deciding factor, the staff. Sometimes I wonder how different I would be playing this game if I had picked Sona first since Lux shaped how I play the game.

I remember some of the discussions that went on the old forum, how Lee Sin followed by volibear and Elise came to be (Funny enough all three people had almost the exact same opening post about if they get enough likes it might happen.) I remember even the showcase for Lee sin while the server was patching, how the guy after phreak picked Lee Sin and went top... with clarity. Was a honest mistake. I remember them doing that for Vayne, which I think was the one where they did it on a foreign server. Remembered the "LEGENDA!" the most. Might have been for another champ though.

I remembered all the changes, the nerfs and the buffs. Even the outbursts everywhere when they experienced a Nocturne ult for the very first time. Tell you what, that is not something we were likely to forget either. I joined the military but before shipping off I managed to get a game with some reds. I don't remember them all, one of them was something the third. I want to say it was Reginald but not 100% sure. I remembered I went support lux, then one of the strangest thing happened. All the rioters had to go afk for a company photo. SO yeah 1v5. I like to think I held my own pretty well. they came back at the last minute but the damage was done. They invited me to another game, one that we lost. Still was cool. Would love to repeat playing with the reds some more.

After I finished basic and all that (I went when Wu and Orianna came out) I felt the game changed. AP mid? adc bot? well that was new to me. Since then, the game has been changing quite a bit. Some I think was for the worst, and others I believed was for the better. I miss the old Journal of justice and the judgements of champs. I disagreed with the lore change they did of Kat, the one you read in the game. She was much cooler with the info of stealing sion's body from Garen's and J4's noses. That was pretty cool.

I enjoyed the visual updates. I enjoyed the Shurima update as well, although wish they would have done more to the lore of some of the champs changed. I have liked the changes to jungle so far myself, even though I am not a jungler. I wished they updated Lux's model more, her arms looks a little odd to me when she has them bent.

To top it off, this game is the thing that makes me feel old (27 btw) because not everyone remembers what it was like back then. "Back in my day, we didn't h ave co-op! We had to learn the hard way! No pampering for us! You kids these days have it so easy." I say that jokingly but it does make me feel my age more strangely enough.

So what does this game mean to me? I actually means a lot. This December will mark 5 years of me playing this game consistently (except for the 6 weeks in basic for obvious reasons) I feel like this game is a part of me. That a part of me is in this game even though I never had a direct hand in the development of the game. I guess it is similar to how people feel about their sports teams. I have given riot a lot of my money and never regretted it. They have given me a lot of good gaming times. Yes I have raged at this game (less now then when I first joined the military) and yes I have been frustrated at it, at Riot and the server and everything. But overall I had a good experience. I hear stories of trolls and afkers and what not. Yeah sometimes I get in game with someone with negativity but super rarely with a true troll and afkers. Dc'd folks is a horse of a different color. I still get games where I or someone else get dc'd for a time, sometimes for the rest of the game. It happens and yes I know it sucks.

What this game means to me is not something I can easily explain. But I do feel pride and joy over how successful this game has become. Excitement when I think about where not just the game but the LoL universe and lore will go. I want to see not just more Lore related things from riot but more fan creations that explores the world of Runeterra and the inhabitants. I like to see more of the everyday stuff and how people live there and what champions do between matches. That is why I liked the journal of justice. (one of my favorite parts from that is when they interviewed shaco.)

So riot, I hope you continue on the path that you are on. Many people have different opinions about what riot should be doing. I remember years ago a few of you predicted the death of league due to certain things and dota 2. Yeeeeeeah about that. By no means is Riot perfect, but then who is? They have a longer view and an inside knowledge of where they want to be. Not all changes may make sense now but down the road they might. (example, the removal of the gold items like HoG and replacing them)

Hats off to you, League of Legends, and thank you for the fun I had so far and here is to the future. EVEN IF League of legends gets shut down say tomorrow, the world will live on through it's fans. I feel like it has gotten big enough were people will make fan creations for it for a long time. I feel like it has left a sizable mark in not just history but the minds of people as well. Don't have to take my word for it, just look at all the mentions of League in a non video game magazine/website. Look at all the fan art, look at all the cosplays. Heck they are even changing the face of sports. Who can begrudge them of pushing their game into e-sports?

Sincerely,

_Hawkwolf, a proud Leaguer. _