Lore's not in a bad spot (Unpopular Opinion - League Edition) (#3 is best number)

TL;NotGonnaR: I'm gonna make a case FOR the current lore and be downvoted hardcore. Read it before it's destroyed!

Ah, Lore. There's a constant stream of "lore sucks", "bring back the old lore", or "there is no lore". I'm gonna address each of these here

1. "Lore sucks" Lore is one of those things, especially in the MOBA genre, that operates under the Futurama adage: "When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all". Very infrequently will people get together and post threads like "THIS LORE KICKS ASS", granted there will be fans of story arcs or certain characters. But I would argue that the current storytelling methodology employed by Riot is the best means by which to tell a story. There are a few different ways to tell a story in a huge and VERY varied group like champs in LoL:

• Backstory A new character shows up, you learn a bit about him/her, and BOOM. They're in the game. You might have a grasp of their motivation or personality, but this tends to be a pretty stagnant version of storytelling. More on that later. Notable game: SMITE. Smite gives you the lore (really, mythos) behind each of their additions. As it is mythology, it is a tad... set in stone. You might recognize this as OLD LEAGUE. A character is introduced, they have some sort of judgment, and... that was about it. Sure there were faction-based interactions between characters, but this told you more about factions, and in the end user experience you don't PLAY as Demacia. You PLAY as Garen. Telling a story about Garen is, in the end, a closer and more relate-able story

• Nothing A new character appears. That's it. But hey, they're pretty cool/cute/funny/awesome. Notable game: Smash Bros. A challenger approaches. That's it.

• Interaction Characters exist in the world, but learning more about them involves spending time with them and seeing first hand how they interact with other characters. This is a dynamic and engaging means of telling a story over otherwise unrelated events (different matches). You may recognize this as WHAT RIOT IS TRYING TO DO RIGHT NOW. Each new champ/rework is introducing more and more of these. From Yasuo remarking on Riven's style to Sion telling Urgot he's cool now, these interactions can be entertaining and rewarding to witness; truth be told, Riot could stand to make them a touch more frequent or loud...

2. Bring back the old lore Sure there were characters. And yes, they belonged to factions, but the old method of story telling was both confusing and stagnant. Let's start with the Institute of War. Yes, it was a cool idea that wars were fought by summoner-wizards that could fight that guy from 300 against a little girl, but... frankly, was all of that necessary? The old lore had a nigh-impossible task of addressing TWO different worlds: the one that had all the characters in it (Runeterra and other entire worlds or universes or whatever in the case of some champs), but ALSO the weird meta world that explained summoners, why they're fighting, who the player in front of the monitor is in the continuity of the story and so on. This turned into a big mess that alienated newcomers through sheer wtf complexity and left little room to maneuver in terms of story telling. If your character is motivated to kill others, why would they join the league anyway? It's IMPOSSIBLE to kill champions in the IoW. As briefly mentioned above, it also facilitated wars between factions which, although potentially interesting, made the game sound like a big game of Risk rather than what it is: 5 super powered heroes hooligans and villains against another 5 equally super powered and equally strange awesome and glowing-eyed dudes. And dudettes.

3. There is no lore There IS lore. Although it comes out at a pace slower than most people like, there has never been a greater state of the lore. Relationships aren't stated by Riot, they're stated or implied through characters. Lucian hates ghosts. Good for you Lucian. How do I know this? Because he says so, not because a group of hooded ball-holding monks probed his brain before he entered a war-church wherein he could fight, but never kill, his most hated enemies. Sion is wearing J1's crown as a jaw. That's pretty metal, but also holy shit his jaw is a crown. The greatest disservice anyone has done for league, in my opinion, is release all the audio files and info about a champ before they hit live. This spoils all the lines, taunts, and interactions new champs have that collectively tell their story. I imagine a significant portion of lore-whiners are those that peruse these lines before the champ's even released and then, with no more 'new lore' to sate their bizarre appetite, complain. Between the content in game and the radical new trend of superb cinematic releases by riot, we're approaching a new level of awesome.

Just don't look at a polaroid picture seconds after it's come out and say "wtf this isn't what I was looking at when I took the picture"

Thank you and feel free to downvote into oblivion.