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Reasons why League is detrimental to your health

Mike Teavee·6/14/2015, 5:02:23 AM·72 votes·7,729 views

Have you ever come home from a long day at work or a boring day at school and been itching to try out that new build you've been thinking of? Have you ever had a rough day and thought you would hop on League to pass some time and ease some stress?

I know I have. I know that League has become somewhat of an addiction to me over the years. I started near the end of season 2, having played it for a little bit on its release. I didn't like it so I stopped playing it until season 2 was ending. I quickly leveled my account with friends and began my journey to improve as a player.

Along the way, I had read countless guides, watched numerous videos, and done A TON of research to become the best player I could be. I was constantly analyzing pro players and their builds, why they built that way, and how their decisions affected the outcome of the game. I found myself climbing the ranked ladders. From Bronze to Silver to Gold and into my Platinum promotional series.

I am a player that seems to carry either heavy winning streaks or heavy losing streaks. I guess you could say I go slightly on tilt, but there are games where I will get teams of toxic players that do nothing but trash talk each other, as if we didn't all have the same goal - to win.

From Platinum promos - losing them twice - I dropped down the ranked ladder on a nasty losing streak that would ultimately result in my Gold III rank, from Gold I. From Gold III, I started to lose interest in League and the rankings, as the season had already ended. So before season 5, and after season 4, I dropped my rank from Gold III to Silver II. I just didn't care. I'd get flamed multiple games in a row and it would set me on a stress-filled warpath to losing.

Not only did my play in-game struggle, but I found myself getting aggravated in real life as well as letting frustration and stress get to me. Even in games where I would give it my all and carry my team, regardless of the amount of toxicity, we would lose. As a team game, the phrase, "You just aren't good enough to carry," isn't true. It shouldn't be solely your responsibility to bring a deadweight game back to life. There are 5 players on the team. That means that there is a 20% chance that each player with either to well or do poorly. If you are the only player doing well, you are running on 20% out of 100%. If you are getting dumped on and your team is carrying you, that could be 80% efficiency. If everything is going wrong and no one is willing to work together, you are at 0%.

So not only are the odds not in your favor, but coining the sentence that you aren't good enough to carry is just unbelievably ignorant. In a game where toxicity has become a mainstream and trolling goes unpunished, the whole aspect of it being a "team" game just becomes irrelevant.

When I first started League, the toxicity was bad. As League progressed and more and more players were introduced to LoL, the toxicity became unbearable.

I find more times than not that I leave the game - win or loss - feeling dehumanized and wondering why I even force myself to endure such a torment for such a small and meaningless game. My friends and family don't understand why I still play because I will share stories of what people have said or done to me in the game that make even Call of Duty look friendly.

Physically, sitting for as long as the games can last is bad for your posture as well as your blood flow. Your health can deteriorate without you even realizing it. The games last anywhere from 25-65 minutes, which is a long time to be sitting down focused on a computer screen. Couple that with the anxiety that fucking up will result in a slew of new titles that you never even knew you were - like fuckboy, %%%%%%, dickhead, and things of the like.

Where do all the bad people go? Well, for about two years Riot had disabled the Tribunal. Though they claimed to be dishing out bans and mutes to players, it was very rare that I ever met a player with chat restrictions. Not only that, but there have been times where I have had an intentional AFK on my team and I will see them still playing League a day or two later, because by chance I get the same person in my game again.

Currently, in Season 5, I placed low due to my MMR tank in the off season. I climbed the ladder back with no problem. I have made it to Gold III and failed my Gold II promos 4 times now. And I am talking 0-2 failures. Even if I am on a winning streak, I seem to lose both games every time I make it to those promos. And then I get demoted to Gold IV. Then to Gold V. And I am back to square one.

And by this point, I am wondering why I even waste my time. I know I am a better player than my rank. I have proven it time and time again. But in a game where the slightest mistake can set you under fire, the pressure is always on your shoulders.

The worst part is that when someone flames, the rest of the team often joins in to use the victim as a scapegoat for anything that goes wrong. So not only is the victim being repeatedly bashed by the main aggressor, but also being attack by the bandwagon teammates who can't accept the fact that they might possibly be the problem.

Couple that with lack of coordination, downright refusal to work as a team, and repetitive mistakes and throws, and you've got yourself 8/10 games of solo queue. There is no way that this amount of pressure and stress on the mind, straining your thoughts and eyes to take everything in, for a solid hour, produces anything good.

I find that more often than not, I will leave a game feeling worse off than when I entered the game. No matter if I played extremely well or if I played bad. Instead of promoting positivity and good dynamics for a team to follow, allies tend to focus more on the mistakes you make. I could be 9-0 and the one time I die, I get shit talked so hard I lose all morale and don't even want my team to win anymore.

Though Riot has been saying they are working on perfecting the justice system, when will we see improvements to overall game dynamic? When you play a handful of games extremely well and still lose due to your teammates arguing with each other or someone trolling, is it really fair? I know life isn't fair but I find it completely odd that with a company so dedicated to eSports and developing a proper and positive face for Riot Games would let their game become infamous as the most toxic community to exist.

Stop gimping on the parts that actually matter and effect the people that play the game. Start implementing rules for quicker trials and executions. Implement a system that works. All of this talk and all of these statistics that @RiotLyte likes to throw out are never backed up by experiential data. I think out of the past 5 games, all 5 have had 1-3 teammates either arguing with each other or just being an overall jerk to the entire team because their play was sub-par.

After tonight, losing my ranking (I was in promos for gold III tonight and lost them due to two AFK's) and ending up back in Gold V because of nonstop toxicity, I am considering just removing LoL and discarding it as a sad and pointless portion of my life.

A game I used to enjoy causes nothing but stress and anger anymore. It's sad that I used to be so adamant about becoming the best and ranking up and the only thing stopping me from continuing that attitude is the freedom the community has to get away with murder. _ In conclusion_, I'd just like to say that I have spent a lot of time on League. Sadly, I cannot get that time back. I have worked so hard and repeatedly lost it all only to continue the cycle. It has become a monotonous waste of time where the only thing people seem to be good at in the game is making sure you know they want you to kill yourself IRL.

I used to respect Riot - they used to be about the people and listen to community suggestions. Like all companies that started from nothing, Riot Games rose to stardom and have since forgotten the humble beginnings that brought them thus far in the first place. Monetary value before health of the community is the main concern. New skins, champions, and icon packs are higher priority than promoting healthy gameplay outside of competitive play.

The health of this game and the health of the players will only continue to suffer. This game will age and become irrelevant and all we can do is look back on it and talk about how good it is that this scourge of a community has finally dissipated.

78 Comments

Rossonious6/14/2015, 12:00:42 PM29 votes

Just playing devils advocate here but I've never played a MOBA before league and just started playing ranked between season 4-5. I was put in Bronze 5 when I dove from normals to ranked right at lvl 30 and couldn't seem to improve enough to carry my horrible teammates.

Rather than give up or become disheartened I took steps to improve myself. During the past few months I've:

  1. organized my sales coworkers across the nation into tiers based on stats with the goal of eventually making the top 200 someday (I'm climbing to "platinum" as I type!)
  2. stopped abusing alcohol
  3. started sleeping 8 hrs a day (went so far as to score a used temperpedic!)
  4. spend more time with my wife, we eat dinner together every night now
  5. joined gym and hired personal trainer to check on my fitness 4 days a month

I have more I need to work on and am always gradually improving but the fun thing about making these life changes are they're secretly motivated by a desire to get a high score in a competitive multiplayer game hahahaha.

So far since I've started playing this year I'm on pace to earn $25,000 more than last year (I'm commission only), become much more healthy feeling/looking, and amazed my family by basically going from a semi depressed corp zombie to a motivated happy person who feels like he's improving.

Oh, yeah, and bronze finally feels super easy. Lost my first promos to silver (ever!!) just yesterday but had bronze 2s and silver 5s on my team vs silver 3s :). The system loves stacking the deck on you in promos lmao but I'll be back in them shortly.

Anyway, all I'm saying is mute the trolls, take good care of yourself, and try to only play for fun. You're getting way too stressed by things you can't 100% control.

Sammystorm6/14/2015, 9:13:23 AM13 votes

Honestly I agree with most, not quite all, of what you say. I think the biggest take away is that the extended down time of the tribunal has made the game's community disintegrate and Riot instead of trying to fix it or do something. They have left the tribunal down and have taken more aggressive stance against afk's They however have not been this lax about the community ever before. Hell their are even guides on lolking explaining how to troll and why it is a good time because the tribunal is down. It is a bad time to be part of this community.

arcinex6/14/2015, 8:42:57 AM7 votes

That was beautiful.

CrazedPorcupine6/14/2015, 8:48:13 AM5 votes

And you've put into words why I don't play ranked, and I don't play league more than 1 or 2 games every couple of days.

Lulu Magica6/14/2015, 5:23:58 PM5 votes

I didn't read this whole thing, sorry, but I do agree with the parts about the horrid community. It's definitely worse this season and I've been avoiding ranked because of it. Kids will literally spend the entire game TYPING and then wonder why they lose so much. You should never ever have time to type, unless you're dead and it's "It's ok team, we got this. Doing good!"

I've found that being positive no matter what really helps, and last season for me was so much fun because more people knew this. Or maybe I just got lucky with grouping last season, idk, but this season is just awful. I was in S1 and lost my promos into gold and it's just been downhill from there. If you can't say something at least nice then just keep your mouth shut, you have no idea how bad you make yourself look when you try to start a war in a 20-30 min internet game. Go pet a puppy or something.

Mike Teavee6/14/2015, 2:21:11 PM5 votes

Thank you all for taking the time to read this wall of text post. I appreciate it. I wish a RED would get a look at it, too.

ohaiii6/14/2015, 5:23:28 PM3 votes

this game would be much less toxic if LP was earned on an algorithm based on personal performance rather than win/loss.

Crett6/14/2015, 5:32:55 PM2 votes

the game only needs two things from you to be healthier irl friends to play with you, and stop playing ranked because ranked is hell no matter what

The Lexer6/14/2015, 2:34:58 PM2 votes

Really good post man. Hope Riot notices this

TheRainInSpain6/14/2015, 3:01:43 PM2 votes

New build? Get threats. New champion? People scream meta breaking. Being forced into a role you don't play very well? Omfg noob uninstall get shot by gangs.

Ranked is ten times worse.

Wumachine6/14/2015, 3:33:37 PM2 votes

tl;dr

Project Riven6/14/2015, 3:51:30 PM2 votes

The majority of the league community can be put into two categories.

Sadistic and Masochist Accuser and the Accused Aggressor and Defender

The rest will fall into the Neutral category.

To elaborate what those categories mean, either category will be detrimental to your health. You're either the person raging or the person being raged at. Then there is the neutral category where people can play the game and be unaffected by any comments and action of the game.

With that said, I think what this does is, it brings out this side of you in real life. For me personally, I think I've gotten more grumpy in real life ever since I played League. People make little mistakes and I would question myself and sometimes confront them as to why they do it.

The thing that use to really anger me in League is losing and because of that, I was categorized as the Aggressor due to me raging at people making stupid mistakes.

Over time, I start to realize how this is affecting my real life and that not everything can go perfect the way you want them to. Although what League brought to me is still lingering within me, I've learned that to actually enjoy life and League (which I love to play), and that I must not fall under either of those first two categories. I've learned to ignore people making comments like "why" or any other raging comments and just play the game neutrally. There are even times, when I am in the mood, I would even make a humor out of people's comments and mistakes and honestly, this is the best method to extinguish any raging and stuff that affects your enjoyment of the game.

So ask yourself this important question, which category do you want to be in?

Mike Teavee6/14/2015, 6:01:54 PM2 votes

Thank you for all of your feedback, guys. I really enjoy this type of constructive criticism and positive thoughts. No one has been disrespectful thus far and I just want to say that I appreciate that more than I can express. Hopefully this thread can continue to grow so maybe it will catch the attention of a RED

LoL Ergo Urgot6/15/2015, 3:41:47 AM2 votes

I don't play ranked anymore. I play normals. Best thing is when I get afks, ragers, or inept players who need more experience, I don't loose any lp. I try to play with a mentality (if something goes wrong) "Oh my, that was less than fortunate, what do I need to do to improve that scenario".

I've lost respect for riot's ranking system, and I don't take them serious on their "Competitive game" propaganda. I play the game for what it is.

Good post, I can sympathize with the majority of this.

Silents4296/14/2015, 6:24:36 PM1 votes

Oh good it all boiled down to "We want tribunal, Riot's report system sucks"

Wonderful.

Mike Teavee6/16/2015, 4:13:55 AM1 votes

bump

AsheGetsGanked6/15/2015, 4:01:44 AM1 votes

I'll comment on this post. I'm generally a toxic player, however, i wanna make it clear why this has happened. First, it's more of a reactive effect on me. I don't want to be toxic to others, but I cannot help myself when somebody else is also being toxic or the team just does the stupidest things ever. You know the toxicity of a person just builds up and up to the point where there isn't really where a player can be reformed. I for myself cannot be reformed as this game isn't worth trying to be nice to other people. There's no point in simply reforming, because you just clearly stated why.

I don't enjoy the game like I used to.

Jragon Justus6/15/2015, 4:16:09 PM1 votes

Just the other day, I freaked out and had an anxiety attack during a game (actually, it was right when my friend said "want to play a normal?"). I was 5 - 0 with Lucian for pete sakes...I was doing "good." I thought about it hard and realized I am conditioned to feel that way now because I got "yelled" at so much before by people. I wasn't even getting talked to by anyone! It was the fear that they eventually would. They didn't. It took 2 hours for me to calm down again.

Creamy Seaman6/15/2015, 4:33:33 PM1 votes

I needed this wake up call. I'm done. It's like playing a rigged lottery machine that draws in addicts. Uninstalling. Costing way too much money with very little reward. Bye guys.

ShaftyMegee6/15/2015, 5:30:29 PM1 votes

I had a really hard time reading this. You jumped from point to point back to points to much

air tiger6/15/2015, 7:01:10 PM1 votes

To all the internet sheep clones begging for a TL;DR - please, fuck off. Enjoy your virtual illiteracy and the plentiful bounty that comes with it.

Mike Teavee6/16/2015, 3:30:28 AM1 votes

So, to bring back my points in this post, I will provide you with a screenshot of the game I just got out of. Darius lost top (0-6 in 10 minutes), Malphite went mid, and bot lane was constantly dead. Now I was trying to help top and mid as best as I could. Literally no one would listen to pings, calls, or anything. I was trying to just be a neutral factor in the game until I got farmed up and hit 6. I ganked many times, despite their accusations.

I marked out the names for Riot's Policy's sake, but feel free to take in the community. After 55 minutes of being called retarded, trash, bad, garbage, shit, and to kill myself, I was getting pretty tired of it. At one point in the game, the 5-15 Darius said, "We'll just all 4 report you cuz u suck and its 4 reports to 1 so gl LOL"

TurquoiseYoshi6/14/2015, 2:02:42 PM1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Mike Teavee,realm=NA,application-id=cIfEodbz,discussion-id=VewkYHew,comment-id=,timestamp=2015-06-14T05:02:23.539+0000)

Couple that with the anxiety that fucking up will result in a slew of new titles that you never even knew you were - like fuckboy, faggot, dickhead, and things of the like.

I get that regularly from one of my friends. But seriously, I know what you mean. This game has a horrible community, maybe not the worst, but horrible.

Mike Teavee6/16/2015, 3:32:07 AM1 votes

@Riot, are you ever going to actually give a shit about the stigma this game carries? Take a second and step back from the money and the publicity that eSports gives you and give back to the players who make this game even possible. Without us, this game would just be another useless MOBA. And this community is the worst scourge I have ever witnessed. When will you take a stand to make a change? Or are we just going to keep getting Lyte's bullshit Twitter replies on statistical data with no backing?