I'm done playing League of Legends

superweenyhut·Feb 18, 2018·96 votes·15,934 views

To steal a quote from one of my favorite League players ever, I'm done playing League of Legends.

TL;DR This game made me into an asshole because being mean was more fun than playing the game. I don't want to be an asshole so I'm just not going to play.

Now, before you get out the pitchforks, this is not the typical rant about the balance team, or lack thereof amirite. No, this decision is being made for a lot or reasons honestly and while I will get into a few of them here, the main reason is that I do not like who I am when I play this game. It is just bad for me.

I have been playing this game for years now, preseason 5 not as long as a lot of you, but long enough to feel like I'm allowed an opinion of the game. There have been countless posts lately about how Riot ruined the game with X or Y, and while most of them have some essence of truth, I don't need to talk about those things.

I would rather talk about the community as a whole, and what kind of people are playing this game. There are a lot of memes about salt in League and it is truly an understatement. I know there a lot of quiet and kind players here, but the somewhat "vocal minority" are worth discussing. You probably already know who I'm talking about: the toxic flamespraying asshole that is gonna cost you some LP. I'm not even talking about people on the enemy team trying to tilt you in /all chat. Fuck these people too by the way, but I'm talking about your own god damn teammates. The ones that are instantly in your shit over any mistake. I know these people, for I could be their King.

I wasn't always like this. When I started playing, I would commend every half decent play someone made, even if it was someone on the other team. I was so wowed by the mechanics of a new game that I didn't care that I was losing.

But I am no longer in awe of this game, nor do I ever feel impressed with an outplay. Nearly every mistake I make, is made when I think "This will probably get me killed but.." And god fucking forbid a teammate fall into a trap that I saw coming. Maybe I danger pinged them 6 times first, and they still died- it is on. Years ago, I might have said something naive like "you'll get em next time!" But now I know better. I know they won't get em next time. On good days, I just /mute all and play it out, hoping for the best. But lately, more and more, I just have to say something. Something to let this fucking idiot know exactly how stupid he is for doing whatever he did wrong. We all know this doesn't help anything, but it doesn't stop me from relentlessly vomiting out generic, shitty, childish insults. And you can bet, next game when I make the exact same mistake and get killed, someone just like me is gonna flamespray, and it just goes on and on. And on.

I wasn't always like this. I used to just play this fun new game with friends from work after a long day. I used to decompress and relax. Today, having played what will be my last game, I got so angry that I started screaming. It occurred to me, that as a grown man, I let some truly meaningless game affect me a pretty serious way. You might say " well how could you get worked up over a video game, don't you realize how dumb that is?" And to that I say yes! I do realize that I'm an adult and should act like it. But there is something so wrong with this game, that it brings out this behavior in so many other adults that I think it is time someone addressed it.

I thought about why, and came up with a lot of the arguments we see from our favorite streamers these days. The game just isn't fun anymore. There are so many problems with balance and champion design that every loss just feels like it was over in champ select when your mid didn't bad "insert whatever champion here", and went 0/4. But losing a game like that is nowhere near as frustrating as a throw caused when players are flaming each other so hard that one of them decides, " I would rather lose than let my shitty teammate win" and then its over. Trust me, I have been on both sides of that sort of flame. I have done that and much worse. I did it yesterday when someone was really making my placements hard to win. And for the first time in years of playing, I got a punishment. A lousy 10 game chat restriction.

Then it occurred to me. That is why this game is so toxic. No one ever gets punished for their bullshit. In all honesty, I probably should have been banned last season. At least for 2 weeks. Last season, if my adc said one criticism to me, the support god that carried them in the lane, I would instant feed. I didn't care at all about winning after that. And this season, it started out even worse, and I only got a chat ban because I called my team "actuyal braindead human garbage" about 10 times.

That is the problem. Players acting like that day in and out for years have turned me into one of them. I'm not saying it was ok that I started acting that way, but I am saying it probably wouldn't have happened if they didn't exist in the first place. They exist because as long as they never flag the system with key words they will never really get caught. But they SHOULD. In every game I play, there is at least one other toxic player, sometimes more. Even when I try to be on my best behavior, and never type anything negative, there are still 2 teammates just fucking raging at each other. Meanwhile, the jinx and I that are stupidly fed just want to group and win, but they both refuse. The 12/1 jinx can't carry hard enough with just me and we lose a perfectly winnable game. They are having so little fun playing this game that they would rather flame than win.

The punishment system needs a dramatic overhaul. I get that players can have a bad game, and be a little rude in chat. I understand malphite players feeling like shit playing that champ, and talking it out on the jungle. But the constant griefing that is going on in this game is the problem, along with the community that accepts is. The enemy team never reports inting because they just got a free win, and even if your teammates do, they system can ignore a flag as long as they are not 0/10 with only boots, or some other wildness. The real toxic throws are hard to detect, but they are so frustrating that I can't play this game anymore. It makes me into a worse of a person. I used to have fun, but now I end a game mad that I even played. There are so many great games out there that just thrill and captivate the audience that it no longer makes sense to beat my head against the wall of league. The game is broken, the players are broken, and I feel so free to finally be done with it.

90 Comments

AngryWarchiefFeb 18, 201826 votes

"Its just a game" is a bad arguement. When someone is toxic, ints, flames, feeds, throws, these are real people, being real jerks, wasting other players real time. This is why it is such an emotionally charged situation. League is just a game (one of many) that is a vessel for human misbehavior.

This is what I see as the problem, the lack of respect and empathy for others in the community. And it does not matter that they get punished, you still lost your time and LP, that is another frustrating factor. You can say to yourself "well he will get banned and not be able to troll others" but the fact remains: your sense of enjoyment, your time, and your mood have been violated by a real person.

TokogawarufFeb 18, 20182 votes

So much this.

I never liked the "It´s just a (insert Gamemode/Game here)" Arguments, but now I have an actual Explanation why.

AwhegarkFeb 18, 201825 votes

The problem is that league forces you to play a game until the end. Imagine if someone put you in a roomed that is locked for 40 minutes, with 4 mentally unstable 19 year olds that wish you cancer every 20 seconds.

GigglesOFeb 18, 201813 votes

You mean the standard 9th grade classroom?

SadnessHimselfFeb 20, 20181 votes

Except in a 9th grade classroom they don't kick you out of the school for being toxic for those 40 mins.

GigglesOFeb 20, 20183 votes

Have you not heard of ISS OSS and expulsion?

Kingsman44Feb 16, 20191 votes

I know I'm late but I had ISS once worst day of school everrrrr. I would try to talk to someone and the teacher told us we had to be quiet. No phones. If we didn't have homework we just had to sit there and stare at the wall.

MkShenGreatAgainFeb 19, 20188 votes

I'm sensing a fiscal hit approaching for Riot soon, and I hope it's an impactful one. They've managed every single balance/punishment aspect of this game in to the ground and it's time they finally start feeling the reprocussions for it this season.

Subtle reminder that this player trolled for 460 FUCKING GAMES and still only got banned because they made the front page of Reddit.

http://www.op.gg/summoner/userName=permaban00151716

ˉˉˉˉˉˉFeb 19, 20182 votes

Exactly. The time you waste is not fantasy time, those 40 stress-filled minutes are permanently gone from your life, and there was ZERO enjoyment involved.

O B Wan KenobiFeb 19, 20184 votes

Riot loves to update and change things. chat is unnecessary. pings have the ability to say everything. delete the chat client riot. no one uses it for anything good. if you hadn't noticed.

SerialchainsawJun 30, 20182 votes

Your ideas on this are so true. I find it disgusting that people find it sooooo amusing to piss other people off in League. Huge waste of time, for everyone else AND the troll. I lack the ability to justify how any misbehaving team mate can cause a large loss of LP for me. These situations are alot deeper than me just starting to flame out of no where. It starts with someone else not paying attention, or also not listening to the team or a good call. Then you talk to them about why or how it happened and they come back with something that either didn't happen that way or they just don't make any sense about it. Next like OP said, you realize, no, your team mate won't "get them next time." Because when communicating with them, they proved to you their lack of knowledge, lack of understand, and best yet LACK TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY AND LOGIC.

hotarseFeb 18, 201818 votes

dood you just gotta get done with it. lol was a game i was excited to introduce my coworkers to. I intro'd two of them to league and we enjoyed playing it quite a bit from late season 3 up to season 5. Wasn't until s6 that things really started to seem amiss. Riot really fucked up a good thing, and for good reason. They figured out how to make money from their game. And it wasn't by making it better. It was by exploiting shitty champions that were popular but sold a lot of skins. It is the nature of free to play games. And while it was makng a lot of money without doing shitty tings it was a good thing. It really was. But then they got gredy. The sold to tencent. After that it was ONLy about the moneys. The game now caters to the lowest common denominator. Basically, if you're intelligent, the game is not for you. If you're dumb, then it is. You sound intelligent. Run from this game. See you on the flip.

TokogawarufFeb 18, 20185 votes

As someone who started mid Season 4, I can´t agree more. The Game slowly converted Fun into Moneymaking

AmIWr0ngFeb 21, 20181 votes

What game to go to though?

SerialchainsawJun 30, 20181 votes

It's too bad you're pretty close to being right. League really is a well made, fun game. But, the people running it let it fall to ruin and of course the immature sections of the community have no problem destroying it as well.

The Great DuckFeb 19, 20187 votes

I'll never understand why Riot Games feels the need to police chat between players. Unless it's a death threat, why not just leave them to vent? That's what the mute button is for. If somebody was that much of a bother, I'd simply silence them. Or, just talk shit back. Either way, the flames have already started the second someone says something. Just let them settle it. The game's kind have fallen to shit. Nobody's resorting to physical violence. All they do is boil the kettle by trying to restrict someone's words. I wish the criminal offense of impersonating a doctor applied to this company, honestly. Because they see themselves as some sort of big therapy program and believe penalizing these players are going to change their persona. No, if anything, you've probably ticked them off even more.

scazzmanFeb 21, 20182 votes

{quoted}

I'll never understand why Riot Games feels the need to police chat between players. Unless it's a death threat, why not just leave them to vent? That's what the mute button is for. If somebody was that much of a bother, I'd simply silence them. Or, just talk shit back. Either way, the flames have already started the second someone says something. Just let them settle it. The game's kind have fallen to shit. Nobody's resorting to physical violence. All they do is boil the kettle by trying to restrict someone's words. I wish the criminal offense of impersonating a doctor applied to this company, honestly. Because they see themselves as some sort of big therapy program and believe penalizing these players are going to change their persona. No, if anything, you've probably ticked them off even more.

Because riot games is run by libtards

SerialchainsawJun 30, 20181 votes

I believe its more along the lines that kids are allowed to play it, and parents (moms really) will complain their face off if they see a swear in a game their kid is playing. Also, they don''t want media and press writing stories about how Riot allows bad stinky words in their game. I think it's stupid though. People have Free Speech. Don't like it? Too bad, don't listen, mute, ignore it, or GROW UP. If you happen to be a person that can't handle it, then sucks for you, don't play.

Wild HerbivoreFeb 18, 20185 votes

I would rather have a toxic player than a bad player, But that being said, I Quit the game weeks ago, I'm just here to enjoy the shitstorm riot is receiving because it's justified. Your right, the game is not longer fun... 1 bad player can completely de-rail a game and the 50% forced win rate is at it's foundation. I mean, it's always been there and the game still used to be fun.... but now.... pfft... enjoy having bot lane feed 10 kills in 10 min, or try and enjoy top lane.... or afk farming mid.... so much fun!

SerialchainsawJun 30, 20181 votes

If someone or more than one person one your team is toxic, you can solve that WHOLE problem with a simple mute if it bothers you. If the same people are doing well and trying to win, GREAT!! I couldn't care less about their toxicity personally, and wouldn't report them, even if we lost, but they tried and didn't do completely terrible. On the other side, I don't care if you're beaming with happiness and positivity, if you're playing extremely bad, and are a major factor in our team losing, then I really, really don't like you. I want that person to be "punished" more than I am in LP loss.

SoryInAdvanceFeb 18, 20184 votes

In a game like rocket league, if someone's toxic and throws a game, whatever, it's a 5-minute game and you can ff at any point. You can play like 10 in a night and that's, maybe, an hour and a half. In league, if someone throws a game, that's 4 people out of at least 20 minutes of their time and you can only get a few games in on an average night if you have any sort of social/professional/academic life. It's much less emotionally taxing when it's not so detrimental to you or your rank and can quickly be set right. That is one of the reasons why I've basically cut league for the last 9 or so months.

O B Wan KenobiFeb 18, 20184 votes

good point. league sucks don't play it. I'm with you. gona go play rocket league or something else

SoryInAdvanceFeb 19, 20182 votes

Yeah, I started playing like right after Braum released and played somewhat steadily till last June. Now all I play is rocket league. I never made it out of bronze in league (but I only played like 20-30 ranked games per season because I just didn't think it was fun) but I'm Diamond in rocket league and the game and the mechanics are much more fun and interesting for me anyway so go for it :)

SerialchainsawJun 30, 20181 votes

Have never played Rocket League. This does sound a bit less pressuring. Doesn't it still bother anyone how your "rank" can be so hardly impacted by team/team mate? I think that's one of the fundamental problems with League of Legends. If my team loses, but I had a above average score overall (good K/D/A, creep score, damage to champs, damage to objectives, vision score, etc) shouldn't I lose less LP than the team mate(s) who performed way below that?

SoryInAdvanceJul 2, 20181 votes

Yeah, league's ranked queue is way too grindy for me. Rocket league is 2v2 (or 1v1 or 3v3/3v3 with no queueing with teammates aka true solo queue, but I really only play 2v2) and you and your teammate will be at basically the same skill level most of the time, so if you carry, you're much more likely to win that game.

Lothàrs EdgeFeb 19, 20184 votes

I just stopped caring for the most part.

I can't seem to emotionally detach myself from the game without not trying as hard. If I try hard, I get emotional.

The game isn't broken nor is this anything new. We're on the internet; we have a mask. It amplifies all the bad aspects of humanity.

It's a competitive setting, it's online, it's with random strangers & it requires teamwork. That's an inevitable recipe for frequent chaos.

That being said, I'm still an asshole when someone rubs me the wrong way. You're right, there's no excuse, but it seems that all our patience has worn thin.

There will never be a punishment system that is capable controlling us without losing a large part of their player-base. This is more of a human-problem.

SerialchainsawJun 30, 20181 votes

Me too! I don't hate losing, it happens and it's going to happen. Nothing feels like more a waste of time then trying hard, and realize the other people on your team are drooling in front of their screens. It's really draining, mentally and physically. I agree anonymity provides this ability to say whatever you want, but I believe the more mature a person is, the less they abuse the situation. Myself personally, don't make immature jokes and act like school just got out now and now im free to act like a young, dumb idiot. I don't find that amusing at all. However, I will get toxic if you piss me off. I think there is a difference here. Most of us have actually faced mature language in real life, it doesn't offend us, and we believe other adults don't have this imaginary shield protecting them from the english language.

D2CipwnFeb 24, 20184 votes

Its a dying game, if not dead already for the true enthusiast. Name another "truly" competitive game of this level that will ban you over talking trash(without racial, homophobic, threats of violence, kys, etc) Once youve lost access to rewards, youve lost access to everything. Including good teammates. BE gains are a joke now. Honor is locked after a 10 game restrict, first offense. They know the hardcore player will fire up another account, dump money on boosts, at least to get to 30, then dump credit info on skins once they place back in rank only to repeat the process. Champions and design of goes completely against what they said they would avoid. Balancing is a joke.

Brain Errör 404Feb 19, 20183 votes

I relate to this so much. I've had anger issue from young. I have yet to get treatment for my episodes. I don't do anger management, but being as old as I am, I am self analyzing and treating. I'm trying to get a hold of my anger problems, watching out for trigger events and doing what I can to stop my out bursts.

I played a game before called S4 league when my anger issues were at the peak. I use to curse, complain and just straight out attack people like a mad man. The community there, however, was very mature. I had people talking to me about that crap every time I did it. "Calm down kid, it's not that serious." "Lol, you have some serious issues, take a breather". People weren't really ever "toxic". Or not ever to the degree of league. People will say stuff like, "Well, he's not really up to par as the rest of the room". And be done with it. It was such a chill game and just so fun and nice overall. No one really complaining outside of certain weapons, and just overall respect from everyone in the game. When I was playing that game, I felt like I was coming an overall better person. I even stopped cursing... until I joined league.

No one felt the need to criticize others play as everyone was simply enjoying the game. When I played that game, I always found myself consistently going, "god damn, these guys are so good". Rather than now I'm more or less saying how garbage and unbalanced this game is. League is reverted me to my former self and it honestly doesn't help when everyone is at your throat. Not only is the game designed to make you rage, now it's further enhanced by the community and the imbalance nature of the game.

Earl SweatshirtFeb 19, 20183 votes

The system is automated, it just tracks your bad words or sth like that, without any context. And, most frustratingly imo, it doesn't have a way to understand if your 0/12 Singed ADC is inting or just being really bad at the game. When there's an ally who literally prefers me losing than him winning and I just get reminded of the fact that this bastard isn't going to get punished, I just wanna cry.

ImGodlyatYasuoFeb 18, 20182 votes

I get about 3 instant feedback reports on the daily tbh and if you feel tilt find a new player! New players are so nice and inviting they bring you up and help you act nicer and honestly its amazing how much a brand spanking new player can make you feel after you make a good play or something of the sort.

SyndraLoverFeb 19, 20182 votes

Instead of blaming those "flamers" and "feeders we should concentrate on solutions.

Flame and Rage is not a bannable offense in my eyes. A permanent Chat Restriction is the highest Punishment possible.
Get Tribunals back so Flame and Int gets recognized in CONTEXT.

I never got why riot decided to Punish like in the middleages; you said bad words now you get corporal punishment.

For chat related offenses only chat related punishments. For play related offenses only play related punishments.

Also I would Implement back the Enemy Honors. So that those who are trying hard to be a good teammate aswell as a good opponent get the Honor lvl faster. As a Sidenote I play since S4 and when Draft order = Pick order was normal you had to comunicate with your team even if they are assholes. Nowadays you have your role predefined so the chat comunication is not needed pings are enough. I really hope I am not the only one thinking LoL should reconsider this Banning Policy

SerialchainsawJun 30, 20181 votes

I agree! There definitely needs restructuring in punishments. Snowflakes who can't handle "toxic" chat have a mute button! I have plenty of games where I want to honor and enemy that played well and behaved well, usually they did bother better than someone on my own team!

ShroomHoppingFeb 19, 20182 votes

i feel you op. i use to love this game. Community has gone to hell. I fucking hate this game now. it pisses me off for way too many reasons. I have been playing less and less

JustSaiyan69Feb 20, 20182 votes

Haha my friend you have never played a ranked game of Seige with mics on every player.

Ahri BakaFeb 20, 20182 votes

Cya next week

AmIWr0ngFeb 21, 20182 votes

Lol'd at this. I thought I'd quit for a good year. Nope, reinstall, playing again...

Ahri BakaFeb 21, 20183 votes

{quoted}

Lol'd at this. I thought I'd quit for a good year. Nope, reinstall, playing again...

Sorry xD

Chocula84Sep 13, 20192 votes

Get called a %%%%%% by 3 teammates, they're fine. Tell them to eat a dick for being homophobic? Suspended. Riot is full of male privilege, totally a toxic company. Pissed I ever gave em a dime. Eat a dick riot. Go ahead and ban me this game is fucking trash

Chocula84Sep 13, 20192 votes

Hey the game sucks lets just add 400 new champs maybe ones a kitty? Stupid ppl love kitties. Also emotes, then we can encourage shit talking but you gotta pay for it. So much PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPp

OP Garen SupportFeb 18, 20181 votes

I feel the same way about the game. I havent been playing much in the past 2-3 months. I played like 2-3 games overall in December. I got harassed badly on those games for no reason. I had enough of those toxic people and flamed back. Riot punished me for it with chat restriction. I got every honour reward in the past seasons. Every honour achievement possible. Every most honourable player icon unlocked.

Im still getting punished when real human trash is ruining 100 of games by intentionally feeding and not being picked up by the system.

Thats not even ranked environment. In ranked its even worse. It does not help either that Riot forcefully giving you bad teammates to carry, when Riot is forcing the meta to not be able to solo carry but work well as a team. How do I work well with 4 silver players as a gold player vs team full of golds and 2 plats ?.

O B Wan KenobiFeb 18, 20184 votes

agreed. riots game has become dog shit

SerialchainsawJun 30, 20181 votes

I have no clue how allowed trolls/afk, etc etc is a competitive environment AT ALL. Heavily punishing that behavior would MAKE the game competitive. If only the truly dedicated and honest players climbed, if when you are try-harding meant more than your team mate playing like garbage.

AlmightyFeb 19, 20181 votes

[fiora-cool]

If you let something so simple and meaningless as a video game reprogram your mentality so drastically, than you lack discipline, morals and were obviously not raised with enough attenion.

See you back here in a month or less.

http://www.auplod.com/u/dpoula9d885.png

LatetotheRaceFeb 19, 20183 votes

Well way to prove his point.

KarmArcaneMar 12, 20191 votes

TL;DR i'm super toxic and make the games i play not fun, and riot hasn't punished me accordingly so i'm not playing anymore. But i'm also going to take the time to write an essay about why this is riots fault and not mine because deep down i know it's my fault. ....Don't let the door hit you on the way out

MakarakarnMar 12, 20191 votes

I think you want THAT hospital: Weeny hut generals

VitałeApr 20, 20191 votes

Today on one of my games i had a mundo (keep in mind this is euw). He got camped by a rammus and died from an invade. he has like 0/4 at 4 minutes in, and i was like "i'm getting strong, i can carry with my lux" but then.. he started not caring and began to go bot and steal my farm and die to caitlynn and morgana. Then he went back top and started farming and not caring about dying at all (he wasn't typing anything btw) and he did this all game, farm die farm die farm die, he wouldn't even help us by just playing the game even if behind.. I have reformed long time ago but i just couldn't keep calm anymore (because he was doing that on purpose) and started flaming him and saying shitty things. I had to let it out. At the end he was 0/12 and I reported him and i sent a ticket to riot about him. I hope he gets perma banned and i hope that riot can fix their fucking community.