Hey guys after some time of revision i'd like you guys to tell me about your league experience in the community. For now i'm just sticking to commentary/observation since i'd like mainly everyone's input. Why i'm doing this is for my college class and that i chose the lone route and did a 4-man project by myself [slayer-jinx-wink] Thank you guys for your input! (if you posted something)[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]
Better off asking others to take part of this experiment. Our stories will only tell so much. People tend to disagree with anecdotes when it doesn't fit their opinion. Gotta provide both an experienced story and some "evidence".
When we have a losing game, I tend to get more teammates that get angry at their own teammates first. Instead of just saying things like, play safer. They will just auto-blame whoever is doing the worst or the jungler. I highly appreciate the games were my team learns from the loss rather than blame. Even lost an hour game last night, and felt I learned a lot from it as top Maokai.
I feel like the community is a bit like the ocean. You got the big boys (Platinum 2 and above) that lurk deep in the ocean like sharks and whales. You got the dolphins and swordfish (Gold 5 -> Platinum 3) and everybody else (Silver 1 and below) are like the tuna and small fish of the sea. We are all fighting in ranked, specifically, to get to the top of that chain.
Realistically though, the community from my experience is like a wave in the ocean though when you're on the team that's stomping over the opposition then everything is gravy and the water is cool and collective, if you're on the team that's losing then it just feels like waves are crashing down left and right because there is so much disturbance being caused by one toxic teammate or the other.
People just get too carried away on their keyboard game. Instead of just worrying about playing the game and finishing strong, they'd rather attack whomever they can with words like it really makes a difference. You tell me one game where some kid has gotten yelled at and raged at in chat and he then he carried the team to victory. It may happen once in a blue moon, but more often then not it just pulls the team down deeper and deeper in the ocean.
Lets get some background to you first. I don't play with real life friends. I play around 5-10 games a week. I'm in Bronze 2, looking to climb. I'm a support main, but currently being a 1 trick Sivir ADC / Garen Top. Its easier to climb that way. I started since beta, but then again I never started thinking about seriously climbing until mid S4. I don't play any other games as I'm too cheap to spend money on games.
People on my friends list are people whom I feel shouldn't be in Bronze and have a good attitude I like to climb with. In regards to DynaQ, I'll play with the same types of people as well (Decently skilled + positive). I'll occasionally use Cursed Voice depending on how competitive I feel. But the Cursed Voice isn't restricted to my premade team. If I'm on voice com, I want my whole team to benefit from it. TLDR for DynaQ: it allows me to play with more positive people at the same time, making me feel like the game is less toxic overall.
In regards to balance. Its bronzies I'm playing with. Everything works. Since I've been playing for a long time, I know the basics off most champs & items, it makes it very easy for me to adapt in game, where most bronzies I play with don't know how to do. Where I find myself suffering is my positioning in team fights (where I tend to play a high risk high reward style) and mid / late game decisions.
I read through the whole Bilgewater event, but can't get myself to sit and read anything past the shadow isle event. All the new (or updated) champs with the new lore, I just either skip or just skimmed through. Still waiting for Sharjo to make me a tldr version of every new lore. I much prefer the comic / movie styles of narrative.
I feel pretty happy with Riots current communication / visibility in regards to the direction(s) they are taking the game (refering to MYMU, mid seasons changes & ChampUp). Alot of them are very interesting to read. Hextech rewards was a pretty good way to make sure people stay positive.
I feel that Riot has dropped the ball in terms of communication in the behavior part. There isn't any way a new (or returning) player to know about the new punishment system (since Aug-2015) until they get punished (or someone tells them about it). I feel that Riot dropped the ball on the Hextech loot rewards / ineligibility when it first came out and fixed it around 3 weeks later, which is slow in my standards. I also feel that the low level experience sucks due to the more toxic environment as there are alot of smurfs and they aren't really tolerant to people whom aren't as experienced as them ingame.
In short, I feel Riot is taking the game in the right direction for a low ELO casual gamer like myself.
