Lore & eSports (Why Lore Actually Matters to the Competitive Scene)

I've met plenty of people who, despite being exposed to story, often dwell only in the mechanical aspects of gaming, or other similar aspects. League of Legends, for example, is rather simple to pick up and play (well, it was), and as a result it appealed heavily to casuals moreso than other MOBAs, like, say, DOTA perhaps. LoL has many facets that attracted various crowds - its mechanics, dynamic gameplay, and it had story in the form of the Journal of Justice and character biographies. Though the Journal of Justice was somewhat clunky, it was a rather riveting read, and honestly, when you get into it, you don't even notice how far you've read until you actually check your progress.

But now with the retcon, I can't help but feel that the important story aspect - the one that spawned immense volumes of fanfiction (both good and bad), the one that inspired artists on the all-important "what if?" - is slowly disappearing. Riot promised a more cohesive lore after the announcement of the retcon. Essentially 2 1/2 years of lore wiped, and/or modified into a rather extraneous hodge-podge of characters; characters who, without the Institute of War, have little to no reason to interact with each other. And that is a huge problem in terms of any story - Characters must interact in order to drive it forward. What LoL has done is made everyone essentially independent of one another; and as such, there is little to no growth, and we on the other end are forced to ask a question:

"Why?"

Why do these characters matter? Why does the Void matter? All we know is that Shurima is infested with Voidlings, that a select few we play as are already in Valoran, and that Kassadin wants to stop the invasion. But nothing is happening lore-wise at the moment, so why should the Void matter? Why Jax? (I mean really, he's in lore limbo right now) Why Kayle and Morgana? Their lore pre-retcon involved an otherworldly war between their followers, but right now it feels like they're eating sinfully succulent cookies alongside Jax in Morgana's bakery, now located down the street in Lore Limbo. So why do they matter now? Why should they matter?

And this is where Lore ties in with eSports, with gameplay. That character you're making flashy plays with, where would they be without a story, without a purpose, without an identity that is defined by that purpose? Who are they? Who would they even be? Where would your character be mechanics-wise if they didn't even possess an inkling of who they are as a character? Zed would be...Shredder (and then copyright would kill him faster than he can currently kill your ad carry) Lee Sin would be...a blind monk blindly kicking things for percent missing health damage for the sake of "balance" Thresh would be a freaky sadist. Gnar would be...Gnar.

The very purpose for why the characters are even in the game, in this world, in the first place. This is why lore matters.

TL;DR: No tl;dr. Either you have the patience to read, or you don't.