League of Legends: … what’s that?

More and more as I play basically any game that isn’t League of Legends I hear people asking “What is it?” or “Who plays League anymore?“. While it is true that myself and Malystorm just haven’t been getting the same enjoyment levels from the game recently, this shouldn’t be a reflection of the wider community…

…or should it?

Not going to lie, I got into League of Legends after a friend harassed me into it, and even then it was only because I found a champion I enjoyed the theme and archetype of – Nautilus. Granted, since then I’ve enjoyed quite a few years of playing the game until recently, but why? What did Riot do that (for me, at least) destroyed the game?

So first off is a reason so well known and infamous it might as well be its own meme (and probably is) – the League of Legends community is incredibly toxic, and this isn’t limited to lower ranks. The game is highly competitive and although yes, it is still a game, one could argue that you play a game to win, right? I can’t put my finger on it, but the inherently competitive nature of the game combines with something to bring out the nastiest, most toxic ragers in everyone.

Secondly, and related to above, is the competitive value. I don’t know if everyone just envisages themselves competing at the World Finals but even in the lowest depths of Bronze rank everyone is a self-righteous upstart that believes they are God’s gift to gaming and you are but an inconvenience in their day. Additionally, the competitive scene itself is taking off, with last year’s World Finals pulling in 32% more views than the previous year – a total of 57 million viewers – this is actually approximately 20% of the number of fans who watched the 2014 FIFA World Cup Final – quite impressive isn’t it?

Lastly is the gameplay. When I first started people could quite happily play what they want, when they want, built how they want. They still can – but they won’t get anywhere with it. This could link back to the more competitive nature of players recently, but everyone is trying and playing the “new fad” – last year it was healing/shielding Support champions with Ardent Censer, the year before was “Kog’maw wins games” and the year before that was “tanks tanks tanks”. League of Legends is a crazily meta-based game, and for the last couple of years the shift has been towards more defensive play and late-game scaling; this brings us to 2018’s f***-up. Who doesn’t take the Stopwatch perk? That’s right, nobody. If you don’t take it, you should start. It’s a free one-use Zhonya’s Hourglass that builds into the aforementioned item, as well as Gargoyle’s Stoneplate and Guardian Angel meaning there are build paths for everyone and literally no reason not to take it. It’s actually been noted that games this season are lasting longer, easily reaching an hour in length, compared to last season’s 25-35 minute average.

In short, League of Legends is becoming a long, drawn-out game with a bunch of hot-heads infesting the lower levels and boring games awaiting at the higher levels. These are the reasons I don’t play anywhere near as much as I used to.

And before anyone asks, no, League of Legends is not dying in any way – as mentioned above the World Finals are booming and their profits are continuing to soar. The game is easily the forerunner in the eSports world and will continue to be so for a long time to come. Buckle-up Yasuo mains, it’s a long haul.

As always, thanks for reading,

-Wheldrake.