PC Gaming

Man, I really liked LoL once, around what they dubbed S2 and maybe still in S3. But then the pace of changes got too much, and also the types of changes. Every now and then I'd think about checking out where it's at, but now they bundle that awful anticheat malware of theirs that'll never happen again.

I love everything about League of Legends except for actually playing League of Legends.

The lore, character design and art style, Riot's community engagement and approach to balance - all of it top tier.

But spending 40 minutes losing a game because your top lane got washed 0 and 6 and your shako support just keeps doing the worm in duo fucking sucks.

The community is toxic partly because the game design is infuriating. There's like a thousand ways to lose - the draft, vision control, last hits on minions, objectives, items, team mates, technical skill, etc.

It all compounds into a really shitty, rage inducing, experience.

At this point, I'm just waiting for 2XKO to drop.

League has been and always will be bad. They don't allow mods like in DotA 2, barely change the map, don't make huge "WTF is going on???" patches, won't mainline URF, don't allow the game to change (if you're playing a support hero, it may not be used as a carry otherwise it will be nerfed), the game is just in general stale af. Seasoned players and eSports watchers can call nearly all picks and bans ahead of time.

The game is also grindy as hell. You don't start out with access to all your champs and can't just drop into a 10-20 minute match that doesn't count and is a fun place to experiment. There aren't tournaments for noobs and the lack of custom games also makes that less possible.

The toxic community is only beaten by DotA's community. The only thing going for league is that it makes money and has a dedicated team on it. Valve has maybe 5 staff working on DotA, does no marketing, no ads, no widespread press releases, ... The only new players it got where simps for new heroes from their awful anime.

Anti Commercial-AI license

It's almost as if having one of the worst reputations of any video game ever is damaging to your long-term health...

Still, I can't really roast them. League of Legends genuinely did clean up their act when it comes to toxicity, and as hard as I tried to kick the habit, I still find myself going back and playing the occasional match of Heroes of the Storm, which is owned by a much scummier company that deserves to crash and burn.

And really, the MOBA genre isn't as dominant as it once was in general either. It's been a gradual decline, there's been no big disaster that crashes everything. Just there are other genres in style right now. All things considered, I think LoL is doing totally fine given the circumstances. Nothing to worry about, so don't be disheartened if it's a game you enjoy.