How League Of Legends Ruined My Life
League of Legends is one of the most successful MOBA games on the planet, and it has rightly earned itself that position. However, many players like me, hate the game and love it at the same time. It’s like one of those weird toxic relationships in which the players cannot stop playing the game, yet it is so bad for various other reasons. However, before starting this diatribe, I would like to state that words written below are my personal opinions, and I mean no serious disrespect to Riot Games or League of Legends.
So where should I even begin? Let’s start from the beginning, I started playing League of Legends with ‘Garen’ and thought myself to be Faker when I killed two bots simultaneously in a match. Things were good, as me and my friend used to play against bots, farm victories, and feel great about ourselves. I mean, that is what video games are for right? Making you feel good in the virtual world while you suffer silently in the real world. One day, we finally reached level 10 on the European servers and decided to test our calibre against actual human players. We got stomped as usual, which made us work harder; learn champions’ play styles and runes, and finally, we won actual matches by outshining the enemies.
Click to enlargeWell, let’s just say, the enemies weren’t as happy as we were and spammed “noobs”, “ez”, and “get gud” in the chats. It didn’t affect us in any shape or form as we know we won the match and we aren’t toxic at all. Moreover, as we grinded further, these toxic chats took new forms where your teammates would flame you for taking their beloved Yasuo pick as the ADC. It seriously hurts differently when you are struggling at the top-lane with literal AFK junglers who perma-farm for hitting their power-spike at Level 18, and you gain no assistance from them in a counter-matchup. I used to die a lot while playing Renekton in the top lane, and my team used to subject me to terms like "feeding noob", "uninstall", and more, which might make players lose their cool during the match.
It drastically affects the morale of the newer players and makes them feel miserable. But does that stop me from playing League of Legends? Absolutely not! I love it when players abuse me in-game, as it provides me with a motive to overthrow the enemies and prove my teammates wrong. Then, in the process of getting one kill, I die three times… but hey! That’s worth it. But, without joking, League of Legends seems to have one of the most toxic gaming communities, which makes things worse for new and existing players. Trash-talking has been a key aspect of esports, and it helps players endure negative feelings. Moreover, it prepares them for everything in life and makes them a better human being, or so I thought.
Click to enlargeAlso, let us venture a little into emotes and taunts of the game; they take the toxicity to literally another level. Several emotes provoke players to misplay and mock them as they miss their cannon minions (I do as well, we are all in the same boat). Moreover, champions like Samira use their taunt emotes to throw an actual gold coin towards the enemies, which can be incredibly frustrating for the players. Well, one might argue that at the end of the day, it’s just a video game, they can’t affect you physically. That is right, however, the mental turmoil that my body undergoes while playing the game warms the body up and makes me a try-harding gamer who is trying to reach Challenger with Sona.
Enough about toxicity, as Riot Games are constantly working towards eradicating AFK gamers and punishing toxic people. So let us move to the ranked queue and my story of being a Bronze 2 hard-stuck player.
I can’t stress enough the fact that I get teammates who feed every single time and my 700 stacks Nasus can’t carry the match as after two-three team fights, the enemies are smart enough to buy heal cut against me, and my teammates still flame me for losing a 1v5 while my jungle is still farming beyond level 18. It’s just a bad experience, and I feel like I have so many losses now that if I had one dollar for every lost match, I would be a millionaire without a doubt.
But does that stop me from waking up every day and playing League of Legends? Absolutely not! That’s the funny thing about this game - even though its slowly consuming my ambitions, social life, and my will to live, I still find an excuse to grind every day and try to climb higher on the ranked ladder.
Images via Riot Games | Reddit