5 Reasons We Should Hate League of Legends (But Don’t)

I am a die-hard League of Legends fan. I invest a lot of time in it; playing it, watching it and discussing it. It has helped me forge brand new friendships, while strengthening older ones. It is safe to say that I love League, but League doesn’t always love me. It is a love/hate relationship really – Stockholm Syndrome of sorts – the kind of relationship a hostage has with an abusive and violent captor.

This list is homage to this relationship, a relationship that many of my friends and fellow league players will understand – the five reasons that we really should hate this damned game. But we don’t. We come back from more, even before previous bruises have healed.

“ELO Hell” & Delusions of Granduer

For those of you who aren’t aware, Elo is a skill ratings system named after a Hungarian gentleman, (its creator) Arpad Elo. Elo is a way of calculating the comparative skill levels of players of a competitive game. It is commonly used to show the ability level of Chess players, was once upon-a-time used in the high-level Magic: The Gathering tournament scene, and more recently for all League of Legends players. You gain rating for winning, and lose it for losing – to varying degrees depending on the rating of your opponents. It is difficult to argue that the system doesn’t work, otherwise it wouldn’t have remained such a popular system. The issue with Elo is the infamous and infuriating mythical “Elo hell”.

The game’s team-centred gameplay is both a blessing and a curse. When it works, the feeling gained from co-operation and teamwork is fantastic. However every high has a parallel or more disheartening low; when team work fails, people rage. This Elo hell is the by-product of this pure, unadulterated rage – gathering, festering and burning richly with the scorn of thousand aggravated nerds. This is a stagnant pool of incessant and petty squabbling and inconceivable levels of trolling; Elo Hell is the excuse whispered by all most all players at some point in their League careers.

But what does this mean in real terms? The concept is simple. A player’s Elo will never improve due to the incompetence and stupidity of those that make up the other four members of your team. In theory, it is because of this that so many find it hard to claw their way out of the lower echelons of Elo and into higher leagues within the ranked system. They are placed at a lower rating initially and thus damned forever with the Sisyphean task of pushing against an inexorable tide of human stupidity.

And while there is an element of truth to this, it maybe isn’t as prevalent a reason as some of us League players would like to admit. There is a debate as to whether or not this place is illusory; simply existing in the minds of disillusioned League players. If anything this collective scorn has willed such a place into existence – causing it to become a self-fulfilling prophecy – creating negative mental attitude and fostering almost misanthropic hatred for your fellow players. After all, it is easier to blame someone else for your failings than to take a step back and analyse your own misplays from an objective perspective. Every player, from Bronze to Challenger tier alike, will often complain that they deserve to be higher in the rankings than they currently are, myself included a lot of the time. The excuse? Trolls, fools and dirty rat bastard kill-stealers keep messing up their games – the metaphorical “Elo Hell”.

The Community

This attitude of entitlement, coupled with the anger League can bring out in people has helped to create something truly dreadful and almost demonic in its levels of depraved toxicity. A wiser man than I once said “You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.” Never have truer words been spoken.

In short – this community is hideous.

Now understand, I believe exaggeration is a fantastic tool for comedic effect – but it is difficult to exaggerate this stuff. I am told on a regular basis that I should “get cancer and die”; whether that be because I am doing well and I disagreed with a call a team mate made, or because I am having an off game and have died a few times in my lane.

You see League of Legends is a Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas (or MOBAs for short). They play very differently to other popular competitive video games. Dying in the latest FPS may put the enemy team closer to their objective, whether that is a kill total or planting the bomb. In a MOBA, it not only allows enemies to gain ground on physical objectives, but they gain XP and gold advantage, which in turn allows them to edge further ahead. This then leads to them being able to pick up the next kill more easily than the last. Being ‘Fed’ is the term, and this can lead to certain players ‘snow-balling’ out of control and becoming incredibly difficult to deal with. Snow-balling is an issue that Riot games still struggle with in balancing the game, with a lot of attention currently on allowing good strategic play and team work to pull a game back from the jaws of defeat.

The culture of self-righteousness and hate that surrounds League leads to a tendency to point the finger of blame for this ‘feeding’. Instead of rallying to aid a team mate – pulling them back to their feet, wiping the tears from their eyes and offering kind words of encouragement, you will often find harsh and condemning taunts thrown their way. I can tell you from first-hand experience, the only thing more frustrating than being absolutely destroyed by your opponent in a solo lane is being absolutely destroyed by your opponent in a solo lane and being called a “noob scrub feeder” alongside it.

The Competitive Scene

To further exacerbate these problems, the game is highly competitive at all tiers – after all, even pathetic scrubs like myself would rather win than loose. This leads to people taking the game very, very seriously. This is only made worse by the fact that a pantheon of professionally paid teams sit atop the upper levels of competitive play, which fosters aspirations among the player base.

And come on, what lowly nerd wouldn’t want to become exceptional at his favourite game, travel the world and be paid to play big events in front of large audiences? Unfortunately, this means that many develops a complex that they are on this road to professional eSports. The only reason they are losing so regularly? “Elo hell” and “feeders” of course.

Imitation being sincerest form of flattery, it isn’t surprising that many players will attempt to copy the strategies and character builds of high level players. Of course, there is an element of practicality in this; these guys are paid to train, to duel and to test. It is in their best interest to play game defining optimum builds and correct team setups, while uncovering new powerful strategies. It makes sense to reap the rewards of their extensive experience and play testing.

However, with this comes a prevalent attitude that the established competitive ‘Meta’ (short hand for the ‘metagame’ – outside or overall game) viable’ is the only way to play. If certain builds, team compositions and strategies are successful at a higher level they are considered correct or ‘viable’. Issues arise when someone decides to deviate from said Meta. If you fancy yourself a pioneer or an innovator, expect to feel the scorn of your not-so-friendly team mates.

Don’t want to follow conventional logic and take a bruiser top lane? Then you sir, are a noob and a ‘fgt’.

Sometimes friendly advice is offered, other times full blown arguments will arise. The issue more than likely stems from the fact that each individual believes they know better than the next. Heaven forbid a player plays an unconventional build and does badly in a game; for hell hath no fury like a team mate scorned. Abuse will be thrown, people will call for “Pls 9x Report” (more on that next) and someone will rage quit. Aaaaaaaaaand before you know it, here we are back in the deepest pits of ‘ELO Hell’.

The Tribunal

So League is massively popular, but renowned for its damned awful community. But Riot Games have an antidote for this toxic filth – The Tribunal!

The system is designed to allow players to report their rude opponents, unskilled team mates and players that leave the game early. These reports are then saved in The Tribunal. Any League player above a particular experience level may then enter The Tribunal on the website and look at and independently judge randomised cases that are presented to them. These cases usually consist of multiple examples of the accused crimes, over several games. Alongside chat logs and play stats you are to judge those that stand accused to decide whether or not their behaviour deserves punishment nor not. Cool system, sounds great. In theory.

What this means in actuality is that a small percentage of players use the system correctly, filling out reports with comprehensive explanations of the offences caused. The others use it to report anyone who plays badly or disagrees with them. Many will resort to begging their winning opponents to report their team mates for ‘Reason X’.

Some would argue that the Tribunal is not working, because trolls are rampant. However, there are arguments for it. For instance, we do not know what the state of the game and community would be without it and its selective bans. Heavily publicised bannings of abusive professional players has helped to point out that no one is immune from the long arm of the law.

But with that in mind, I can’t help but feel it promotes a culture of finger pointing and vocal complaints – which is not a good thing.

It’s Just So Bloody Addictive

As much as I moan, complain and rage, I love this game, and I am pretty much an addict. This list is here to vocalise some of the issues it faces, but also to poke fun at how much a whiny bitch most players (including myself) can be.

It is difficult to put a finger on quite what it is that makes the game so fun to play, in spite of all of the above flaws. The game offers a very identifiable, cute and clean aesthetic, layered over a very finely tuned set of mechanics. The sheer strategic depth afforded by the ability to vary champion, item and team compositions is staggering, while the level of actual balance present in a game with over 100 playable characters is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

We as a player base keep coming back from more, investing ludicrous amounts of time into the game, even when more productive tasks are to be completed. This article was finished later than expected this week due to my own personal quest towards Silver. The game is still exciting and interesting to play after hundreds of hours, and the constant patching, balancing and new (pseudo-free) content from Riot is awesome. It is a time-sink, but one that I absolutely love, despite all its ugliness. Maybe the relationship that I have with League is less like that of a hostage and his captor, and more the owner and his deformed puppy. I guess the real question is, which one of us is the deformed puppy?

Now if you will excuse me, Elo Hell is calling my name. See you on the fields of justice, summoners.