bear cove

It’s been over 10 years since I’ve played ranked LoL and I am overwhelmed after returning to the scene.

my history with LoL

I first played LoL a bit after the year of its release back in 2012. I was 20 years old and had never played a MOBA before. The only reason I wanted to learn was because at the time, I had a partner that was a “pro” Heroes of Newerth player and I wanted to learn to eventually play that with him. LoL at the time was known to be “baby’s first MOBA” and was absolutely NOT taken seriously in the MOBA scene. I fondly remember being very happy about the LoL’s official website explaining why they didn’t have last hitting your own minions as a mechanic; something I particularly hated when I attempted to learn HoN.

One of the biggest differences of LoL and other MOBAs had at the time was that it was free. This was a huge deal and LoL was definitely one of the pioneers of good free to play games with cosmetic only payments. Unfortunately, it was also ugly and clunky as hell. Another factor that made it stand out was the devs actively taking feedback and listening to their player base. Some were skeptical at this strategy, others applauded the decision.

I knew I’d get teased by my more experienced MOBA friends, but I downloaded the janky client anyway and my LoL adventure started! (The client never got better.)

first impressions (2012ish)

This game was so toxic in the most funny, creative ways possible. My goal was to get level 30 and play ranked, but all I had was the small rotation of weekly free champions. No problem, I’ll try this pretty Sona champ.. I basically spammed her because she had such a simple toolkit and I was expecting to main support anyway. At one point I saw someone playing Janna and I was horribly jealous because I really liked her in-game model. She never appealed to me before that because her splash art was uh, something.. I ended up spending my precious IP on her over Leona, who had just released in the shop.

During those 30 levels of rotating between Janna and Sona, I probably learned close to nothing about MOBAs or LoL. At the time, everyone was awful and smurfing wasn’t a thing yet. So when everyone sucks around you, it’s pretty hard to get any better at the game. I assumed ranked would be different (it was, barely).

Outside of playing the game, my favorite LoL pastime was the notorious Tribunal, where players would judge other player reports. I swear, people were intentionally trying to get reported so their shame could become a meme. A popular one was buying multiple pairs of boots.

Overall I thought this game was ugly as hell, but I was having fun playing a MOBA for the first time!

season 2

It was time. I finally made it to level 30 and little ol’ me was happy to hear my partner was willing to play ranked with me as well. Except he didn’t want Sona as his support.. and refused to play with me unless I played what I thought was the most unappealing option: Taric.

I figured, whatever – the whole point was to play with my partner so I’ll play this hideous champion. At the time the it was a great pairing with what he wanted to play (Caitlyn) due to his point and click stun and her trap. Being the dutiful e-girl, I agreed and I was carried to gold. That was the last time we ever played LoL together. Thank god. I never had to play this ugly champion with his fuckass design ever again. I also decided I did not care to play any games together with that partner anymore. (we broke up, shocking)

season 3

It’s 2013 and I’m spamming Janna in ranked! Sometimes I’m solo, sometimes I’m playing with people who won’t police what I’m playing. And I’m finally learning things! Spamming wards (which had no limit), getting an oracle pot, and.. well, there really wasn’t that much to do on the map yet. I made it to plat 3!

season 4

I believe this is the time where me and my duo played 80% of our games as a Lucian/Nami combo. As you can imagine with that disgusting combination, we both got to diamond. During these seasons, I don’t recall there being iron, emerald, or masters.. So yeah, diamond was supposedly impressive.

season 5

This season was entirely solo. My partner at the time was salty because he didn’t get as high as I did. This was the last time I played league ranked, in 2015. I made an effort to play most of the support champs!

reintroduction to ranked, season 2025

It’s 2025 and I’m officially a hag on the internet now. I’ve somewhat followed the past few years of the pro scene and had the occasional ARAM / TFT / whatever mode that wasn’t summoners rift.. and I’ve finally got the urge to play ranked again. We’re not going to get into how much money I spent on TFT.. or on any of the pretty new skins.

I officially placed in bronze III after 5 games. Disappointing, but deserved since my account did have 10+ years of MMR decay. This gave me a chance to relearn the game.. which was very, very different since I last played. I realized I had absorbed almost nothing from just watching pro players.

The most immediate thing I noticed was how much better everyone was. Granted, people still suck at this MMR but there’s so much more to do on the map now! In the past, people didn’t really think about wave management, macro, roaming.. it’s just so much more fast paced than it used to be.

The toxicity hasn’t actually changed all that much outside of being far less creative (Or maybe decades of gaming toxicity is old to me). There are ways to avoid it by muting everyone and using streamer mode and such, but there’s something horribly nostalgic about being called an e-girl support slut when I enter the game. It sure does make me feel young again, so I’ve left all those options off.

People talk to each other less because you can communicate entirely through pings now. You can do your own ban, pre-select your role, and there’s seriously a ping for everything. Gone are the days of begging the first pick in draft to ban the champ you don’t like, spamming the role you want, typing the dragon timer in chat..

I don’t think I’ll ever hit diamond again, mainly because my mental stamina for playing this game is very very miniscule now. But overall, I think this game has shockingly changed for the better throughout the years and managed to stay alive and.. kind of fun?

Except for the client. That’s consistently been dog shit since launch.

final thoughts

LoL is somehow still fun after all these years. There are a lot of game modes that scale from sweaty to very casual. If you’ve got a little competitive heart in you and you’re not an FPS gamer, LoL is a solid choice. A lot of champions feel outdated now; especially Sona/Janna so I can’t bring myself to play their ancient kits – but there are so many other options. But good god, those skins are so.. so… tempting…