It might sound like something that might’ve never happened, but I haven’t played League of Legends in nearly a month. While mythical gf was out of the country, I spent most of that time doing little projects around the house to try and surprise her with some cosmetic changes here and there, and because I was on permanent dog duty that whole time, I didn’t feel good about hiding out in my office playing League for hours for the sake of the dogs.
I don’t really miss it, or have any anxiety at not having earned any IP blue essence in that time; considering that among my friends I’m the only one who’s been the closest to having been the most regular player, it’s easier to have walked away, considering I haven’t been leaving anyone behind in the process.
But I don’t intend on staying away, since ultimately I still did enjoy the game, it’s just that I found other things to do with my spare time than play League, but until that time comes, it’s almost been a full month since the last time I queued up on the Abyss, and there are sure to have been a hundred little tweaks and changes that will blindside me the next time I log in.
However, as long as it’s been since I last played, it’s been nearly triple that, that I’ve paid any attention to the League esports scene. It’s funny to think that like 2-3 years ago, I was really into the weekly standings and looking up videos and recaps afterwards, to get the condensed action minus all the mundane boring farming and laning phases of the games, and I’d care about who was on top in NA, all the way to trying to figure out what darkhorse secondary region was doing what.
I’m going to chalk it up to simply doing more grown-up responsibilities creating the lack of time to vest in following esports, the sentiment I’ve had for a while that Riot Games cares more about the professional scene than it does the game for casual players, and the general oversaturation of esports as a whole for why I’ve become so apathetic about League over time. But since ESPN started covering esports, I’ve found it easier to just glance at headlines to get an idea of what’s going on, instead of actually delving too deep into summaries and stats.
One thing I’ve noticed throughout the last two League seasons that hasn’t been hard to miss, has been the gradual fall from grace by not just SK Telecom, but the South Korea in general. Sure, a South Korean team still won the last Worlds, but China has won the last two Rift Rivals, the last Mid-Season Invitational, and has created this reputation of being the stronger region over the South Koreans.
Amidst all this has been the tumultuous decline of SK Telecom, the vaunted three-time World Champions of League of Legends, who are all but dead in the water currently. What started as getting swept out of the finals in last year’s Worlds, SKT is now in a position where they might not even make Worlds this year, and have a higher possibility of missing it than their last possible shot at getting in, which will require them to defeat just about everyone in a gauntlet tournament, to get the third and last seed.
Within the squad remains the supposed greatest player in the game’s history, Faker, who I’m just finding out has actually been relegated to the bench, in favor of a guy that seemed like a middling mid lane fodder player in Pirean, whom I still remember being the mid laner for the perpetually mediocre Diginitas squad in North America just a few years ago. In fact, I didn’t even know Pirean was Korean, because he looked like one of those weird Asian cultures that could’ve just as easily been Mongolian or eastern Chinese.
But the point remains, Faker is on the bench, SK Telecom is a middle-of-the-pack squad, AD carry players are playing shit like Vladmir, marksman characters are pretty much all obsolete, and NBA teams pretty much own every team in North America. Ultimately, this all feels like a microcosm of how fast things change in not just the League of Legends scene, but in all of esports in general, as the young ADD things like esports takes a hold in mainstream culture, perplexing old motherfuckers like me who always has a hard time grasping the sheer speed in which things move and are accepted.
