Why I Quit ‘League of Legends’
When it comes to mental health, you really shouldn’t mess around. Playing League of Legends is the biggest waste of time ever known to man. I think a lot of eSports gamers and fans start in the community by aspiring to be in the Pro Leagues – they spend hours upon hours invested in this game (and there are others: Dota2, Overwatch, Fortnite) only to end up resenting the community, quitting, and coming back again; it’s a vicious cycle and I’ve seen many succumb to it.
Hell, I’ve met players that dropped out of college (in fact, someone I played with argued with his parents about going to college because he thought he would “go pro“) and he ultimately never got a college degree and didn’t get a job or a car; he didn’t give up on the pro dream until 25. He started his adult career pretty late and he regrets it.
Playing League of Legends is a process. It’s not as simple as picking it up and pressing start and I think there are several checkpoints of the game that evolve in to stressful situations.
- The Character Selection screen.
This screen is as obvious as it sounds – the screen where you choose what character you wish to play. I’ve seen this blown up in several different ways that overall impacted the attitude of my team and how we carried on in to the actual battle. First, you can choose a champion to ban. This can quickly spiral out of control! What if someone bans the champion you wanted to play? Someone could very easily become salty and rage-quit or they could choose a champion they really suck at. Additionally, you are placed in to a timed role selection (depending upon which role you chose = DPS/Support/Tank). You have 35 seconds to choose what champion you want to play and you can lock in your selection. It’s important to note that in this phase, you can choose a champion that someone else wanted to play. - The Fight
Let’s say everyone got the champions they wanted to play – great! But what if one of those players are just…. really bad? That horrible player could “feed” (AKA die a lot to the enemy team) so that the other team gets more money to spend on equipment, they get more kills and more objectives, and your team falls behind. Not so great. And trust me, you always get that one person who gets super angry about a teammate feeding. It’s inevitable, really. Not only that, but in the fight you have the Laning Phase, the Jungle/Gank Phase, and Teamfight phase. Different roles play a huge part in these phases and if one falls behind, well… that player typically gets blamed. Maybe someone gets pissed at the jungler and they don’t participate in teamfights. Instead, they go goof off in their lane instead of helping the team – not good. This means that you lose taemfights, they get killed off, etc. … - Battle Summary
The battle is over and everyone can see their stats – this is a great opportunity to really poke fun at someone because there is a chat box in this screen! I got in to the habit of quickly leaving and just viewing my stats after the fact.
In 2018, Dyrus, a League of Legends pro player, eventually quit league because of some mental health issues. He said that quitting the MMO saved his life; it’s really no joke. Imagine all that comes with fame – the publicity, hate mail, preserving your social media status – it’s a full-time gig with all of the setbacks + everyone has their eyes on you. You have to be the best you can be at all times.
And ESports is a lot more competitive than you may think, especially in Korea! Recruiters are constantly looking for High School students to recruit and train and ESports had more viewers in 2018 than the Kentucky Derby. It’s an intense atmosphere.
TLDR – video game addiction and depression is a serious problem. The internet is the ultimate getaway for the millennial age group and social media is a breeding ground for bullies. Unfortunately in today’s society, people can get away with a lot of terrible behavior. There’s a freaking website dedicated to weening yourself from League of Legends!
