Random Blog 1- League of Legends

So as it turns out, I don't quite have the gumption to keep up massive writing speeds, nor the creative ability to make multiple, lengthy fiction posts each month. I also found out the hard way that being absent from Steemit for an extended period of time and then returning to post a metric ton of fiction does not bode well for my growth...over the past several posts, all within the past few days, I averaged a grand total of 0.02 per post.

Considering I was previously making an average of at least 0.30 per post (not including the massive random bursts of income in one or two cases- I consider them outliers), this is not good. Sure, we're talking about going from pocket change to less pocket change, but if that were translated to larger amounts of money and this were my only income, I'd be more broke than a party-hardy college kid with ADD.

So I got to thinking...do I really HAVE to write only fiction or update or review posts on my blog? Why not just write about random shit that occurs to me? If I really want to have daily or almost-daily content, I need to find some sort of filler content to pump out.

And that's where this comes in. The filler arc to the anime called "My Steemit Blog". Will it be good? Probably not. But what it WILL be, is CONTENT.

Sweet, sweet content. The thing Steemit likes, and likes in regular, consistent amounts.

So, a quick disclosure. I'll probably be talking about menial, pointless bullshit. Some people have podcasts to do that in (I'm looking at you, @jimfear138), some people just bottle it all up and turn into a hermit, retreating away in their sad little writing-cave before letting it out in angry outbursts filmed by a friend ahem Uncle Harlan ahem.

This will be where I rant about random shit going on in my life in what I hope is an interesting way, and which I also hope will illuminate what goes on and what I do when I'm not recording, writing, or browsing memes (although there very well could be a good dose of that in here, too).

So, that disclosure out of the way, I'm just going to plow forwards and say that I love League of Legends.

Now, this love is tempered with a great deal of hate, as, unintentionally, the game Riot Game(s) created has created one of the most toxic fandoms I have ever seen, even compared to the heavyweight contenders such as Steven Universe fans, MLP fans, Jordan Peterson fans, and even Undertale Fans. The furry fetish fandom looks like a trip to disneyland compared to this fanbase.

Because of this, League of Legends players (also called LoL players, funny enough) have this strange stigma surrounding them where admitting you enjoy the game is almost as embarrassing and awkward as calling yourself a NAZI sympathizer or admitting you're sexually attracted to toddlers.

People look at you strange and the conversation gets really quiet, as they think "wow, this guy LIKES a game with such a toxic fandom? Well, he must be part of that toxic fandom, then," but nobody says much other than "huh, really?", because most people are wimps who don't want to offend anyone or step on too many toes.

Now, allow me to clarify why I, personally, enjoy this game.

I have always been the type of person who greatly enjoys challenge. i love games that expect a lot out of players, but also provide meaningful and clever ways to get through certain segments of the game others would call "unfair". A good example of this would be the first two dark souls games, most of bloodborne, and the binding of isaac series. All of these are games I love and have played extensively, and all of them feature the same motif: Hard, but Fair.

So give me a game where it is ALWAYS challenging and ALWAYS offers me a variety of ways to achieve the same goal, a game where new strategies are created daily and the landscape changes not only month to month or week to week, but day to day, and you essentially have created the perfect game for the player that is always looking for a challenge.

There is always something more to strive for in this game, which is why it is so addicting. So many players want to show off their skills and talents and want to ascend the ranked ladder, so many of them want to transcend the dreaded "average player" on the totem pole (or, God forbid, the Bronzies) by even a little bit, that an intense, competitive, high-risk, high-reward atmosphere is effortlessly achieved.

This is my motherfucking ELEMENT.

The butterflies you get when you queue up in ranked, the quick, crushing punch when you miss an ability, the thrill when you land everything you have in your arsenal and do everything at JUST the right time and manage to carry your team through a tricky team-fight...

No other game can quite compare.

Defeat is crushing, but victory is intoxicating.

And the fact that your victory or defeat is not only directly influenced by you, but by your fickle teammates, people who will just as soon engage in friendly banter before a game as call you a "flaming fucking faggot" for missing one ability when they mistakenly run into the enemy team and expect you to save them from their own mistake...it adds an extra layer of challenge and requires another set of skills entirely- the ability to take rude, harsh criticism in stride, stay calm through all of that, and only reply with important information and things that are relevant to the goal at hand.

Funny enough, despite people thinking LoL players are losers, if that person can manage to get honored in most games and almost never reply in a toxic or rude manner to others even while being insulted, it's a surprising sign of maturity and, in my opinion, at least, shows a great deal of self-control that is needed (and sorely lacking) in many occupations.

I can't tell you how often I've encountered rude, unreasonable customers when I used to work as a night auditor for a high-end winery hotel, and, honestly, compared to what is said to me in League of Legends, what they say and the stress I had to deal with when working was far less miserable. If I screwed up in my job, sure, the stakes were high (if I screwed up too much or too often I could be fired or demoted), but the punishment was far less severe and far less frequent compared to the alternative.

In my job, if I messed up while comparing numbers on various customers' accounts and turned it in, I would get an E-Mail politely stating that it was inaccurate and that my boss had to go in and correct it, what was wrong with it, and what I should change next time. I would then change it next time to their specifications and would most likely never have that issue again. Simple and effective.

In League, if I messed up one ability, all of that politeness would go out the window in favor of brevity, and would most likely be tainted by emotion. So let's say I miss one of my abilities in-game and someone dies because I screw up. Whoops! Darn, I missed, better try harder next time, right? Well, not quite. What would most likely happen is the person who died would ping as many times as the system would allow, type something like "hello!??1 wtf ur so bad", then type in cross-team chat, "report bard, he's trolling". Vague, angry dialogue with no purpose. I already know why I screwed up in this case, but my teammate is frustrated, and feels the need to let me know of their frustrations and strikes out at me impulsively.

Now, imagine if your coworkers and boss acted similarly all the time, yelling at you for literally every mistake, childishly ganging up on you and bullying you every single time for close to an hour while you're still trying to do your job. You'd quit your job, and find another one, or at the very least complain to HR about this and get many of those people fired or severely talked to.

Well in League, you can't exactly get away with simply moving to a different work environment. You have to either quit and endure not playing again until the next game and THEN deal with a punishment (such as waiting for 20 minutes every time you want to queue up for a game for a certain amount of games or simply getting banned for a week, while having that game you left count as a ranked loss), or you have to deal with that miserable game until your team either surrenders or you somehow win.

So now imagine all of the above happens in the workplace- you deal with their abuse all day every day, and when you finally decide to quit that job and move on to something else, you are told you will not be paid for any of the hours you worked from one paycheck to the next, won't get unemployment, and the next 10 jobs you apply to are now guaranteed to refuse your application upon completion even if you would normally be accepted in a heartbeat. Also, at your new job, you are now known as a "leaver", and everyone has access to your background check.

See what league players have to deal with?

To be honest, I don't even know what the point of what I wrote was...I started out praising this game, and now I sound like I hate it. I don't, I swear, I just think it gets a bad rap and its fans oftentimes get stuck with a label that really doesn't describe them.

I suppose I just like gushing about the game and talking about its ups and downs, similar to others with their hobbies.

I'll be trying to get into Gold this season. My summoner name is CynicalWriter on the NA server, if any of you are interested in queuing up.

Did you like this change of format, and do you want to see more random articles and blogs? What are your thoughts on League? Leave a comment and join the conversation!

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The image in this post was used for discussion and review. All characters within belong to Riot Games. The review and discussion below the image belongs to me. If the original artist does not agree with my usage of said image, please feel free to contact me at [email protected] and I will either remove the image or credit you as you see fit.