League of Legends is one of the world's most popular Multiplayer Online Battle Arena's, with the concept of tower defense at its core. There are five roles: top, mid, ADC (attack damage carry), support, and jungle. These roles are given to five players on each team, with three lanes and a jungle to take. The goal is to take down enough towers and objectives for your team until you can reach the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow: the enemy nexus.

I started playing League back in the Fall of 2013, after watching my brother casually playing it on his outdated PC. Originally, getting into the game was tough. There were many new concepts and strategies to understand, and nearly 200 different characters to master. Along with the seemingly difficult game-play came a whole new community I hadn't warmed up to. The League community was one of the most toxic, unforgiving communities I had been placed in. I remember my first game with the new character, Jinx: "The Loose Cannon," they called her. With all the awkwardness and unfamiliarity that came with the appealing character came the mistakes of dying a few times to the enemy team. With that, in the midst of war, I was instantly given whiplash from my team. It was a 30-minute long experience of verbal slander and degradation from four very angry strangers.

After that incident, I became wary of making mistakes in the game - mistakes meant you were put on trial, questioned and executed if you couldn't prove yourself innocent. In League, the unspoken rule was "guilty until proven innocent." Of course, winning is fun, but suddenly it wasn't about having fun. "Fun" was the reward you got only if you achieved victory after 40 minutes of toxicity and discord. The game took on a new form by wrapping itself around insecurity, as now it was not just a tower defense, but a self-defense simulator as well.

Unfortunately it took me three years to re-evaluate the meaning of "fun." In League, there is also a rank system that determines how good of a player you are, starting from bronze all the way to challenger. If you are like me, you avoid rank and stay that way. My reasons are quite simple: Rank games aren't fun and require too much effort. When you choose to start rank, you have to be on the the constant climb to get to the next notch on the ladder. It takes hours of grinding work and submerges you in a place where people are relying on you to not mess up in order to reach a similar goal. It basically places immense amounts of pressure with the reward of self-satisfaction. I personally did not gain the satisfaction or pride that so many ranked players felt, so I made the decision to keep my nose out of the ladder.

With rank or unranked games, however, there is always one thing that every player experiences: flaming. This game has changed people I've known for years. It's a phenomenon that effects the most respectable people you'll ever meet. The cause? People get quickly absorbed into the game and just as quickly become likely to lash out. Games were always a way for people to get comfortable in their gaming niche and tap into an aggressive side to let all of their angst out through killing a few enemies and de-stress. League was a medium for people to express their rage. It set up the right circumstances for someone to feel their expression of anger was justified. The enemy team took down a turret? You were killed? Better wish death on everyone's mothers.

I knew a few friends who were the people that would play this game avidly. Over time, their personalities in League merged with the kind level-headed personality outside of it. Soon enough, they became sharks waiting for someone to step into the water. A light tap on the surface was enough to trigger an unwarranted personal attack. Aside from the psychological effects League had, what slowly pushed me from the game was that it simply became boring. League was now a mundane chore - something you would play in the background to keep you busy while focusing on anything else. Nowadays, I rarely get on. And when I do, I will only play if I have good company.

In the three years I have spent with this entertainment, League has left its footprint. It has both brought people into and out of my life. Although I would say I don't enjoy the game now as I used to, I don't regret the past created with it. Being able to see the line where people change has sharpened my judgement, and meeting some down-to-earth people is a priceless exchange. If you're interested in playing after reading this, then know what to expect. I wish you good memories to gain with League. Oh, and don't forget to have fun.