lol-banner
All News
article-headline

I reached gold on my first season ever, playing ADC; Thoughts of the game from a newish player

(In case anyone is bored enough to look, https://euw.op.gg/summoner/userName=sh%C3%ABik4 )

I've been playing online games since I was a kid, starting about 15 years ago. I reached high PvP ranks in WoW (+2300 in 2v2 and 3v3) and Overwatch (played every role, reached diamond several seasons), but never got into MOBAs (tried DOTA a few years ago, didn't like it). But during Worlds 2019 I got curious and started watching the matches.

Although I didn't understand much, the casting was great and I got into it. I then started playing LoL, and really got into it during the quarantine.

At first I mostly played ARAMs, because I didn't know the champs and people were less toxic when trying to learn them than in Summoner's Rift. Then I moved to normals and finally ranked. What I learned:

  1. LoL is VERY unwelcoming to new players. Both the player base and the game itself. People don't seem to understand that you're learning and will flame you the first opportunity they get. Doesn't matter if the account is new, they will. And it doesn't even matter if you're actually doing good (I've been flamed and got an S+ afterwards). Now add the fact that you can't test the champs, even in practice tool, and you're in for a bad time.

  2. I think part of the reason this game has such high levels of toxicity is the amount of "downtime" there is. When you're waiting for respawn, when you're going to lane, or moving around the map, there's always a chance to write and flame. EUW even has the language problem: Maybe english filters do a good job at banning people for profanity, but I've read really terrible stuff on other languages and I know for a fact they didn't get ban.

  3. On the bright side, there's A LOT of useful videos and websites on the internet, free of charge. Maybe it's a high ELO thing, but I don't know why people pay certain websites to access data, because there's already tons of information/analysis for free. I remember playing WoW back in 2008 and you had to test for yourself or dig deep to find good sources of information. Nowadays with twitch, you can tune in to watch a pro-player explain what they are doing and why they are doing it.

Now, about the game and especially the ADC role, since I've seen a lot of complains on this subreddit.

  1. I chose ADC because I always liked ranged mechanics, such as kiting. But to be honest, with the amount of dashes/gap closers LoL has, it's not as satisfying to play as I thought. Still, I liked the champs, so I kept playing.

  2. I understand how difficult it is to balance ADCs for both soloq and proplay. Playing ADC in soloq mostly sucks. If you get a bad support, you're screwed. And despite being only 25% (1 ADC+1Supp vs 1ADC+1Supp) of the botlane, I get 100% of the blame. Moreover, if you fall behind, you are useless in midgame. A support still has "agency", an ADC has not. But making them more powerful will absolutely screw proplay.

  3. If you do get a good support, you can still get screwed. Maybe they did great during laning phase, but then they absolutely forget about you during midgame, the enemy focuses you and you either can't get into range for the teamfight or die instantly. Or maybe the supp tries his best, but your team just ignores you, and both you and the supp die. For me, a fed ADC was really not scary. It had a lot of damage, but it could be focused and killed. A fed top laner? It hits like a truck and is unkillable.

  4. Even so, I see a lot of ADCs complaining they can't climb due to bad supports/team, which is plain wrong (Again, I'm only gold, but considering that is top 32%, I think there's a high chance that people complaining will have my ELO or lower) You may have a bad supp and lose a game, but it can happen to the other ADC as well. It's the same as AFKs and trolls. The other team has equal chances to have a bad player (actually, lower chances, since you being in your team means only 4 out of 5 people can potentially troll/afk). So not climbing is up to you.

  5. That doesn't mean there's not a lot of problems with matchmaking. There are indeed a lot of soft inters, AFKs, trolls and smurfs. And for a reason I can't understand, the matchmaking puts lvl 30 accounts playing their first placements in Silver 1, and screws the match. I also can't see the logic in promotion series to climb. It's a bad system that will only cause people to tilt. I read that they are replacing it next season, and my only question is why did it take so long.

  6. Finally, I think a lot of people here don't enjoy the game anymore. When was the last time you played normals? Are you only playing to climb?. I definitely felt burned out the first time I reached gold promo. I won the first 2, then lost 2 and got trolled on the last one. Then I just played with auto-pilot and got demoted to silver 3. I didn't enjoy playing; I felt like I was robbed. I had to take a break for a few weeks from the game, then played other champs, trying to enjoy the game, and then climbed again with a better mindset, having the goal not to win, but to improve.

I don't know if anyone will find this interesting or learn from me, but I wanted to share what I learned. I'm probably going to roleswap next season and learn more about the game, playing other lanes and champs. All in all, it was a fun experience, but I wouldn't recommend LoL for people who haven't played other online games due to the difficulty and toxicity.

All Esports

Entertainment

GosuBattles

Account