League as Life: Worth your weight in Mana

I’ve played games most of my life. Like most, I played Atari at grandma’s house and then got a NES at the age of three or so. Gaming has come a long way since then and teaming up with the Internet has given us MMO games. My current favorite, since I was late to this particular band wagon, is League of Legends, fondly known as LoL. If you’ve played one MMO, you know most of them. Fresh out of literary analysis classes, I couldn’t help but string together a series of metaphors for my life and my life on LoL.

Let me start by explaining how—for my very personal experience—my League life went.

I was very excited when I entered my first AI match. The woman who announces everything was telling me just what to do in tutoring matches (“Stay behind your minions!!” still rings in my ears when I get executed on occasion). Ashe was my archer of doom, and I was winning. I took a lot of damage, bought the wrong things, tried to use skill shots on the turrets—all that stuff that you probably did too but deny to this day ever doing.

Naturally, I bought Ashe and one of my brothers gifted me a skin for her so I could dress her up on the battlefield. I learned ADC (attack, damage, carry) fast, found out there were websites that told you how to build, videos on how to play—all that. I basically studied the game like I studied Statistics for college. The game got fun. I won. I lost. I leveled up. I bought runes to make Ashe stronger, found the Masteries page to get her more damage and some cool pluses. She was great. Then…I met Jinx. She was free to play and was just begging me to try her on. I had gotten a good grasp of how the game worked, how to win, how to not die. So I thought, “Well, why not try something new!” Hint: this is a life metaphor. 

Jinx and I clicked like an Attack and Armor Pen rune. We could not lose. By this time, I headed out into the big leagues. No more fighting AI and went up against real people I had never met. Fighting WITH real people I had never met. It was hard at first, but hey, I had a new hero to play! And we did fine.

Then. It happened.

Suddenly, at that one level (about 15-25) no one wanted to support me (ADCs need a support). No one wanted to heal me up, get me kills, protect me with a shield, ward my lane. I was dying left and right. The jungler never emerged to gank the bottom for us and help us push a turret. “Jinx, you suck!” “Get kills, loser!” “F**k you a** hole!” “Worst ADC ever!” And far worse things. What could I do? My supports were too aggressive and would chase past the enemy turret. My jungler never came down because he was too scared.

I had to change tactics if I wanted to keep playing. I had picked up Teemo and Malzahar on the way by this point and tried out top and middle. That was fine. But again with the jungler issue. No help. Everyone was playing solo. What to do? Who can keep a team together that doesn’t want to play together? Who can help everyone and keep everyone happy?

Enter Sona the Maven of the Strings. Graceful, strong, quiet. 

I bought Sona after she was free to play and learned her fast. I had to if I wanted to enjoy the game at all. I supported and I rocked at it. My ADC would still scream at me if she/he died. Junglers are still scared to come bottom, but I was there to help. That was my role. I learned to be friendly, to defend my team mates from my own team mates! I had to. I had to support everyone through chat and with my spells. But I didn’t want to. I wanted to go out and kick some butt and get those kill scores! But I couldn’t. I had to weaken the enemy, strengthen my ADC and then let them go in and get the score while I waited back and watched out for the enemy jungler with my sight wards.

I had to make other people look good.

This is where real life comes in. I still supp and it still makes me sad to have to abandon Malzahar and Vladimir and Teemo. And Jinx and Ashe. They were old characters I used to fit into. Characters I wanted to be. But no one else would sacrifice and be support. No one else would fill a jungler’s shoes and come down to help. I had to be the best support so that my ADC wouldn’t die. I still have bad games, of course. I had to be the best person on my team so that my mates wouldn’t become our enemies.

I didn’t choose to play a support, it’s the role the League society thrust upon me. That’s life, right there. I read that back when League was new, no one called lanes and no one even knew what a role was. Imagine that! They just played. But what happened is what happens in our world: order fell into place and the League society decided what was right and what was wrong. What was acceptable and what was not. If you go against that, you are wrong and you suck and deserve to die.

You have no choice either. If you step outside the meta your team WILL lose. So pick a position and hero you like. That’s the only way to get by in League. In life. You can try to go against it, but be ready to fail, to be hated, and be reported. I decided to slide into a role I didn’t want. The odd thing is, I am really good at it. I am good at making sure not only my ADC stays alive, but that my team mates don’t turn into enemies. I support. Hint: this is me in real life too.

This world is full of solo players. No one wants to team fight. No one says “our supp is OP!”. No one does in life either. You have to train yourself into another skin. You have to learn how to find the worth in what you have to do. Your lesson is a solo one. But you will be the glue of the team. You save them, protect them, heal them, set them up for victory. No one will know. All they will know is that they got kills and won. Your happiness comes from knowing that you had something to do with that. I hear you. “That’s not enough!” you say. But that’s why only the greatest, strongest, most fun and most wonderful people are good supports.

No, no, I am not that person. I get angry. But that is the person I want to be. I didn’t choose it. But through life you have to choose different skins and heroes to be. Sometimes you can be the ADC or the game-changing jungler. But when you’re stuck as support, know that without you they wouldn’t win either. Your lesson is to know what you’re worth, not them. Even if you don't win the match, you still get: