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Like any other evening, my best friend and I hopped on League to play some blinds. We're both nearing our 30s so we're not taking this game as seriously anymore. We just want to pop off for a game or two on our mains and call it a night.
For reference, I'm around high Gold/low Plat level (depending on seasons) and my friend is consistently Diamond. This means that we are usually matched with and against people who know the basics of this game.
Enter this person who instalocks Varus with Teleport and Heal. Given that it was a blind, we didn't think much of it. Maybe he had some secret dark tech. Who knows. After all, I run stuff like HoB J4 and Xin bot lane all the time. The benefit of the doubt should always be given (for a blind).
But this Varus proceeds to die as early as 1:45 minutes in the game. He walked through the minion wave to hit the Alistar (drawing minion aggro) and promptly got 100-0ed. He then TPed back in and attempted to make the same "play" again. The outcome did not change.
My friend typed: "Are you a bot?"
He replied: "Sorry, it's been a while."
The feeding continued for the rest of the game. By 15 minutes, he was 0/7 with 33 cs. He was effectively un-carriable. It was worse than a 4v5. He was a walking gold sack that did no damage.
I didn't say anything this whole time. But I did glance at the game timer every five seconds, desperate to leave the game ASAP and steer far, far away from someone of his caliber. We finally managed to surrender at 20 minutes.
Contemptuously, I decided to look him up on OP.GG. Indeed, how is it possible that anybody can be so bad? Was he griefing on purpose? Was he letting his little sibling play? I needed an explanation.
What I've uncovered beset me with profound sadness.
For as long as his match history goes, this guy has only played Varus, with the same combination of summoner spells, against bots. Of course, he would stomp them.
Our game was the only game he played against actual humans in a month.
Essentially, this man has been honing his Varus against bots, too scared to play his champ against real humans. Only after a month did he finally gather enough courage to bring his main in a real game... just to get dumpstered in the most humiliating fashion possible.
This game probably meant a lot for him, even though it meant nothing for us. I got 14 kills on Lethal Tempo J4 the next game building Trinity Force and Death's Dance. I got to go to bed having achieved my late-game fantasy on my favorite champ.
But for him? This game confirmed his suspicions: playing against real people is scary and never fun. He is most likely never going to play a real game anytime soon. In fact, he has only played a single bot game after this one and has been inactive since.
I guess I just feel remorse for my apathy. I feel bad for judging his personal worth solely based on his LoL play. Above all, I feel bad for being part of an experience that may possibly turn him away from this wonderful game forever.
I've since added him on my friend list, hoping that he would log on one day.
I'd like to apologize to him for this terrible experience and maybe even explore the practice tool with him. Teach him the basics. Even if he caps out at a Bronze level, he'd be "good" enough to enjoy the game as it is intended.
/End league diary.
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