Review of League of Legends, MOBA game by Chandler Wang

 League of Legends is a MOBA, or multiplayer online battle arena, and is one of the most popular free-to-play games out there. It's also infamous for having a very toxic playerbase, and after playing the game for a good amount over the summer, I can see both why it's popular and why the players are indeed generally unfriendly. League and other MOBAs are pretty unique compared to other games, and can be intimidating to get into. They are very complex, and it took me a long time to get the hang of League. The map is split into three lanes, each defended by three projectile-firing towers and an "inhibitor", and finally there are two towers guarding the final objective, the "nexus," which you must destroy to win. Little minions will spawn in waves in each lane, and you can kill them for gold and experience. There's also a path called the river connecting the middle of all three lanes, and a winding "jungle" filling in the spaces in between. The jungle has monsters in it, which also provide gold and experience, and there are stronger monsters that spawn near the river, which can be killed for special buffs. Those are just the basics, and I didn't get into any of the details. Although the game is quite complex, it's also quite interesting because of it, and I had a lot of fun just trying to learn the game. Besides the setup of the game being complex enough as it is, there's 150 different characters to play as, tons of different items to buy with the gold you earn, and a system called "runes" that allow you to give your character different buffs in the game. There's so much to figure out in the game, and the complexity of the game has kept me interested despite all the hours I've sunk into it. The setup of the game makes it unique and very upsetting in some ways. The better you do, the more experience and gold you receive, and the stronger you get. So, for example, if two players are going against each other in the mid lane, and the one on my team dies five times in a row to the opposing mid laner, that player is going to get very, very strong. So strong, that I might not be able to feasibly win a fight against them if I haven't been doing as well as they have. This makes players often very critical of their teammates, which is often upsetting if you're on the receiving end, especially if you're just starting the game. However, this aspect of getting stronger also makes the game very satisfying, and making good plays feels very rewarding because of this mechanic. As I  mentioned, League has an abundance of characters, and having such a large selection of characters is something I enjoy in any game. Although League doesn't give all of the characters to you, you don't have to buy the ones you're missing with real money, and can use the in-game currency instead. It takes a while to unlock the more expensive characters, but it's still a rewarding system that gives the game a sense of progression. Overall, League of Legends is a very complicated but fun and rewarding game with innumerable intricacies to learn, making it so you can always get better at the game. It's a fun and strategic game, and its complexity and variety keeps the game fresh even if you play it as much as I do. 9/10.