I am happy to see this trend potentially ending. In my estimation, esports ultimately resulted in barbaric desecration of formerly-enjoyable multiplayer experiences, all for the sake of the all-mighty meta. Many titles were built for the express purpose of being a PPV event.
I believe Starcraft 2 and LoL evolved into some of the top offenders in this arena. Overwatch also had a scary phase with mandatory meta queues. These days, SC2 feels like you are playing an organ with 1 hand tied behind your back. LoL lost all of the wacky energy when you couldn't stack items anymore.
Competitive multiplayer gaming is effectively dead for me, and not because I don't like to get sweaty anymore. I will still periodically fire up something like TF2, just so I can remember how good it all could have been. I can play [insert role] all day on 1 server with other humans and no one will give me shit about it. Try playing off-meta in LoL and see how long your account stays active.
I believe Starcraft 2 and LoL evolved into some of the top offenders in this arena. Overwatch also had a scary phase with mandatory meta queues. These days, SC2 feels like you are playing an organ with 1 hand tied behind your back. LoL lost all of the wacky energy when you couldn't stack items anymore.
Competitive multiplayer gaming is effectively dead for me, and not because I don't like to get sweaty anymore. I will still periodically fire up something like TF2, just so I can remember how good it all could have been. I can play [insert role] all day on 1 server with other humans and no one will give me shit about it. Try playing off-meta in LoL and see how long your account stays active.