I Played 367 Matches of Brawl (Yes, Really) — Here's What It Got Right (and not)

I've been a fan of League of Legends for a few years, starting back in Season 2 when Darius was adorning the login screen by smashing in the head of a hapless soldier.

- By Artura Dawn

• Artura played a lot of League of Legends

Riot Games' MOBA was different at the time: the meta was not as well-established, the game was still (arguably) niche, and for-fun game modes were still a thing.

When Season 8 came around, I lost that drive to play Summoner's Rift Ranked — I explored this in my article talking about how Brawl was everything I needed from League of Legends— and I became an ARAM slave since then. I've played nearly 10,000 matches, but I stopped caring as much due to the lack of progression and agency on being able to play what I wanted, because who wants to bear the mantle of Udyr in an all-ranged composition?

Brawl came and went in what felt like a blur — I was unable to enjoy over 10 days of it due to Summer Game Fest, but I still managed to log over 300 matches (367, to be exact) before it ran out. I keep a spreadsheet at hand to calculate all sorts of things, and according to this, I spent an average of 73 hours playing it.

Now, we're out the other side. Brawl is gone from League of Legends with no return confirmed (Riot Games has been verbal in reddit that they're gathering feedback, but the when is as murky as ever), and it's back to slaving away at ARAM. But now that hindsight is 20:20, let's talk a bit about Brawl: what it got right, what it got wrong, and things I wish to see in the future.

Right: The Map

As a person who has sunk hours upon hours in the Howling Abyss, I would be remiss not to mention the map of Brawl. Having previously felt envy towards the face-lifts that Summoner's Rift gets adorned with, I can't say I didn't feel envy that our bridge has only gotten a few repairs over the last years.