Why i gave up on leagues

Started this game in 2013 ,took a long break from 2016-2020 anyways i have been in a few leagues over the years and what i found is leagues for the most part are pretty useless or full of drama or have leaders that are tyrants. I find that since i left my last league a couple of months ago that i get more done in less time and no drama or open mics with people eating or playing crappy music.

The last league i was in was the last straw for me,i won't say the name of it but i will talk about what drove me out. When i came back to the game at the start of 2020 i joined this league and at 1st it seemed like a good league and i would be helpful like if someone need help leveling or needed people to get into an alert i would always offer to help,on a few occasions i even bought gear for players in the league to help them get into raids if they were a cr or 2 short and i would alway offer tips and tricks that i found. I would run stuff sometimes multiple times just to help out. Anyways as time went on i started to get promoted because i was so helpful but then i started to notice how the leader treated people. The leader also had a bad reputation and had to do a name change,i actually helped the leader pick the new name.

There were a few times where we would get into a raid and a player not in our league would be there and this leader would just trash talk the person for no reason saying they sucked even if they didn't and would want to kick them over nothing ,all of this done in league chat so the person would not hear anything. I stopped the leader from kicking people on multiple occasions. This leader kicked a guy out of the league because he didn't want to buy a membership and was waiting for the free episodes to end,another person was yelled at for not putting white mods in an alt that was low cr,i mean who puts white mods in a 200 cr toon that's getting new gear every 10 min,most people wait until end game to unlock white mods(including me) so i thought this was unfair.

The league would go through tons of members because people would either get kicked by the tyrant leader or quit cause they got tired of being bullied and i was getting tired of it too. Most of the time i had to pug my stuff anyways but still i hung in there,helping when i could and trying to avoid the drama. I also have a high cr villain and the league made a villain league as well and i helped quite a few members including the leader level up their villain alts ,this will come into play later.

The league had this thing they called raid time for me it was 5pm and because of my work schedule it was very hard for me to be there because i had to reverse my sleep time to do it but i wanted to be helpful so i did it. On paper it sounds like a good thing to do raids every day at a certain time but the leader demanded anyone who was on at that time had to be there even if you were in the middle of something you were expected to drop it and come to the hall so people would have to leave raids or bounty groups or feat runs etc. What the raid would be varied but most of the time it would be older raids or event versions of raids to help the noobs out. There was a time table made where we did new stuff on thu because it was reset day and fri and older raids other days but the leader would change this all the time with no warning so you would expect to do the new raid and suddenly find out you were doing an old raid or an event version that would loot lock you,there was no consistency.

Now on to what led to me leaving. One raid night we were doing an old raid from one of the metal dlc's and it was failing over and over and i got tired of doing it over and over cause we had already been failing for over an hour so i said hey we should disband because this group just can't do it and maybe on another day we could do it so finally we disband and the next thing i know the leader wants me in a group and starts yelling at me saying i said the league was crap etc. and i'm just like what are you talking about cause i had never said the league was crap or any thing else like that so it was a bit shocking to me that the leader was putting words in my mouth. After this i decided i had had enough and i quit the league and just ran some of my dailies ,the next thing i know i got a message on facebook from the leader begging me to come back and after a long talk i decide to give the league 1 more chance and agree to come back.

So now it's raid night on reset day and i have flipped my sleep around expecting to do the new raid ,i get to the hall and the leader says we are doing bounties and no raids so now i'm stuck doing bounties cause remember if you are on you have to be there. Now its fri and the last day i can do the raid because of my work so i get to the hall the the leader says we are doing the event version 1st so i say why can't we do the normal 1st because i don't want to be loot locked from the event and the leader says and i quote"I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT LOOT LOCKED" so i say fine let me get an alt and i do and we run the event raid after that i get back on my main and say ok let's do the reg now,the leader than says we are doing older raids and i'm like what about the new raid this is the only day i can do it and i get maybe after well after ends up being goodnight so after getting told i don't help out because i wanted to do the new raid i just go and pug it in LFG and get it done.

The next day (my work day) i get bothered by my treatment for pretty much just asking to do a raid and i send a text to the leader saying hey i didn't like how i was treated and agree to talk later so i go to sleep prepping for a long night at work and wake up way too early so now it's like 7pm and i had about 5 hours sleep and log into the game well the 1st thing i hear on mic is o oh here we go and the leader says oh damn i have to switch toons and deal with this so now i realize the leader has just been trashing me all day so i decide ok i'll see what the leader has to say and then if it's anything short of an apology i'm quitting this league. So i get grouped up with the leader for our talk and am told that i don't help enough and all i do is complain so basically all the helping is did was forgotten and i get told to leave the league by the leader who just a few days ago begged me to come back and i thought this was funny since i was done anyways and just wanted to see what the leader would say.

After that i sent a text to the leader saying good luck with the league and have a nice life and that was the end of that nightmare league for me. Now since i have been out i am much happier running without a league and i will probably never join another league again,i say probably because there is always a small chance i could change my mind down the road but at this time i have no plans to join anymore leagues cause i think that last league ruined them for me.

Now i know there might be some people who will be able to figure out what league i am talking about but if you do please keep it to yourself because i am not looking to out the league or start a fight with them i just needed to get my story out there for my own sanity and share my league nightmare and why i'm done with leagues and sorry about the long read.

Sounds like you had it tough. I've thankfully have not experienced the same and found a group of caring and fun members, but we are also not hardcore and don't treat it like a job.

Hope you do find some players that are good to go with, the league profs are good to have in general.

Woah the negativity and Unnecessary Stress, happy you’re out of there that’ll kill the fun out of the game for anyone. Hopefully
You find a good league or just create one yourself sounds like you’d better off being in your own league.

I joined a league that is dead. The leader has not logged in in over a month. The log shows people leaving the league left and right. I couldn't be happier.

Something i just remembered there was also league meetings once or twice a month where the leader would basically yell at us like we were children and then kick a bunch of people for lame reasons like being late for the meeting etc. anyways i am very glad to be out of there,i don't know if i want to start a league either cause i can't be on the game all the time and i am probably too laid back to be a league leader.

Join The Island, get your full league buffs and still play your game how you want. No reason to go buffless.

Sheila hates leagues now too, so she made her own, keeps all the buffs up herself and offers em out to people who want to play their own game and still have league buffs.

Island of Heroes usps/pc
izzyLizzard

Why would he yell at someone for not wanting to do a raid because they're loot locked? That's just absurd. I've left leagues with similar tyrant leader/player stories like yours. I'm making my own league and will start recruiting once I get the league hall up and running. No one will be pressured/bullied into doing something they don't want to do, especially if they are loot locked or they don't like the old content and no one will be pressured into acting in an officer/leader capacity.

I've been in leagues like that. I simply walk out and find another league with people who understand "THIS IS A GAME, NOT A JOB". Nothing I hate more than having a game meant to make me happy and relaxed, only to have it turned into a chore; that seriously puts me off. Just find another league.

PS: Something that irks me though, people with open mics. I don't wan't to hear everything that goes on in your house, from your screaming children to your phone calls, your TV, crappy taste in music and everything in between. Irks me more, that I move to a different audio channel for some peace and quiet and as soon as I warp anywhere, it forces the "open mic channel" back. Doesn't matter if I have the option set to manual, it still does it automatically. That really irritates me.

Your points are very well made. I started playing the game at launch and was in three leagues continually over the first nearly eight years. They all had some of the issues you mentioned...not the least of which was the needless drama.

A little over two years ago I stopped playing in a league and now do so in a "solo league." With a bit of patience I was able to amass enough prestige to buy a league hall and have been able to keep the appropriate buffs lit up. I find it a much more enjoyable way to play.

This has to be a hero thing lol

Had one dude scream on mic at the top of his lungs because we weren't skipping past the trash mobs in an alert. I'd be willing to bet that he was red in the face in real life. His voice tone was always that he was the boss of everyone and his way is the best way. That incident, together with the fact that I was ninja looted (back when you could, this was a long time ago obviously) by the league leader, was the last straw for me and I left.

Those ninja invites... hate them. I usually leave immediately after those ninja invites.

HAVE THE DECENCY TO ASK FIRST!!! lmao

--As for bossy "leaders", I ignore them and leave. No one is above any other person! See, for me, I am a 40 year old, Retired Major; US. ARMY Intel and i will be damned 27,000 times over if I'm gonna let some basement troll yell at me over a GAME!

I'm still confused why you assume it's hero only? I've seen Villain leagues rise and fall due to infighting and drama. They become more apparent because the population is smaller too.

Also, didn't you say you are in a small league because you didn't want the drama to go with bigger active leagues?

That is some crazy you know what lol wow Smh I've heard of allot of this stuff on the hero side not saying Villain side doesn't have issues but I heard some Thing's over there .

People gotta understand this ant no damn job We play to escape stress and life's issues for a few hours and I've seen people try and treat this game like a 2nd job and bring other's down unfortunately.

I'm sorry you had such horrible experience. I'm on two different leagues on different servers (Hero league on EU and Villain league on US) and both have been amazing to me. Great people, positive vibes and we always joking around and we're all very casual- just about having fun and real life always comes first. It's a shame to learn that some leagues can be so toxic out there. I will never change my leagues due to how awesome the people in them are.

My EU League also has open league meetings and It's okay if you are late or can't make it, we ask if you want to join in. You don't have to.

I hope if you do decide to join a league again in the future that you'll have a better experience than this.

You can set league invites to auto ignore in settings,it's great for those ninja invites.

No I said I didnt like how leagues have inner circles and only pick and choose who to help within leagues. If you arent deemed worthy of their groups then you do for yourself despite being in their league.

So I said screw all leagues and remained in a league that holds me and 3 friends. So there is no alienating going on. Everyone gets to benefit as long as your on of course.

Your league leader sounds so toxic and narcissistic it's not even funny. Please PM me his name so I can add him to ignore.

I feel you man, I've always been a solo player and never was about leagues for years because of all that bs. Finally found a league that accepted me for how I was and how I played. Ended up partying ways with them about 5 months ago after being there for 6 or so years, all because of my opinion of covid believe it or not lol. I never talked about politics or the like prior to that either. It only takes 1 comment to trigger a whole league and have them turn on you. Should've stuck to my guns

Not going to argue with you, but that is the definition of drama.