LogFAQs > #968658390

League of Legends had a godawful grind back when runes were still a thing.

Start off with only free week characters

Champions cost a crazy amount to unlock.

You were actively weaker than level 30 players
because they had full runes and masteries while you missed out on a bunch of stats (Jungling was near impossible pre 30)

And when you finally did hit 30... you'd probably have enough to buy 1 page of the runes you needed. Maybe 2? Too bad you needed several more to cover all the roles.

Did I mention champions and runes were purchased with the same currency? So buying runes meant not buying another character and expanding your roster (Which you kind of need if you wanted to practice a character for more than a week before they got rotated out).

Of course this double grind was intended to encourage you to purchase champions with money instead. Hope the one you wanted goes on sale!