User blog comment:Lykrast/Runes: why I hate them/@comment-24022269-20140328045241/@comment-7765731-20140329030212

Most of the time players who are fairly good at the game will start facing level 30s long before they hit 30 themselves, and even after hitting 30 chances are fairly large you'll be facing players with a lot more games played than yourself. Pre-30 it means they have access to more runes and masteries than yourself, an obvious advantage. One can argue about how big or small the advantage is, but it is still there. Anything they have over you in runes you need to make up for in skill, if the matchup is to be on even terms.

I can't speak from experience about how it might be for players very inexperienced with these kinds of games, but I do reckon that it might be a little bit better as they're less likely to face 30s - even if there are a lot of level 30 players that often play worse than new players.