I have a balance dream!

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of League.

Six years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, released a MOBA. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of gaming slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But six years later, the gamer still is not free. Six years later, the life of the league player is still sadly crippled by the manacles of champion bias and the chains of imbalance. Six years later, the Urgot main lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of mobility prosperity. Six years later, the Evelyn is still languished in the corners of the jungle and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to these boards to cash a check. When the designers of this game wrote the magnificent words of the original patch notes, they were signing a promissory note to which every champion was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all champions, yes, immobile champions as well as mobile ones, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Balance, Viability, and Fun." It is obvious today that Riot has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her low tier champions are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, Riot has given the Olaf mains a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this game. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of champion diversity and the security of viability.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind League of legends of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of the current meta or to take the tranquilizing drug of LCS. Now is the time to make real the promises of balance. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of under powered champions to the sunlit path of balance justice. Now is the time to lift our game from the quicksands of FOTM champions to the solid rock of equality. Now is the time to make balance a reality for all of God's champions.

It would be fatal for Riot to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Veigar mains legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of balance and equality. Two thousand fifteen is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Skarner players needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if this game returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in League until the immobile champions are granted their citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our game until the bright day of balance emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of balance: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for viability by drinking from the cup of nerfs and guttings. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of balance and fairness. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into making even more champs unviable. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting imbalance with soul balance.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the league community must not lead us to a distrust of all lee sin mains, for many of our lee sin brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their balance is inextricably bound to our balance.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of balance, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the immobile champion is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of the lee sin ward hop. We can never be satisfied as long as our Olafs, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot ever catch the Kalistas. We cannot be satisfied as long as the unviable champions basic mobility is from a 38% win rate to a 40% win rate. We can never be satisfied as long as our teemos are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Sions only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Eve in the jungle cannot kill the blue buff and a Veigar in Mid lane believes he has nothing for which to even try to kill. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "balance rolls down like waters, and viability like a mighty stream."¹

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from trash-tier jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for playability left you battered by the storms of nerfs and staggered by the winds of Jungle punishments. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to playing eve, go back to playing urgot, go back to playing skarner, go back to playing elise, go back to playing Kha zix, go back to the slums and ghettos of our immobile champs, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of this season and next season, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the Gamers dream.

I have a dream that one day this game will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Champions are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of summoners rift, the sons of former trash-tiers and the sons of former FOTM will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Dominion, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of being ignored, will be transformed into an oasis of balance and fun.

I have a dream that Evelyns and urgots will one day live in a game where they will not be judged by the mobility they possess but by the content of their kits.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in the jungle, with its vicious raptors, with its gromp having his lips dripping with the words of "DOT" and "Extra XP" -- one day right there in the dragon pit, little Evelynns and urgots will be able to join hands with little lee sins and Katarinas as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."2

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the fields of justice with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our champion pool into a beautiful symphony of balance. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for balance together, knowing that we will be viable one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's champions will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's champions, mobile and immobile, Adc's and tanks, Ap and ad junglers, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

           Balanced at last! Balanced at last!

            Thank God Almighty, we are balanced at last!