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Parents said that League of Legends was ruining my life.

GroundEffect·4/3/2015, 11:48:21 AM·43 votes·17,028 views

League of legends is just a game right? At least that's what parents say. They believe that videogames are something that takes time away from other, "productive" things we could be doing. Here's my side of the story.

I started league back in September 2012. This was the end of season 3. I got hooked on the game immediately, and spammed normal all day to get to level 30. I remember going through Mobafire guides, youtube videos. Anything related to League - I was there. I'd think about league while at school too. Eventually it became to be a bit of a problem. When I was once a straight A student with AP's and college classes on the side, I began to fail my classes. I would stay up into the early hours of the morning playing. I then started ranked, and hit bronze 5. I was a typical bronze player, ragey , shitty mechanics, no idea what I was doing. I was addicted to league though. My parents made me stop cold turkey for 4-5 months until I got my shit together. After my hiatus, I came back to league. I still played hard, but made sure my school stuff got done. This is where I began my climb, getting into silver, gold, platinum, diamond. My parents still thought that League had taken away and wasted a big part of my life. All those nights staying up playing ranked instead of out with friends. I even thought to myself that I had wasted my entire highschool experience. How wrong I was.

On my EUW account I recently hit Diamond 1, which is a pretty big milestone. Now for lack of time, a lot of this is sped up. It seemed really quick though , right? Bronze 5 to Diamond 1. It took me around 2500 hours of gameplay to get that far. I got into streaming along the way, and started accumulating followers and viewers. I eventually got contacted by boosting companies wanting to hire me, as well as random companies wanting to sponsor me (Eluxy Computers for example). I also heard about League of Legends scholarships, and applied for them. I recently found out I got in, and that I'd be playing for University of Pikeville on a League of Legends scholarship. In my application I put in attention grabbers, avid sponsored streamer , 3rd best vayne NA (statwise), etc. I'm also turning my major (as I'm a college student now) into E-sports management in aims of managing pro teams in the future.

Why did I post this? And again, I know it seems really sped up. My climb on the solo queue ladder, as well as opportunity wise. It took a lot of time to get to this point, a lot of time I could have spent having a girlfriend or going out on Fridays. What I'm saying is, League of legends is not just a game. If you put the time in, some of you can make a career out of it. Not everyone's gonna make it, some just don't have enough time, some dont have enough potential. But I hope this can inspire you to keep playing and play with a deadest purpose.

EDIT: This was a post I made back in '12 when I was Bronze and ruined my grades, and had all internet usage taken away. Some of you may be in similar situations. http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=3470877

72 Comments

SEKAI4/3/2015, 2:32:51 PM29 votes

To be honest people are nowadays living in entertainment materials more for a reason.

Because life is becoming more and more restricting and frankly, boring, making something else more and more appealing.

These days, if you wanna have fun, good luck getting born in the right place at the right time, otherwise good sodding luck. People are now forcibly put into schools and jobs to work for longer and with more work load than they used to, while spending less time to actually live their own life, so ofc people are going with things like games to go by the days of boredom, it doesn't take a genius to figure that out.

What's the point of technological milestones or economical achievements when nobody can use, enjoy or be there to celebrate it?

Society now only teaches people 1 thing, earn big and spend big. It doesn't concern itself with people's actual intelligence, freedom, experiences, equality and the state of the Earth itself. There is a reason why people are achieving less and less in their life as time goes on when we compare to older generations or ancient histories, even when we have tools and technologies that are straight up magic to them. Why? Because life is boring now, everything is restricted and good things are only put into budget for missiles unless ofc, it aids the economy or can be used as a new way to help monitor/restricting you.

Everyone is born into a game where the creator is already long dead and is now controlled by whoever that is currently hosting the servers, there is no option to pass the round and everything is relying on the amount of money/resource you have before you even start the game. It's literally the worst form of any game because it's "free to play but pay to win, subscription fee required but has mediocre content", who the fk enjoys that?

You can't quit either, well you can but you have to die first so yer.

My life literally had and has nothing going on, but I am constantly paying for everything and still got a huge amount of problems and debts chasing after me just because I was born into a game that I have no control over, nor would I wish to stay in this shietty place if I have the ability to.

Hence I can see why you would say that a game is definitely not wasting one's time and it's worth the effort and all that. But not for the same reason though.

For me, games is still after all, games. It's not real so the achievement in the end of the day, for me, is still completely void. I see games as something I play to escape reality with, not something I would like to live in. So I am currently in a position where I literally am wasting my life doing nothing because everything is either a bloody chore of tedious nonsense that gets you no where, not achievable because money or straight up impossible for me considering my age and other personal factors like families and all.

Oh man, the despair of life really is finding something you enjoy but realising it's simply impossible for you to go there.

On the other hand, I am very glad that you can actually find something to really enjoy and that's indeed very cool.

Ada Wong4/3/2015, 12:34:50 PM17 votes

The only thing that has 100% life steal is League OF Legends.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/c2/22/5d/c2225dd3700b7367f7828f38c424f9a3.jpg

RiotSuperOmelette4/4/2015, 12:50:05 AM16 votes

I'm generalizing here but as a parent and a gamer, I just want to know that my kids are safe and happy. If that means pursuing a career in games and they are super passionate about it, and can make a living off of it, that's great.

What I'm keying into with your post is passion and kudos to you for channeling it into something positive. =)

Sometimes, it's about bridging the gap and having parents understand these new types of jobs that exist, that didn't for them. This information may be outdated, but I've read somewhere that even a single person will have 3 different types of jobs in their career. And when they are in their first type of job, that the third one hasn't even been invented yet. When they are in the last type of job, their first job is obsolete.

It's good to have options so I'd second the Plan B and Plan C. =)

Good luck and thanks for sharing your story.

The Queen Viper4/3/2015, 5:39:05 PM6 votes

Wasn't there a Reddit post / link to an article not so long ago stating that those "League scholarships" are just a bunch of poppycock? Teams being gold-platinum level or something? Do they really help you future-wise?

Don't live in NA, don't know.

EDIT: Something like this... no idea how does this apply to other universities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQOmRntAHjg

Saianna4/3/2015, 1:28:38 PM5 votes

I really though you'd just say "double kill" :P

Deep Terror Nami4/3/2015, 12:12:29 PM4 votes

There's a big difference between you, who worked at it and is using the opportunities to your advantage, and 99.99% of everyone else that thinks the same but just plays the game. I hope the people who take your story as an example to follow figure out which percent they want to be a part of.

Narasimha4/3/2015, 8:22:18 PM4 votes

Hey man, good for you! Allow me to give you some advice, free of charge though. Take it as you will.

  1. Don't plan on making this a full career. E-sports come and go. It wasn't long ago that SC2 was the hot game to be in. The second LoL slips out of the spotlight, you'll have nothing else.

  2. Do NOT go into E-sports management. I've actually talked with my counselor about E-sports. The issue is that being an manager of a gaming team does not look well going into other jobs. People see it as a frivolous thing, as a job with minimal responsibilities. True or not, this is people's perceptions, and it will make a difference. My advice is to go into business management, then branch out from there.

  3. More on the personal level here, but just getting a scholarship to a university doesn't mean much. It depends on the scholarship itself, and more importantly, on the university in question. Getting even a partial scholarship to any well known school is infinetly better than getting a full ride through a small no-name private college. Employers aren't going to outright say it, but they're going to be much more inclined to hire a student from a top university than others.

  4. Nitpicking but..

But I hope this can inspire you to keep playing and play with a deadest purpose.

I have no idea what this means.

Space Bum4/3/2015, 6:58:19 PM3 votes

Amumu I had parents once...

Elite4Runner4/3/2015, 12:05:19 PM3 votes

Good story, good message. You can be anything you set your mind to, .. however, don't forget to enjoy those early years of your life.

Only Play Darius4/3/2015, 12:00:42 PM2 votes

Please tell me how you got out of Bronze5. I am like you were, right now I am failing all of my college classes because I play League 15hrs a day and i'm still Bronze5.

Seenan4/3/2015, 5:03:40 PM2 votes

Why is this in balance? /:

Lavaniel4/4/2015, 12:21:41 AM2 votes

That's amazing your going to UPike! I live in the neighboring county, Johnson County, and we've been trying to set up a League of Legends e-sports team, but our school board at Johnson Central High School won't let us have one. I want to hear about your success in the future! Don't let people put you down!

chipi994/5/2015, 2:54:42 AM2 votes

Lel

Buttigieg 20204/4/2015, 1:30:19 AM1 votes

I love lol too. But I don't want to play this game for the rest of my life, for one it would get boring way faster than you would think. Also, careers in gaming are super risky, you can either become rich or barely survive. For example most Lcs players make ~$30,000 a year which truly is not that much.

ElJanitorFrank4/4/2015, 6:43:02 AM1 votes

Why are you considered the best Vayne NA if you play EUW?

PeanutsForU4/7/2015, 6:28:32 AM1 votes

i really really like this post....I'm 14 and I LOVE league, it's been my favorite game since I discovered it (season 3) I always think about making it a career for my future, but telling my parents about it would make me look like a fool. Honestly I don't care what people say about me, but my parents obviously want to see me successful in life and they don't think I would be successful playing video games. it's pretty annoying to see how people only see careers as sitting behind a desk wearing a suit reading papers all day doing work. Everyone says find something you like to do and do it, so i will, I like to play video games so I think doing this as a career in my future suits me well..

ChenMingYang14/3/2015, 2:51:30 PM1 votes

Nice story. I am currently in a similar situation...My parents made me quit League of Legends for like 4 months now. My friends have been telling me how good the game as become after I quit. For instance, the new Summoner's Rift map, new champions, and URF. I generally get good grades. Last year in my last year of middle school, I was gaming all night on League, getting to silver last season. I got all As even though I was wasted.. But when my parents found out they were just angry with me and restricted my computer access by putting passwords...I look up to this post as inspiration...that I will someday be back on the rift with my friends, laughing on skype when we outplay someone or make dumb mistakes. I don't know how I will be able to persuade my parents cause I get good grades but they think the game will destroy my life...I guess I will have to prove to them that I can live my own life while being successful at the same time.