An Open Letter to Riot

Hello everyone

My name is let's just say M. And I've wanted for so long to thank riot games for league of legends and for many other things so I'll hop to it.

I didn't really know what a MOBA was back in 2013 and my cousin let's say their name is C called me on Skype one day and said "Hey man we should totally play league of legends, it's super fun and free" so naturally I looked it up and started looking at the champions and the gameplay and what not and decided to take a shot. You see I was very shy and skittish at this time and when I found out LoL was an online only game I got worried because I'd be playing with other REAL people this scared to all hell. I was nervous but my cousin convinced me to give it a shot regardless and I too that risk, and it's shaped me in so many ways that I can't express. When I hopped In to league I had no idea what I was doing and was so scared of being outwitted by another player and feeling inadequate or scared that I'd ruin the game for everyone else, I did what the little notification bar told me and followed it to a T. I was top lane with my cousin I think he was lux and we just played like a kid learning to walk. We didn't know what objectives were or that we needed to kill minions and towers we just knew that there was an enemy we needed to stop. We played all night that night. I remember picking kayle for the first time and getting a triple kill just by building speed. Or going Sona bot lane and stealing kills and getting flamed at. I found this community in this game that has been woven into my life and it's great! But it's not always that way. League has helped me a lot in life and I have tons of friends because of it but this next part is about someone I fell in love with who loved league too. Let's say this guy's name is R. R and I met under weird circumstances by which I mean he manipulated me into thinking my boyfriend was cheating on me and I broke up with that boyfriend and slowly started to fall for R. Of course at the time I didn't think there was anything wrong with me and R being together. We'd play league all night and hang out and talk about what builds we thought worked where, all the skin possibilities there was, new champions and ideas we had. It was actually a great time in my life for the most part. But something i didn't notice was that R was luring me away from my friends and family. When I started to be with R he manipulated me into thinking that if I played without him I was doing worse that my friends and family made me a bad person. I tried so hard to please him. The thing that I didn't know was that he was in a second relationship with someone else, W. W and R had been together forever but R didn't like W anymore but W gave him a home so he tolerated it but when I came along he told me he didn't want this relationship with W since he was not in love with W anymore. When he asked me out he said that he broke up with W a while back and it should not matter. Then the really bad times hit. Since W gave him a home, when they broke up, R lost his home. I was shocked but at the same time not really but since there was nowhere for R to go I convinced my mom to let R buy her old car. That became his new home... And then mine too. R told me that I should stay with him, that he was to vulnerable alone. And me being "in love with him" I said yes. I gave up my home with my parents to live in a car with no money, no job, no bed, no pot to pee in. I was homeless at 19 because I was a moron. Fast forward 3 months, after countless begging I get my parents to loan me $900 and with that I went and secured not only an apartment but a job at a Walmart, while R was still scared. I showed him what I did and he didn't seem impressed. He told me how his mom could have helped, how he was just that good of a son to her to not bother her. I was heartbroken I thought that giving him a home was an amazing thing that he love me even more for but no it wasn't ever good enough. We moved in and we're finally off the streets and I was so happy. He didn't really care it seemed, but he told me he was so happy many times. He even began using the "forevermore" quote from kindred to symbolize our "love" and I felt like I had it good. I thought that league had brought me to someone I'd love for a long time but I was very wrong. Soon after we moved in he would start fights with me at random over little things. We'd go to the store and he'd hurt me "on accident" and give me what would always seem like a legitimate apology but then it would happen again, and then it lead to him doing it mentally instead saying that "I wasted his life, I'm a waste of human life, I need to be a better person or this never would have happened" and the worst part was I thought he was right. After a while I knew that the relationship was nothing but abusive tendencies from him and then calling any retaliation from me "horrid ungodly abuse" I was trapped until one night. On that night a fight had broken between us and he had stormed off in the dead of a freezing cold winter night, I knew he'd get hurt if he stayed out and I knew I need to do something to get him back home so I pretended like something was very wrong with me. He then ran back and helped me home but when he found out it was a lie he said "I can't f***ing believe you! I guess that's what I get when I live with a psychopath!" After that the relationship fell apart piece by piece and I was actually happy knowing that. And all the while my only refuge from my reality was league. It was the only thing I could turn to for home or any semblance of it. It reminded me of all the good times I had with friends and family. It was my happy place. I know that not a lot of people like the community but I love it it's great really. When everything finally came to a head though I was scared. I called my mom crying and asked for a ride home. R had already booked a plane ticket to his home state and I was basically alone at this point. Thankfully my mother welcomed me back home and allowed me to stay with her as long as I needed. With R finally gone now, I felt free. I was happy again. And the first thing I did was play another game of league. It has truly been with me for the most trying parts of my life and made me so happy. Now I live with a wonderful room mate in a nice home, I regularly play league and chat with friends. I even have more people in my life now then I ever did, most from league. I want to think that it's all thanks to your game riot.. you guys really helped me get through the mud to the clearing. I just want to say since it's close to Christmas, Thank you. Thank you riot games.

Merry Christmas And Happy holidays From M