Boards›[ARCHIVED] Miscellaneous

Making new friends at League meetups

RiotJynx·3/4/2015, 10:17:53 PM·4 votes·13,424 views

Hey Everyone!

Riot Jynx here from NA Publishing. With convention season starting in North America I'm excited to reconnect with friends that I don’t get to see very often (or even for the first time in person). So many of my friendships and memories have come from meeting awesome people during live events and online games. As a teenager I remember attending my first convention in 2000, and for me cosplay was a great way to start connecting with a community of people with similar interests. Since then, 15 years of conventions, events, and gaming has given me a lasting group of friends, teammates, and experiences that I’m extremely thankful for!

There's one memory that stands out for me was during the Season 2 World Finals after moving from Vancouver, Canada to Santa Monica. I attended the tournament in my Pentakill Sona cosplay and met a ton of passionate players like Kohalu. I was literally crossing the street to leave the venue when he flagged us down in an awesome Dragonblade Talon cosplay. We then had a great conversation about the League community and our common interest in cosplay and fabrication. Years later we’re still close friends, and I'm excited to catch up with him during PAX East this weekend! I've attached a recent photo of us from Summoner's Con looking way too serious... haha.

Have you guys had similar experiences meeting new friends at events or while playing League online? If so, I'd love to hear them!

21 Comments

RiotRiot Vitzkrieg3/5/2015, 12:58:24 AM5 votes

TwistedFate + item 3165

PAX Prime 2011 was a pretty big year for me as far events go. It was my second convention ever, and I was dressed as Twisted Fate for my first cosplay. I went up on stage to try the new Dominion game mode (and got trashed as TF on the bot side to my eternal shame...) and then stuck around for the costume competition. It was there that I ended up meeting "NerfMasterSuckTown" Morello for the first time. We got along well enough, and then I bumped into him again while queuing in the Firefall lines. I managed to push through my starstruck awe and we chatted about gaming and working in games for the half hour wait. After that he suggested I catch him at the LoL pub drink up, which of course I did. It was there that Ryan suggested I could be a good fit for Riot. I couldn't make the move at the time (was getting my Canadian citizenship!) but it was that whole weekend experience that really solidified my desire to work at Riot eventually. More importantly for this story, however, is that it also planted the seeds of a great friendship.

Now lets jump ahead two years to my first days as a newb in the office. I saw Morello walking around and timidly said "Hi," assuming he wouldn't remember me. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised to discover he fondly remembered the whole thing, and even had his favorite photos of us from the event on his phone! We started hanging out after work here and there, but nowadays we frequently meetup on the weekends to play games, drink beers, and talk about nerd things (best way to nerf Irelia?).

And that's how a chance meeting at a convention changed my life! :D

TerraRising3/4/2015, 10:52:04 PM4 votes

(Second Try. For some reason, I can't add photos)

My first real League cosplay was Debonair Jayce at Anime Expo 2013. I met this really awesome Pentakill Sona there, along with so many current friends.

http://i.imgur.com/K2ujyvY.jpg

YetiGT3/4/2015, 10:32:03 PM4 votes

My very first convention was in early 2013 and I was hooked, I decided for the next con (Pax Prime) i was going to cosplay. In 7 days with no sleep and a full time job i pulled off my first cosplay. I had no idea how much fun it was going to be and all the great people and new friends i was going to meet. One of my major memories is from pax when a group of rioters (that i had no real idea of who they where) pulled me aside for a picture and to chat for almost 30 minutes about my cosplay and other shared interests. I can not even think about the life i would be living without conventions and cosplay!

Kayde3/4/2015, 11:03:53 PM3 votes

So, my stories don't involve any actual cosplayers but I'll share them regardless.

I've watched the Riot Games booth grown over the past years at Gamescom, as I've been a visitor of the trade-fair ever since it's in Cologne. Last year was really special to me, as Riot did some amazing Scavenger Hunt events in the morning of each day, me and my younger brother would always fight through the people to fulfill our quests. One day, we were supposed to look for Teemo mushrooms (they were just simple pics of a shroom put on, for example, a wall), find them and take Selfies of each. There was one we couldn't find though, and other Summoners had the same problem we did. There was a girl coming up to me, and here we were, a party of three. We soon joined two other guys, who did the same. It took us around 5 minutes, but in the end we found it together, as 5, like a real League team. I don't know their names, but I thought it was hilarious - I absolutely loved it! We said thanks to each other, got our rewards and maybe we'll never see each other again, but it was pleasant.

When we Q'd up for an ARAM game, we were already looking at our potential teammates and started talking to them. It was fun, exchanging our game experiences and hilarious/frustrating moments and when we played the game, the local servers died (rito pls). I took selfies meanwhile and it was such a fun game when it continued. I think it really was the funniest game I ever had.

I also got "friends" with alot of Rioters, or at least had the chance to talk to them! We talked to a certain Rioter every day and me and my brother reaaaaaaally loved Riot for all the community interaction. I got stuff stolen at the end of the day, and that Rioter helped me getting some stuff back, as I lost alot of LoL stuff on that day as well. I sent him a New Year's card (I hope it got to him) saying thanks for everything.

Great things happened to me at League of Legends related events and I'll always cherish those memories :)

RiotSlumber Jack3/5/2015, 6:23:16 AM1 votes

I've been going to PAX for years. I made a wonderful friend doing karaoke at the Riot party at PAX East 2011, a couple years before I would join Riot (if you care to, you can find my karaoke session somewhere on YouTube where we did Bohemian Rhapsody). That one person is pretty much the reason I have all the friends I have now.

PAX East, still to this day, is where we as one giant group get together and play games; drink; and laugh. I make new friends every year, so it's always so exciting for me! I'm also originally from Boston which is a bonus :)

If you find me on Saturday, say hello!

RiotRiot TheJumbo3/5/2015, 6:53:33 AM1 votes

Now that PAX is fast approaching I'm having so many awesome flashbacks to PAX 2013. I had gone to PAX once before but this time I was going as a Collegiate Program manager. It was such a cool experience to go with my schools club members because we got to share in the awesomeness together! These club members, who were once just my classmates, had become great friends to me and it was a blast to go to PAX with them. We got to go to panels, check out new and exciting games, and of course! Hang out with fellow gamers.

At PAX we got to do something really cool. We got to play a game of URF with Riot BaconHawk and Riot Jaws. It was ridiculously silly and there was lots of trolling going around but it was tons of fun. I was really surprised that the Riot people were willing to play with us. It was an awesome surprise and one of the best memories I have of the club.

Back then there was only about 15 of us at PAX. Today the League of Legends group at Emerson has about 50 members and we have expanded into a full eSports club of about 100-150. And yet, I still have members that talk about playing URF mode with Rioters. It's great because not only is it this great shared experience but it also gets new and upcoming members excited about PAX East. And although I am no longer in Boston and will not be attending PAX, I hope that the ones who are able to go to PAX this year have an equally amazing experience meeting Rioters and other Collegiate League of Legends players!

Fiorinol3/5/2015, 2:19:17 PM1 votes

I find it weird how a lot of people on here are talking about PAX. As someone from Eastern Canada, PAX East is one of the conventions I've been avoiding on purpose. Because getting weekend tickets to go there is near impossible, and because rooming is also difficult; a lot of the cosplayers I know are women and only room with other women, and I'm a guy, so that's a no-go.

Otherwise, I've done quite a few anime conventions on the American east coast, notably Otakon, Anime Boston, Katsucon. I've done Otakuthon and Montreal Comiccon as well. It's been really interesting meeting tons of new people at Katsucon this year, I was helping out with the League cosplay panel as one of the panelists, and I was just hanging around the place cosplaying my partially finished Gnar (Skull and feet not finished). We had a lot of very impressive cosplayers on saturday's gathering, and I got to meet amazing new cosplayers, it was super cool.

I recorded most of the photoshoot with a handheld camcorder;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYWbLd04w5Q

WTF IS THAT DMG3/6/2015, 3:47:42 PM1 votes

Hey fellow summoners go follow @Leauge_of_legends_memes on instagram for the funniest memes regarding league of legends!!!

WTF IS THAT DMG3/6/2015, 3:51:48 PM1 votes

Hey fellow summoners go follow @Leauge_of_legends_memes on instagram for the funniest memes regarding league of legends!!!

Rueian3/11/2015, 8:20:05 PM1 votes

What are friends.

Eleshakai3/13/2015, 4:21:27 PM1 votes

Sadly nobody ever comes to Winnipeg lol

CaptainTatertits3/4/2015, 11:49:40 PM1 votes

would this be an appropriate time to bring up sona rule 34?

http://media.tumblr.com/45a52704e80e6ccfcdea4722254bfe1c/tumblr_inline_nf0dcjS2rS1sezfus.gif ...

Lady Luck3/5/2015, 3:18:01 AM1 votes

Cosplaying has made it easy to talk to other LoL fans in general. My first convention (and first cosplay) was PAX Prime 2013 as Bittersweet Lulu. Being dressed up helped overcome my terror of talking to random people.

But it was PAX Prime 2014 that probably has the best meet up to date for me. I was spending the day solo while dressed as Mafia Miss Fortune and met a Secret Agent Miss Fortune at a LoL cosplay group there who was also spending the day solo. We ended up spending the rest of the day together (with some 1v1s with Riot Bao). We've kept in touch since then despite being in different states.

By coincidence we're both thinking of doing Lux skins for PAX Prime 2015.

DotEleven3/5/2015, 6:19:28 AM1 votes

I really wish I could go to more offline events, but unfortunately money is an issue, however I did meet my current ranked team online.

It was just a stroke of luck actually. I got matched up with a duo and supported one of them and had one of my greatest Janna games (this was so long ago) and they just asked if I had a team and when I told them I didn't they asked if I'd like to join theirs. Unfortunately after I got my job awhile back I haven't been able to get on at the times we'd play since I'd either work early in the morning or late at night. Really sucks too, I miss playing ranked with them. Just in case they somehow see this

#NWGR4Life