A story about how League of Legends helped me recover from a stroke.

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to share a personal story about how League of Legends helped me recover from an illness.

July 25, 2015, I had a stroke at the ripe old age of 35. It left my nervous system all sorts of f'ed up. I couldn't walk without a cane, be around large groups of people, sudden loud noises would cause my system to go haywire, at times I couldn't speak complete sentences, I had difficulties completing simple tasks, and a laundry list of other things.

After I got out of the hospital I was mostly worried about my cognitive abilities because I knew various forms of therapy would help solve the other issues I was dealing with. In comes League of Legends. For the first month or so, I was the feeding God. I would lose track of what I was supposed to do in the middle of a game. I'm sure I pissed people off, but we all piss off people in games from time to time. But over time, my cognitive abilities started to come back. Instead of "what the hell am I doing?" I began to be able to actually forward think towards what needed to be done to win a match. I also focused on playing only Ekko as much as possible until I got to a point where I could play other rolls without being a complete scrub lord.

When I saw my neuropsychologist, I told him about playing the hell out of LoL to help my aforementioned problems and he was actually familiar with the game and told me that it was more than likely a large reason why my mental skills were far more improved than my physical state.

I still have lingering issues I'm seeing doctors for (frequent migraines, a torn PCL from falling down my stairs, my balance is still crap) but at least my mind is in a much better place than doctors expected and I feel I owe Riot games a thank you for creating a game that could keep me engaged and help me during the most trying time of my life.

Thank you, Riot.

P.S. I included a pic of the figurines my friends ordered me of my favorite champs over the past year. I know some of them are knock-offs, but they tired.

P.S.S. I also got an Ekko tattoo so I'll always remember what helped my mind the most. But I'm not sure how to include more than one pic, so you just get the one :P

P.S.S.S. Big shoutout to my kids for working at our family restaurant so they could order me the Project bundle and hoodie.

Edit: My daughter is 13 and my son is almost 10. I've had sole custody of them for almost 9 years. Besides League, I couldn't have made it through all the ups and downs without them. They are my and