Riot, I have a sincere message for you.

For the past six years I have played League of Legends. It has been part of my life in the best and worst times of my life. If any of you Rioters are interested, I have decided to share my story with you. To my fellow Summoners, I invite you to not only share in my story, but to add your own. We are something of a crazy extended family here after all.

The logical place to start would be the beginning. I was in high school, my pals and I (the ones I really clicked with) would play video games together after school. During school we would meet, whether it was lunch or in the middle of history or psychology and we would discuss game strategies. It started off as COD MW2, and that was fun for a while. But then Zack went and sold me on this MOBA called League of Legends. I had never played a MOBA before and I didn't even have a clue what DOTA was at the time. (oh how young and naive I was haha) I had a rough time figuring out how things worked. But as with most things when I decide I like something I obsess over it. My twin brother and I would share our computer and our singular League account as we threw hours of our lives into this game. It helped us to overcome a rough patch in life.

Rough? Well every High-Schooler who listens to MCR says that.

You'd be right.

Shortly after we discovered the game doctors also discovered a teeny tiny little problem with both of our bodies (guess twins have downsides to being identical.) I won't get into the details, but surgery happened on Halloween and then we were both homeschooled for a few months. Needless to say we kinda shirked our schoolwork and binged League damn near 24/7. It was awesome.

Anyways, fast-forwards a bit and you have your general drama in high-school: Bullying, relationships (and the heartbreak that goes with it), etc. But then there was also not having enough food or worrying if rent was gonna get paid and all that. Not looking for pity here, League of Legends literally gave us something to look forward to each and every day. Friends were awesome, but they were even better when paired with LoL.

Even as our friends slowly drifted away or outright moved away we still had League, and we still all linked over it. We all laughed and raged together, and were all confused the #time the servers went down. We saw Riot prank us all with Lee-Sin, and then actually put him in the game. When High-School was done and college was to be had we made new friends, lost some old ones and discovered that moving out (not in a cool way mind you) was not as bad as we thought it was gonna be. Between classes and working to pay for our own place we still played League.

I still tease my brother to this day, we made a new account and he used it up until level 5. At which point playing without runes and masteries was too much of a chore for him. SO I offer to level the account while he uses mine. We ended up permanently switching accounts instead haha. We started taking the game competitively at some point along the way and we always wanted to one-up each-other. To this day we still bond over our sibling rivalry. We even made a YouTube channel (I mean who hasn't?) and popped up videos there for a while. The highest I ever ranked was Plat, and damn was that cool. S6 wasn't so good for me, I ranked Gold. Barely. But I noticed even with that, I still play League, six years later, and I am satisfied with it. I always enjoy it, and I even watch League Videos while I work (receptionist at a hotel, I'm no slacker.)

Present Day, I play League of Legends as often as I can, and most of the time it is the only game that I really feel compelled to play. I even got my fiance to pick up the game. Of course we are that couple that almost always goes bot together, I adc and she supports me. I have never considered myself an ADC, I almost always declare myself a jungler, top, mid, or even a support before I would say I am an ADC. But I guess we do crazy things for love. I wanted to share this thing with her that I loved so much. I am glad that I did. We play together and we have fun. The game has gotten so much better for me over the years.

So, I guess what I am saying, Riot, is...Thank you. For always being there, and for always improving and becoming more. Thank you for being the thing that I love, and that I can share. The lifestyle that I can enjoy with my fiance, and my twin, and all the friends I have made.

Finally I will end this with a promise. I will become a Rioter myself one day, even if it means I have to teach myself to be a Sysadmin, or to find some other way I can be part of the Riot team. In this way i can give back at least part of what you have given me, and maybe I can also be part of this amazing thing that touches so many people's lives.

Sincerely, Ian "Staugroanoak"