League actually left one of the biggest impacts in my life, and I know I can contribute my high school experience entirely to League. Read on for my sappy story:
I moved to the United States from Bulgaria way back in 2006. I was supposed to be in third grade but the American elementary system was behind what I had already learned and so they placed me in 4th grade (big jump I know). I had a LOT of problems adjusting to the culture. The other kids didn't understand me at all, I couldn't really speak English, and my step brother at the time would make up rumors about me and all the kids started to hate me, or at least dislike me and shun me. Fast forward to middle school, nothing had really improved. I would eat lunch alone, go home and cry to my mom about how I have no friends, and make up stories about having friends when I was with other family members so I didn't have to face my shame. One Halloween I hit a particular low point. I had nobody to go trick-or-treating with and so I went with my mom, alone. I would go up to houses and get candy and nobody would say anything to me except for this one lady, who asked me where all my friends were and why I was alone, and I lied to her and told her they ran up ahead and I'm trying to catch up. I don't know what it was about that experience, but I had a complete break down.
Fast forward to sophomore year of high school. Somehow freshman year and the rest of middle school went okay, but it wasn't anything of any importance. My sophomore year I had chemistry class with this one guy, let's call him B, who I guess you could say at the time was "popular." And I got placed in a chemistry group with him and these two other girls. Well, long story short, he heard me talking about League and eventually we got to the point where he asked me if I wanted to play with him and some other guys at school. Of course, I was excited at the simple prospect of having people LOCALLY that I could play with, even if it was just over skype and not at a LAN.
Throughout high school, I envied them because they all played together and got together for LANs and whatnot and I was never invited, even though I played with them nearly every evening. I speculated whether this was because I was the "weirdo" at school, or if I was just not close enough to them, etc. But they envied me because I was good at League - maybe not so GREAT, but I was certainly better than all of them. So they would play with me and always tell me how jealous they were and that they wish they could play as well with me.
Fast forward to junior year of high school, and it finally happened. Two of the guys, let's call them A and P, invited me to go to Goodwill with them (how sad is it I remember this oh my goodness). I was really excited, etc., and I felt like I finally belonged at LEAST a little bit. From that point on, they all started getting together with me more often, and we would have traditions like playing ultimate frisbee together over the summer at these local tennis courts, and we would get together Monday nights (or whenever it was) to watch every new episode of Walking Dead and eat pizza, etc. And of course, we would play League. Constantly, always together, every night, every day, skipping homework and not doing any after-school clubs/activities so we could play. I remember crying once because I was so happy I had finally found a group of friends that I could enjoy my hobbies with and hang out with, etc.
But it didn't stop there. By association with them, I suppose, other people started to be more inclined to talk to me too. There were people I had never even DREAMED of speaking to that I became really, really good friends with. I guess you could say I "rose up the social ladder," but that's awfully vain and I never like to think about it that way. In essence, I was really, really happy, and everything at that point in my life was going really well.
As a result, junior and senior year I had the best experience of my life. Had tons of time just hanging out with my friends, playing League, and doing well in school (of course! haha). My self-confidence shot up, I lost weight, and I started doing better in school. In reality, there could be lots of factors that played into this, but I know the biggest contributor was League, and to this day I am IMMENSELY grateful and happy I found this game. I've been playing almost since it came out, and I have never stopped for more than a few weeks at a time. Thank you, Riot. Thank you, League. Thank you to the world that made all these entities align to make me happy, I am eternally grateful, and will always remember this part of my life for as long as I live.
Now that I'm at college, I don't have a whole lot of time to play League, or well, not nearly as much as I did before. I play a game or three a day, if I get the chance, and I LOVE playing some Azir 
and some Kalista 
:) If I'm not trying to advance in rank, I would be playing with my boyfriend who goes to another university about 90 minutes, and it really helps us kind of settle in and focus on destroying summoners on the battlefield, and it's kind of a fun thing to immerse ourselves in and forget the stress and workload of college.
TL;DR: Thank you Riot Games for making such an incredible game and for providing me with the opportunity to connect with other people, and for making such a huge and positive difference/impact in my life. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, and I love you, and I will continue to support you with my money until the day I'm broke!
Carte Blanche signing off,
)
