How I spent $7,110 on League of Legends! I don't regret any of it(MOVED)

TK Tallyn·Jul 2, 2016·226 votes·9,202 views

http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/story-art/Gq7HrgVX-how-i-spent-7110-on-league-of-legends-i-dont-regret-any-of-it

(( Riot asked me to move this here sorry ))

I've spent $7,110 on League in a 5 year window OO -- to be accurate it took me 64 months ( 5.3 years or ~ $110.00 a month ) to own all skins / champs / ward skins / icons / chromas. It started out as just a goal of mine to own everything in the game that was possible, I am a collector that wanted to "Catch" them all.... -_- hehe. I soon discovered a renewed reason to keep handing Riot my cash that will pay me dividends for the rest of my life.

I started playing League when I was 29 years old and have a small business that keeps me busy enough to not have other hobbies. My wife is a school teacher and together we budget $100 a month each to whatever hobby we have at the time. My wife is spends hers on scrapbooking, Bible journaling and well I'm into League of Legends and a few others games. Having a budget and margins helps me make this story happen and bring that huge number I've spent on League into focus.

So Every month for about 5 years, with the money I budgeted for League. I bought 15,000 in RP = $100 US and would buy any skin or Champion or Bundle that was on sale. I counted all bundles as " sales " since I did get better value for them. Also any other ward skins / summoner icons for the LCS / EU and non professional icons that came out not in a bundle. I would also estimate of that 7k around 3k of that has been gifted as skins, champs or a few cases s RP to friends but 90% mostly to random people that I felt on my heart could use a pick me up that day/game.

I would see very angry flamers or people getting verbal abuse from everyone but not getting toxic back.. It wasn't every toxic person or even every abused person I gifted.. Only the ones that I felt that still small voice in my head telling me to gift. Most the time some crazy stories came out of it that made it all worth it and some great friends I have to this day. One particular toxic person was really really mad at me the whole game... I was jungle and wasn't doing very well and had a few really bad ganks. It was a bad game for me but I never got toxic back and anyone who doesn't get toxic back knows it can make them really up the anite on the flame. After the game he was still blowing me apart verbally as I was saying I am sorry I sent him a mystery gift skin and asked him to have a blessed night, then left the lobby. He friended me and had a completely changed attitude of why? and WTF? Type of words, basically didn't know what to say. I told him I felt he needed something to cheer him up as I didn't feel I was the single reason that made him upset that night and he let me know about his wife who he cheated on was about to leave him... To make it worse she was pregnant with their first child on a military base far from home. They were both only 19 and he was thinking some really bad stuff. Long story short I talked to him daily for 4 days and helped him get his wife back who forgave him after I was able to lead them to accepting Jesus. Its been over a year now since that happened and they are still happily married with their beautiful baby boy on the military base.

That isn't the only story that has come out of me gifting random people who were toxic either who just needed someone to talk to and the gift was a catalyst that started a conversation. I would also hold 9 person raffles after the games if everyone was nice and non toxic the whole game on both sides of the team for a free mystery skin. After a game like this recently that I was announcing in /all for everyone to stay that I would be giving away a free skin to someone, only one person stayed ( this happens often). They won the skin by default and a conversation started just like every other time, then a friendship. That friendship became very rewarding for another friend of mine that only got to meet this person because I grouped them both together with me and connected in skype that I thought they both lived in Alberta..( Less than 10 miles away from each other =D had no idea ) and they will be getting married in September.

I have already made this a huge post that I don't think many will read as one look and it becomes TLDR for most but that will be okay. I really wanted to get this story out there like I told myself I would so that maybe others who had the ability would do the same and help heal a fractured community. Who knows what might become of it? I like to use the phrase used by my pastor " Why Not?"

I saw another thread about earning refunds on skins / champs that was full of mostly ideas that do not make sense on a business level for Riot at all. I posted this idea with a little more detail elsewhere, but I wanted to add it here as well because it would add depth to where I'm coming from. I think earning refunds would be interesting if it was a cash out - cash in system that could earn you an extra refund, like in store credit. I could see for every 3 mystery gifts you give out you earn 1 refund of a skin / champion of your choice. It's a win /win/win for Rito, the player base, and the person who has a case of buyer's remorse. For more detail if anyone reads this and wants a link to that post i'll come back and add it here.

Lastly, thanks to Hextech crafting as a reward kinda that Riot maybe didn't intend or did? I get a pretty neat benefit from spending all that money now that I enjoy. If you can figure out what that bonus I get is feel free to post about it because I rather not just come out and say it. This is how I got Hextech Annie on day one as well thanks to Hextech. I post this only to anyone that maybe philanthropist video gamer like me as a nice little side goal or end game to finishing up, "Catching Them All".

PS: Please excuse the grammar and spelling as I did not have time to re read it due to having to cook dinner for the family =) The servers being down for hours gave me the time to write this out may it bring flame or fan, thanks for reading.

124 Comments

Trashlord KaydenJul 2, 201635 votes

would upvote 1000x if i could.

TK TallynJul 4, 20165 votes

[{quoted}](name=Princess Kayden,realm=NA,application-id=cIfEodbz,discussion-id=n5WsHXNw,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2016-07-02T21:07:47.570+0000)

would upvote 1000x if i could.

I just checked back on this and .... wow thank you for all the positive messages.. I really thought it wasn't going to get much attention but this is amazing. God Bless you guys that took the time to say something on this post, no matter what you said. Your thoughts and the positive well wishes really show me that its worth it.

Thank you guys again for all the nice words

4789Jul 4, 20163 votes

As a Christian I approve, but holy god almighty 7000+ dollars...... Just thinking about commuting that much to league makes me shudder brrr if u wanna play sometime, ign is 4789 hope to see u and ur skins on the rift sometimes :D (btw, I'm bad, used to be plat in s2, quit for a while, and I mostly stopped playing ranked)

Magical PlayerJul 2, 201624 votes

Well let me say, you sir are a cool dude. Bringing the happiness to those less able cool beans about getting 2 people hitched [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

Hella KaiserJul 2, 201612 votes

dude, once you're done with league... sell that account for 10,000$

MelledoneusJul 3, 20166 votes

Or donate it to charity.

Hella KaiserJul 4, 20161 votes

yeaah!

SgtvangelderJul 3, 20169 votes

Hey, I couldn't help but leave a note here. And I'm glad you posted. I really appreciate what you're doing for everybody, as I've been on both ends of this. I've been the person having a bad day, and taking it out in league, and the person gifting. And recently, due to some personal circumstances, I was struggling to play any league without just tilting at the first sign of trouble. As of late, I've gotten better, and I rarely even tilt anymore. A lot of it has to do with an amazing friend I met through league, who didn't gift a skin, but instead surrendered a game, because they noticed how upset I was at having an afk, and me apologizing because I was having an issue with irl things. That sparked a friendship, much like the ones you've spoken of. Anyways, I just wanted to say thank you for making league a better place. I'm glad to see people still appreciating riot, and other people. As oftentimes in a competitive environment we forget about the people behind the screen. So thanks again, and if you're ever up for a game, let me know!

MuyAstutoJul 3, 20167 votes

What a waste of money. The real things you could of done in the world with that kind of cash. Complete waste.

MKDkillaJul 3, 20168 votes

Dude, the point of living literally comes down to entertainment. You work enough to achieve the goal of living a laid back life where you can do whatever you find fun. What's wrong with spending that money if he's in a financially secure position? There are millionaires spending hundreds of thousands of yachts and cars, is that a complete waste too?

Pierce The VealJul 3, 20162 votes

{quoted}

Dude, the point of living literally comes down to entertainment. You work enough to achieve the goal of living a laid back life where you can do whatever you find fun. What's wrong with spending that money if he's in a financially secure position? There are millionaires spending hundreds of thousands of yachts and cars, is that a complete waste too?

If the only reason to be alive is for entertainment, then ftfy, I would have committed suicide.

Entertainment is a mere illusion; a delusion built to keep the captitalist world ticking, as it sure as hell wouldn't function if everyone was a producer. It's a lot easier to have a bunch of obsessive consumers working for people making goods to waste time to make enough money to purchase these goods, with the cycle continuinng on ad absurdum.

While I am willing to say some entertainment is ok, living your life purely for entertainment is an utter waste of resources and oxygen.

And you know what? The millionaires you talked about are wasting their money. There are a lot of places where that money could be better spent. Whether it be research, impoverished places, or general human advancement.

We as a species are so insignificant, yet we're willing to further diminish ourselves by wasting our lives pursuing entertainment.

GoatfishJul 3, 20166 votes

[deleted]

Pierce The VealJul 3, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=The Wart,realm=NA,application-id=cIfEodbz,discussion-id=n5WsHXNw,comment-id=000a000000000000,timestamp=2016-07-03T13:19:24.795+0000)

exactly, so things like research and advancement or achievement don't really matter, unless they matter to you and make you happy.

You come across a bit dogmatic, and while I respect your beliefs, not everyone has to share them :/

Rather than being dogmatic, it's fairer to say that there are two pursuits in life (besides the pursuit of more life): pleasure and meaning. One has to be the truer goal.

My point is, not advancing will not lead to happiness, in fact, all of our happiness depends on the advancement we've made. Otherwise, today we wouldn't have the luxury to claim that entertainment was the purpose of life, we would be too busy struggling to live. So while you may not share my beliefs, you can't deny that the pursuit of entertainment is not actually fulfilling or beneficial to yourself or society in any way.

Be it on your deathbed, you will think back and eventually wonder the meaning of your life. If video games, music, tv, and heck even memes was it, and you're happy about that then, then so be it, but something tells me that everybody dies with regrets when they're like that.

I guess I've gone too deep. You'll eventually really start wondering these things too, I just hope that the people on the forums don't get stuck in this limbo of avoiding finding true meaning in exchange for some empty pleasures.

DeadlyStalkerJul 3, 20162 votes

You sound very brainwashed. It seems that you have visited too many websites of "enlightenment" and the so called "meaning of life". Hope you didn't give them your credit card information.

Everyone has a different purpose on earth and everyone is meant to live a different life. Just like you will live a life full of paranoia, there are people that will have nothing but video games in their lives.

Just a friendly reminder that your life is not any better, since you just wasted about 15 minutes of it writing nonsense on a video game forum.

Pierce The VealJul 3, 20162 votes

{quoted}

You sound very brainwashed. It seems that you have visited too many websites of "enlightenment" and the so called "meaning of life". Hope you didn't give them your credit card information.

Everyone has a different purpose on earth and everyone is meant to live a different life. Just like you will live a life full of paranoia, there are people that will have nothing but video games in their lives.

Just a friendly reminder that your life is not any better, since you just wasted about 15 minutes of it writing nonsense on a video game forum.

You do realize that spending your entire life dropping money on video games/otherwise entertaining yourself sounds a lot more like you've been brainwashed than someone seeking meaning.

I just find it really silly that being contemplative is considered brainwashed and scammed, yet spending money on "entertainment" is a good use of time and money.

As for whether you can spend any time on entertainment? It's no problem if you do, but if your sole pursuit is entertainment, there's a problem.

For your information, however, I have actually never visited one of your so called websites, or spent anything online other than on League and one other video game before league, both several years back ($75 on League, $200 on the other game).

MeªtJul 3, 20161 votes

Or you could live your life with the ideal "To each their own". If someone's sole pursuit is entertainment, then you are in no position to tell them what they should be doing or how they should contribute; that is a decision that they must make on their own, not be influenced by a stranger on the internet.

People have different backstories, environments, paradigms, and overall lives that you do not have access to, nor have the jurisdiction to try and influence. If you see an opinion on the internet that you don't agree with, it would probably be best for everyone to not be pessimistically discourteous.

Pierce The VealJul 4, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Or you could live your life with the ideal "To each their own". If someone's sole pursuit is entertainment, then you are in no position to tell them what they should be doing or how they should contribute; that is a decision that they must make on their own, not be influenced by a stranger on the internet.

People have different backstories, environments, paradigms, and overall lives that you do not have access to, nor have the jurisdiction to try and influence. If you see an opinion on the internet that you don't agree with, it would probably be best for everyone to not be pessimistically discourteous.

And I'm not telling you you have to live your way in any which way. Go dilly dally as you wish.

It's discourteous to have my own opinion, and to disagree with you guys, instead, despite disagreeing with you, I should go ahead and endorse what you're doing, after all, that's the only proper thing to do.

President Swa1nJul 4, 20162 votes

It's discorteous to own a League of Legends account and pretend you live by the ideal that one should not entertain oneself.

Pierce The VealJul 4, 20161 votes

{quoted}

It's discorteous to own a League of Legends account and pretend you live by the ideal that one should not entertain oneself.

It's a also discourteous to purposefully misinterpret (or fail to understand) peoples' arguments and hold people to a standard that tbey didn't set. I said that living a life for the sake of entertaining oneself is not worth if. I never said that some entertainment is wrong. I don't see any problem with entertainment, except when it becomes the sole purpose of your life.

President Swa1nJul 5, 20161 votes

One cannot judge another's life purpose unless it is their own. You do not have the right to tell him what he is living for.

Pierce The VealJul 5, 20161 votes

{quoted}

One cannot judge another's life purpose unless it is their own. You do not have the right to tell him what he is living for.

Which is funny because I was responding to someone's opinion with my own opinion. I did not tell him what he is living for.

But if you really think about it, if he really did believe in what he's saying, he wouldn't have been offended by me stating my opinion.

MeªtJul 4, 20161 votes

You misinterpret my sentence by saying "... that's the only proper thing to do", when I do not allude to such a conclusion whatsoever. Having your own opinion and disagreeing is perfectly alright, you are entitled to doing so and nobody should ever attempt to rid you of that entitlement. That's what I hate about websites like Tumblr and Reddit, very rarely do they accept and argue opposition to the consensus.

However calling a lifestyle a waste of oxygen and resources, an insignificance within our own insignificant life, and a constituent of the capitalist system is a toxic means of expressing your opinion and does not bring any positive insight to the conversation.

Pierce The VealJul 4, 20161 votes

{quoted}

You misinterpret my sentence by saying "... that's the only proper thing to do", when I do not allude to such a conclusion whatsoever. Having your own opinion and disagreeing is perfectly alright, you are entitled to doing so and nobody should ever attempt to rid you of that entitlement. That's what I hate about websites like Tumblr and Reddit, very rarely do they accept and argue opposition to the consensus.

However calling a lifestyle a waste of oxygen and resources, an insignificance within our own insignificant life, and a constituent of the capitalist system is a toxic means of expressing your opinion and does not bring any positive insight to the conversation.

And while I agree that that might not be positive, I would like to say that that is central to my opinion: given our insignificance, we should not be even worse than insignifical, i.e, wasting oxygen and resources instead of contributing to advancement. I apologize if that was offensive in any way.

AírJul 3, 20163 votes

You say meaning is one of the two pursuits in life, but what is even the meaning in life? We don't know. As someone who has had depression all my life, this is a question I had always struggled with. Because there really is no meaning to life, unless we look at the biological reasoning which is survive long enough to reproduce. And since I am never having kids, then I literally have no reason to be alive.

A really close friend of mine told me that life was only worth living if it made you happy, and that happiness is what you need to shoot for. And honestly, I can agree. Sure, we can have our different opinions on this, but I just want to be happy, both in pleasure (playing LoL during all of my free time when I don't work or sleep) and in myself (being nice and generous to other people so that I can be happy with myself and also to be extremely successful as well in the future so that I can be remembered in future generations).

Whut Thuh Jul 4, 20161 votes

What else is there but self fulfillment.. think about it... you do nice things becaue they make you feel good right? right. so it really wasnt a selfless act but more of a meaningful self fulfillment that has an impact on more than yourself. so by extension a sane person only truly does something out of self benefit (yes this does count when you give someone soemthing you wanted becasue it made you feel less guilty which happens to be better than temporary disgruntelment.)

on a different tangent you said "we as a species are so insignificant" and yet we are the only known thing that can manipulate the very elements of the earth and if you have any sort of religion we ARE the only ones with such a power. and why even trouble yourself with notions of insignificance i once read a book about a man that new the day the world would end. he lived his life riddled with drugs and alcahol because of the date looming over him and did it change anything? no it still happened. some may say that what he did wouldnt have mattered anyway. or the that world keeps on spinning, but what else do we have but just that. so it has to matter because its the only thing that SHOULD matter

thats my philisophical 10 cents anyway

Pierce The VealJul 4, 20161 votes

{quoted}

What else is there but self fulfillment.. think about it... you do nice things becaue they make you feel good right? right. so it really wasnt a selfless act but more of a meaningful self fulfillment that has an impact on more than yourself. so by extension a sane person only truly does something out of self benefit (yes this does count when you give someone soemthing you wanted becasue it made you feel less guilty which happens to be better than temporary disgruntelment.)

on a different tangent you said "we as a species are so insignificant" and yet we are the only known thing that can manipulate the very elements of the earth and if you have any sort of religion we ARE the only ones with such a power. and why even trouble yourself with notions of insignificance i once read a book about a man that new the day the world would end. he lived his life riddled with drugs and alcahol because of the date looming over him and did it change anything? no it still happened. some may say that what he did wouldnt have mattered anyway. or the that world keeps on spinning, but what else do we have but just that. so it has to matter because its the only thing that SHOULD matter

thats my philisophical 10 cents anyway

And I agree, we shouldn't let ourselves smolder, but we should also realize that only pursuing entertainment as a meaning to life is no different from that man who lived his life riddled with drugs and alcohol.

President Swa1nJul 4, 20161 votes

Who said this man is only pursuing entertainment? Have you heard of all the good things this man has done for society? Or are you assuming he hasn't done any?

Pierce The VealJul 4, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Who said this man is only pursuing entertainment? Have you heard of all the good things this man has done for society? Or are you assuming he hasn't done any?

The catch is, I wasn't talking about or to the original poster, in fact, my original reply was to someone who validated what the original poster was doing by claiming that the only point of life was to work and enjoy myself. That is what prompted my post— not the original poster's spending so much money on a game.

President Swa1nJul 4, 20161 votes

Tell me, do you play the game 'League of Legends' by Riot Games? Do you not see this as a form of entertainment?

Pierce The VealJul 4, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Tell me, do you play the game 'League of Legends' by Riot Games? Do you not see this as a form of entertainment?

As per my original argument:

I do see it as entertainment, but my life isn't lived for the sake of this entertainment. I don't live my days, working and such just to keep entertaining myself, as such there is no problem. It's when one's life purpose becomes pursuing entertainment that I believe there is a problem.

President Swa1nJul 5, 20161 votes

And how do you know what his life's goals are?

Pierce The VealJul 5, 20161 votes

{quoted}

And how do you know what his life's goals are?

What the fuck, boards. Do I have to keep answering stupid questions like this?

The answer is I DON'T. I was stating an opinion, but you people are so ready to take offense from what is clearly a sensitive spot, that you actually immediately jump to conclusions and make assumptions when I state my opinion in response to someone saying that the entire point of life is enjoyment.

President Swa1nJul 5, 20161 votes

And you jump so quickly to the conclusion that I have taken offense. I was saying that your opinion would only be valid if you knew his life goals

Pierce The VealJul 5, 20161 votes

{quoted}

And you jump so quickly to the conclusion that I have taken offense. I was saying that your opinion would only be valid if you knew his life goals

Why does my opinion about the pusuits in life have to rest on someone else's life goals wtf?

President Swa1nJul 8, 20161 votes

It doesn't; your criticism of OP's actions does, though.

Pierce The VealJul 8, 20161 votes

{quoted}

It doesn't; your criticism of OP's actions does, though.

Except here's the catch, I didn't criticize the OP, but rather the guy claiming that the etire point of life was entertainment, which, in fact, was not the OP.

Rundus1Jul 3, 20167 votes

You are the worst type of person. He used that money for good and a bit for himself. It didn't hurt him financially so no one was harmed and he got a good deal of happiness from it. I see no waste here.

MuyAstutoJul 3, 20161 votes

if you think spending any money in this game is good in any way you are a pleb. Tons of legitimate charities could of used that money probably to save lives. But hey he gave some 1st world nerds some things in a video game. Get this guy his nobel prize.

serpensortia1Jul 3, 20165 votes

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/charity.png

StaliniumJul 3, 201621 votes

And here you are, posting negativity on the boards. Shouldn't you be volunteering at a homeless shelter or something instead of completely wasting your time?

GrReaper96Jul 3, 20167 votes

Incoming Rito release 10 Ultimate skins

JerulEonJul 3, 20167 votes

Touching story my friend. I like how your grouping led to two strangers meeting and falling in love. So nice of you to create friendships and not be a toxic player.

SwapShadowsJul 3, 20167 votes

mind gifting me a skin?

worth a try

Beacon 0F LightJul 3, 20166 votes

At first I was a bit skeptical, but reading about how you used this to help others was great to hear. People should realize that anyone can do what you did and extend a hand to those being toxic. Great story, and god bless.

Oz2004Jul 3, 20166 votes

http://66.media.tumblr.com/236213b1d23b008350801e04363a1f2a/tumblr_mf4zi5Iswe1rlvul6o1_1280.jpg

KüramaJul 3, 20165 votes

[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

No words can describe the extent of the awesomeness you've done. God bless you!!

AATTRROOXXJul 3, 20164 votes

Is it that because you can't get skins/ward skins etc. that you own you get new skins for way cheaper than buying them outright?

Ryzing2DiamondJul 3, 20163 votes

I know why, but I won't state it either, since you didn't see the need to. Have a great day and your story is touching.

A LiberalJul 3, 20161 votes

Ryzing2DiamondJul 3, 20165 votes

{quoted}

?

I guess i'll point it out. If you own every skin but one in the game and you re-roll 3 skin shards for a random skin, it'll give you only that one skin you didn't have. Same for mystery gifts and champion shards.