Dear Riot Games,
My History With Riot
Back in 2009, my dad took my brother and me to Wal-Mart to get a few groceries for home. We walked by the gaming isles. and my brother and I just could not resist the urge to look through. Gaming was what we had done growing up. We ventured through Pokemon and The Legend of Zelda. Through Bomberman and Turok. Each cover that we saw was a new adventure for us to behold. We looked for about ten minutes, and my dad was getting bored. He took us both and told us, "I will buy you each one game." At this point, we were so overcome with joy that we really had no idea what to do, but we looked. There was a game that stood out for the rest. It was a game that sounded familiar, so I knew at least something about it. The cover seemed to just glow - but that may have been the plastic reflecting the light. And then and there, I found the game I wanted. I went to reach for it, but my brother had beat me to it. He chose Spore that day. A game we still enjoy, but rarely play. So my search continued. There were so many games that I hadn't heard of, and my GameInformer magazines didn't prepare my child mind for the power to pick my own game. So I was stuck. I didn't know what I really wanted, so I just picked a game with a simple - but attractive - covering. The cover opened up into a book-like second cover, so I decided that this game was the one for me.
We went home with such excitement! We went downstairs to our only computer and installed them both. We first opened up Spore. We played this for hours on end completely forgetting about the game my dad bought for me. Around bed time, we decided that maybe we should give my game a shot. We launched the game, and a launcher came up for it. We didn't really know what to do. I was only 11 at the time, and being the all knowing child I was, I concluded that the game was a waste of time. The game was just a launcher that updated so slowly that this was the entire game. So we turned off the monitor and hoped the game would change. When we woke up, we checked the computer again, and we launched the game. There was this weird, grey log in screen that looked like carvings on a wall. We didn't know what we were doing, but we went ahead and made an account. We finally got into the game, and we saw a little play button. We clicked play, and launched our first game. I don't even remember which character that I ended up playing, but it didn't matter to me. I was hooked. We took turns running down lanes and clicking on the little abilities at the bottom. It looked like we were playing a Grey Screen Simulator, but once we got our first kills, we went crazy.
All we did when we got home from school was play this game. We had no idea what we were doing, but we knew it was awesome and exciting. The game was simple, we could understand what the basics of the game was, and it was something to pass the time with. We bonded for about a year over this game, but the time came when we put it down to play other things. But we got a phone call from a cousin in early 2011. He told us that he started playing the game, and he was already level 30. My brother and I looked at each other and instantly ran back down to play the game. We stayed up for hours playing - well passed our bedtimes. Our cousin did something we couldn't do in a year. He hit the max level. And before the spring hit, we did too.
September 2014 It was finally my senior year in high school, and the game had given we a lot of new friends. All we would do during school is talk about game play, strategies, champions, matches we had, and what is coming next. Honestly, I would skip school with my friends just to play. We ranked up slowly, but man we had the time of our lives. We trolled through normals, and power-played through ranked. There was basically nothing holding us back from this game.
May 2015 Graduation. This was it. This was the time to say goodbye to so many good friends from over the years. I did very well in school, but I didn't do very much to have a good social life - but I don't regret it. My friends and I said our goodbyes that day, and logged in that night to play. Honestly, my schooling would have been awful and boring if it wasn't for the game that brought so much joy and love. And I wouldn't change anything about that.
September 2015 With high school finally over and done with, I was off to bigger things - college. Going, I didn't know really want to expect, but I knew that there may be one things to bond over with at least someone. And just like that, within two weeks I had a large group of friends that all bonded over the same game. We played all the time, and we even got some of our other friends to join in on the game. Collectively, we've made a group of 50 friends and family members together. We hold tournaments now. Instead of going to a party, we just stay together and game. And with these friends, I went to the Summer Finals in Toronto for my 19th birthday!
Present Day Looking back to that day in Wal-Mart, I'm really glad my brother picked up Spore. We completely forgot about it for the longest time, but if it wasn't for that day, I probably wouldn't be playing the game that I am playing today. I've made countless friends - and enemies. I've spent sooooo much money that I don't even want to think about it, but it was fun. So, I guess to sum it all up, I want to say thank you. Thank you Riot Game. You've helped me when I was down through your game, and you've kind of made me into who I am today. I'm really glad that you're here for the community. You're here for me. You're here for all of us. Sure we might make fun of you sometimes and spread around hatred, but at the end of the day, we love you, Riot.
Thank you for The League of Legends.
My Future With Riot
For the sake of confidentiality, my name is iDraxinz. As read from above, I am a Summoner who has been here far longer that most, and I'm very proud to say that. Currently, I've been switching back and forth between a computer programming and economics degree at the University that I am attending, and it's been pretty rough on me to try to find out exactly what I want to do with my life. This is basically the time that defines me as a person, and it's a little scary. But if Riot has tough me anything, I just need to get up and push through. There will always be grey, but you can always shoot for the blue.
To throw it right out there, I am heavily interested in an internship at your establishment. I have had teachings in C++, Java, Python, HTML, and a few other languages of programming, and I think it will deeply help me for our future together. This has been something that I have been interested in since about 2014, and even today still excites me when I get an assignment to write a program. Even if it is something new, I have been willing to learn new codes in the past, and I am definitely willing to learn for my future.
Even if this isn't something that lasts long, or even doesn't happen at all, I would like to personally thank you for every experience you have given me in my short lifetime.
With all the love and respect possible, iDraxinz.