Original Post — Direct link

I'm not good with people, during breaks at school/work I just tend to spend my time alone reading, but it's not that I don't like hanging out with people it's just that I'm shy and like being on my own reading. So I end up not having a lot of friends, but the ones I do have are really important to me.

One day one of my friends called me to play a game called *league of legends* which he said it was a moba like *Smite* so I said why not, went on a bot game and was told to pick whatever so I picked Tristana and went bot with him.

Even though I was awful and did not know how to even farm he never got mad at me, so I ended up having fun playing even though we lost alot. Months go by and I start to learn the very basics of the game and reach level 30.

He played with other people that I didn't know so I just waited for him to be alone so I could play just us two, one day he said he really needed one person so they could go flex. I was really nervous being in a call with 3 people I did not know and were tryharding so I just spent most of the time quiet and told when I had my cooldowns up. I was shaking when I landed my sona ult on the enemy adc and we got a kill. They said I played very well which made me feel really happy (was probably bronze v at the time).

Having so many experiences with this game I started feeling more and more emotionally invested in this game, I loved the characters, the new songs, the skins, that every match felt unique and most importantly I loved playing with my newly made friends.

Two years go by and most of my friends never log in again, except from my friend that logs in from time to time, as time passed he stopped asking me to play with him so I was always the one to try to hangout like we used to.. He now rarely plays with me at all, I don't know if I did anything because when we talk on discord everything seems to be ok.

We used to play at least two games each day, now it doesn't seem like he wants to play with me anymore. Which sucks since he was the only reason I found this amazing game, and the main reason I enjoyed most of it..

Today we were able to start inviting people for clash, I thought that maybe we could get the group back together since for ever. I was excited to hear that my friend would join clash with me, but suddenly at the end of the day my friend just leaves the clash team, he doesn't say anything about leaving so I asked him ''don't wanna play clash?'' he then said he was gonna play with his uni friends. I ended up feeling pretty bad being left out.

I guess as time goes by friends tend to move further away from you, even if you don't want to. But that's life, I hope he has fun with his new friends but I can't deny that this feeling sucks. I hope I can still enjoy league by myself. :)

I wrote this because I wanted to let these feeling out. Have a nice day.

External link →
almost 5 years ago - /u/ThuggInUggs - Direct link

If you are on NA add me. I play every night :)

I am an idiot. You have to be in EU to be playing in clash. I will be there for work next week though and making a new account so shoot me a message if you want to play.

almost 5 years ago - /u/ThuggInUggs - Direct link

Originally posted by Marceloxv

I would've loved that but I play on euw. :(

DM me your summoner name and I'll add you when I make my EUW account. I fly out next week and will be there for about 2 weeks, then back in EU again for 2 weeks during worlds semis and finals

almost 5 years ago - /u/ThuggInUggs - Direct link

Originally posted by aodfawoejif

ah can normal players skip wasting 70 hrs leveling too?

What do you mean? I literally just made a new account and will be leveling it... by hand

almost 5 years ago - /u/RiotBoatStuff - Direct link

It probably doesn’t help, but a similar thing happened to me. I got into League in 2009 when a friend convinced me to install it. I had never played a moba before, and I was terrible. We played for a few weeks, but eventually when we got to level 30 he immediately outranked me and he wasn’t interested in playing normals.

It was a huge bummer. It’s weird because I’d rather play a match with him and lose than play alone and win, but I realize that’s not the approach most people take. Hopefully you can find new friends to play with!

almost 5 years ago - /u/ThuggInUggs - Direct link

Originally posted by vZayed95

Can I add you too?

Sure. Riot ThuggInUggs

almost 5 years ago - /u/ThuggInUggs - Direct link

Originally posted by DeanDipp

You're a great guy, doing this for these guys. Wish I played in EU so I could join in all the fun. Thanks for being a wholesome rioter :)

I am in NA - just going to EU soon so if you are in NA add me :) and im kind of a piece of sh*t but at least I can try and be nice sometimes

almost 5 years ago - /u/ThuggInUggs - Direct link

Originally posted by MBTotoro

Hey man! As a soon to be-dad i dont play as much as before but add me if you want. I play very casual now days so id love to play some normals or clash with you

Username (euw): Mästerbotten

See you on the rift!

Congrats on the child. Remember to start an RP fund for them now so they have lots of skins when they start playing.

almost 5 years ago - /u/ThuggInUggs - Direct link

Originally posted by EdVedPJ7

im kind of a piece of shit but at least I can try and be nice sometimes

Are you me?

Are you too a support main who likes to play pyke?

almost 5 years ago - /u/ThuggInUggs - Direct link

Originally posted by poutine_it_in_me

You're not a piece of shit, mate.

You don't know how much it means to players that you're doing this for them.

Straight up, without players I don't get to go to a job I love every day. Players do that for me every day so if I can play a game with someone and help brighten their day, I am in.

almost 5 years ago - /u/ThuggInUggs - Direct link

Originally posted by shadowforce96

Man, I'm sorry to hear that, I really feel this... my old friend group just kinda ghosted me on everything. Like we were in a discord server together, and I would sometimes send a message to it but no one would respond, then I see them all queuing up together in games and stuff without inviting me and I knew it was kinda over. I still have them friended and see them playing w/o me all the time.

I saw you were in EUW so I can't play with you, but if you ever find yourself making an NA account feel free to hit me up. :) Always down for more friends to play with.

Shoot me an FR - we can get a 5 man and challenge your old friends to a game. Winner gets admin in the discord server :p but for real, thats a big feels bad, but if they are acting like that you are probably better off without them. If you wanna get some games HMU

almost 5 years ago - /u/ThuggInUggs - Direct link

Originally posted by FLLV

Just fyi you can't play clash on a new account. Not sure if that was your goal or not, but just trying to help.

ahh no just want to play in general once I am over in NA

almost 5 years ago - /u/ThuggInUggs - Direct link

Originally posted by MolniyaSokol

Obvi not on NA, duh! (WeGetItBro btw, haven't seen you in a while..)

Vape Nation in the house

almost 5 years ago - /u/ThuggInUggs - Direct link

Originally posted by EdVedPJ7

I don't play anymore. :( But I was a support main my last season, I like Thresh tho'.

You don't need to lie to me. You are taking a break, sure... but we all know its impossible to uninstall :p

almost 5 years ago - /u/ThuggInUggs - Direct link

Originally posted by EdVedPJ7

Hahaha possible when the World's hype hits in! But I hope not because I really don't have time for League anymore, just watching pro/scrolling the subreddit from time to time is enough for me now.

Yeah I totally see how time and real life can make playing tough. Really cool to see how many people still stay connected to the community after they stop playing

almost 5 years ago - /u/RiotBoatStuff - Direct link

Originally posted by Uoon_

Hey I was in a game with you & you're on my friends list. My summoner name is YeahIDrinkWeed.

Not gonna lie, you have the most memorable summoner name on my friends list.

almost 5 years ago - /u/RiotBoatStuff - Direct link

Originally posted by DannyTewks

Man its crazy to think that you work for the company that made the game that you have nostalgic feelings towards right? How long have you been working there?

Preface: I just got done feeding my newborn at 4am, this might turn into a rambling wall of text.

Oh man, I think about this a lot lately. I've been playing League almost a third of my life (account created December 26th, 2009, and I'm 31 years old). It's hard to remember my life without League, purely just because it has been so long. I've been playing League longer than I have known my wife, which is just.... interesting.

I've been working at Riot for three and a half years, which has been a whirlwind. Compared to when I first started playing, I thought of League as "The Blitzcrank Game". He was the only champion I played, and I had no understanding whatsoever of how mobas worked. Honestly one of the reasons I fell in love with the game was the fact it was free, as back then I was finishing college, I was dumping all of my money into student loans and finding my first job. Within the past 3 years I've gone to Worlds twice, seen K/DA explode (Pentakill is still better, don't @ me), played TFT and Clash, and bought more merch than I can reasonably fit in my home-office.

So when I walk into work each day, I don't think "Ho hum, time to go sit at my desk and do the adult things", it's closer to "Holy sh*t I get to help out at the place that has brought so much fun and joy to my life, and hopefully keep bringing that excitement to more players around the world." Growing up, my dad always said "If you find a job you love, you never have to work a day in your life", and I feel lucky to have that.

That said, the hardest part with all that nostalgia is to not succumb to it. Been at Riot for three years, sure, been a player for ten, so when Clash has some issues on launch weekend it's really hard to not fall back into "just a player" mentality and start shouting "f*ck you and your spaghetti code rito". At those moments I walk down the hallways and see the Clash team cranking away doing everything they can to fix the problems and remember that many of them have also been at Riot for a short number of years, just like me, and they certainly aren't responsible for the Ragu sauce that's clogging up the system at the time, they're just engineers doing everything they can to clean it up. And, while we're being honest, the code I wrote 10 years ago in my life is worse than spaghetti. Magic numbers everywhere.

Right now my biggest fear is if and when I need to move on to my next job. I don't know anything else that I'm as passionate about as League, and so any other job would probably feel like a step down in regards to how excited I get to go into work every day. Fingers crossed that we have a long road ahead of us.

Oh, and I finally ranked up to Gold last season so I was within 1 ranked tier and was able to play with my buddy again.

tl;dr - It's alright

almost 5 years ago - /u/RiotBoatStuff - Direct link

Originally posted by Revenous_Hydra

Finding success in ranked is a pretty good feeling tho, people just have different things they enjoy about league

Oh yea, I don’t blame him for wanting to play ranked and having more fun doing that, it’s just a bummer about skill disparity.

almost 5 years ago - /u/ThuggInUggs - Direct link

Originally posted by vZayed95

euw?

Na. Setting up euw account this week

almost 5 years ago - /u/ThuggInUggs - Direct link

Originally posted by Cynthenes

I was going to add you to potentially play a game with you as well until you said this. I can't have dirty Pyke abusers on my friends list!

I understand. Tbh I'm so bad it hardly counts as abusing him

almost 5 years ago - /u/ThuggInUggs - Direct link

Originally posted by OneMoreSoul

Can I add you? I could use a friend (:

Sure :)

almost 5 years ago - /u/ThuggInUggs - Direct link

Originally posted by vZayed95

oh okay, let me know ur euw when you make it as I am on euw

Will do

almost 5 years ago - /u/ThuggInUggs - Direct link

Originally posted by vZayed95

oh okay, let me know ur euw when you make it as I am on euw

Done. Account is ThuggInUggs

I am human alliance mage on whitemane. Wait. No. I am a support

almost 5 years ago - /u/RiotBoatStuff - Direct link

Originally posted by daniellizard

Well, you are now working for Rito - WHO IS LAUGHING NOW!!11!!? MUAHAHAHAHA

He works as a professional hacker, so I am in fact quite jealous of his job.

almost 5 years ago - /u/ThuggInUggs - Direct link

Originally posted by EnemySaimo

Yes I'm the chaddest autofilled pyke and naut player, problem?

Yes. Why play Naut... he is weird diver man, pyke is chad stabby pirate man

almost 5 years ago - /u/RiotBoatStuff - Direct link

Originally posted by [deleted]

[deleted]

I mean we all start somewhere right? There is plenty of stuff that I did wrong before realizing why it was wrong. Thankfully I’ve had some pretty great mentors over the years who have pointed out where I needed to improve.

almost 5 years ago - /u/Riot_Blizz - Direct link

Originally posted by RiotBoatStuff

Not gonna lie, you have the most memorable summoner name on my friends list.

Can't believe my best friend BoatStuff has forgotten me :/

almost 5 years ago - /u/RiotBoatStuff - Direct link

Originally posted by [deleted]

[deleted]

No need to apologize! Tone doesn't always come through via text (read: reddit), and I'm probably just jaded from people sh*tting on me historically.

I'm a software engineering manager working on the data team. When I started I was a software engineer, the change to manager has only been within the last year. I'll try to answer your questions the best I can :)

Would doing an internship at one of the Big N help application chances, despite having absolutely zero experience with game development?

Absolutely. At its core, game development is still software engineering, and there are a lot of teams at Riot that are ancillary to the games themselves, RDX as an example. While Riot isn't quite the small-indy company it used to be, it's not like it's 100% game engineers. If you're willing to work on CI/CD systems, network automation, data management, etc, there are a lot more options you have.

I've heard some really really tragic stories about applications to game development companies (friend from MIT applied to google with a 3.9 GPA and multiple times rank 1 on NA server but was rejected) and I'm concerned if they look for anything specific.

At the end of the day, GPA and League rank aren't going to affect your chances at a job. The two biggest things that will help are showing you have a growth mindset, and passion. It's easier to tech someone tech than to be a good team player. As an example, when I was being interviewed I talked about how I automated my home servers (just a few Raspberry Pis) using Ansible, and being able to speak to the problems I had, and how I worked through them. Having pet/side projects is a great thing to be able to show off your passion, authenticity, and desire to learn. If you have those, you're most of the way there.

almost 5 years ago - /u/Riot_Blizz - Direct link

Originally posted by bloore77

i feel like your name is extremely suspicious

are you a blizzard spy

when i was 3, and i was playing starcraft for the first time, you need to enter a profile name. i didnt want to put my own name, and i saw "blizzard" on the side of the box. i put in just "blizz" since i didnt know how to pronounce blizzard. so, no.

almost 5 years ago - /u/RiotBoatStuff - Direct link

Originally posted by Riot_Blizz

Can't believe my best friend BoatStuff has forgotten me :/

We’re done, Blizz. You better not even look at me in the hallway, I will never smile at you again.

almost 5 years ago - /u/Riot_Blizz - Direct link

Originally posted by RiotBoatStuff

We’re done, Blizz. You better not even look at me in the hallway, I will never smile at you again.

im so sorry, Mr BoatStuff... i dont know if i can continue on without your smiles :/

almost 5 years ago - /u/RiotBoatStuff - Direct link

Originally posted by cansecoDK

"The blitzcrank game" "only champion i ever played"

You see, im confused because i love you and hate you at the same time for being so relatable.

<3