[2019] Ten years ago today, I played my first LoL match. Summoners Rift was 4v4, no matchmaking existed, and there were 14 champions. AMA!

I realized last week that this is my ten year anniversary of League of Legends. For those who don’t know, you used to be able to see your account number. I am #160. I was an Emissary - fancy way of saying I posted a lot on the forums, before this sub exploded in popularity. I was also in the top 50 players at the end of beta and have the Grand Master Beta Icon.

If you have any questions about early League days, I’d be happy to answer! Here’s a few fun facts about early League:

-Riot tried Summoners Rift as both 4v4 and 6v6 before settling in keeping it 5v5.

-There was a very early tournament in Beta when it was 4v4. The winning strategy was to run Alistar, whose passive at the time made him take less damage from turrets, and run all 4 people down mid with the summoner spells Heal, Rally, and Promote. Heal used to heal all allies within range. Rally was a flag you placed on the ground that provided damage and healing to all allies. Promote made a minion a super minion. The team with that strategy won in 7 minutes in the finals.

-Teemos original implementation had him as an assassin who would track down targets. His ultimate placed a debuff on the target and he dealt extra damage to and had full visibility of the target. He also gained extra gold from killing champions.

-Most of TF’s kit, including Pick a Card, came from a beta tester making suggestions on the forums. He was later employed by Riot. Jesse Perring is a f*cking legend.

-I know of at least one riot employee who had a sleeping bag under his desk and slept there some nights during the beta crunch.

-The original matchmaking test failed spectacularly when coding failed to prevent a player from being matched on to both teams. This crashed the servers.

Proof: https://i.imgur.com/aEfiePm.jpg