Riot Games teaches League of Legends - its one and only game - to new employees, and also offers crash courses to the families of those who work for them. These people have to be wondering what I’m doing here.
I’m not a Riot employee and I get unusually excited every time I kill something. Riot employees passing through peek over my shoulders as they walk to other cubicles, eyeing first the designer instructing me through my game and then me, as I break into a nervous sweat. This is the third or fourth time I’ve played the game, but luckily I’m in the best place to learn. I rush to fill my inventory with new powerful items and health potions as my respawn timer ticks down, and by the time my character pops up at my team's home base I'm already clicking away to get her back in action down the middle lane. League of Legends, as it would turn out, can be addictive. I die and can lean back for a moment, waiting to spawn. I'm about to lose my goddamn mind if I can't get away from this tower in time and - crap, it's over. My right wrist is an achy mess, resting on the table to support my fingers, which are always moving.īut I'm calm. I'm sitting in a cool room, the lights just low enough to keep my eyes comfortable as they dart from corner to corner on my monitor.
