I can’t believe that U.S. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez just massacred millions of League of Legends players yesterday. She was dunking on a crypto bro who was really bad at Riot’s MOBA game, but she also caught many innocent players in the crossfire. Actually, that just makes me respect her more.
The cryptocurrency company FTX had bragged that its CEO Sam Bankman-Fried would play League of Legends matches during investor pitch meetings. It turns out that in addition to losing $32 billion in market valuation on his company, he also sucked at League. Bankman-Fried never ranked higher than Bronze II. Dang. Pick a struggle, dude.
I know that I’m not supposed to respect politicians. Governments should be afraid of their people. But come on! Tell me that your gamer heart wasn’t at least a little moved when she tweeted “[Venture capitalists] were impressed by Bronze III?” Gamer toxicity is okay when it’s being directed at cryptocurrency investors. Bronze III is one of the lower rankings on the League ladder. Only 14.75 percent of players rank at Bronze III or lower.
AOC even has the qualifications to tell the world that Bronze III ain’t shit. She last posted about her League ranking on July 13, 2020. “My small quarantine accomplishment: made it to Silver III,” she tweeted. We don’t know what her current rank is, so it’s entirely possible that she’s risen or fallen since then. But at some point in her League career, she ranked higher than Bankman-Fried ever has.
Even if she isn’t higher-ranked now, I’m okay with that. I’d rather lawmakers spent more time trying to pass bills than trying to improve their League ranking. If FTX’s CEO had spent more time on learning how finance worked, then he might still have a company. As of last Friday, the company declared bankruptcy and Bankman-Fried had resigned as CEO.
It seems that AOC isn’t quite fully willing to take pride as a League player. “I used to respect you, but playing League is too far,” one person tweeted at her, to which she responded: “Understandable.” At least she’s not a Bronze III.