We live in a polarised era. The political divides that keep us separated have never seemed so impermeable. Brother wars against brother, parent against child, spouse against spouse. But even in these dark times, one thing remains to unite us: Looking down our nose at crypto bros and people ranked lower than us in online multiplayer PvP battle arenas. So long as we have this, the centre will hold.
No one knows this better than US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC). The representative for New York’s 14th Congressional District and—more importantly—Silver III ranked League of Legends player, killed two birds with one stone recently in a tweet dunking on both the people behind the spectacular blow-up of the FTX crypto exchange and everyone worse than her at LoL.
VCs were impressed by Bronze III??🥉 (no offense to bronze IIIs) https://t.co/ArcyzEo4pMNovember 15, 2022
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AOC was responding to a series of tweets recalling how FTX’s venture capitalist investors were impressed that its CEO and founder, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF, because I guess we’re all initialisms now), was a League of Legends fan who would play the game during phone calls and meetings.
Plenty of people pointed out that SBF’s Bronze III LoL ranking wasn’t much to be proud of (nearly 85% of ranked soloqueue players are placed higher at time of writing), with even the crusty old finance and business daily The Financial Times making fun of his LoL play. When people pointed all this out to AOC, she was quick to get in on the gag.
AOC isn’t the only videogame fan in the US congress. The recent midterm elections saw the first (on record) Kingdom Hearts fan elevated to the legislature, a move which was unfathomably not proscribed by the US Constitution. Still, unlike America’s new, Goofy-loving legislator, AOC at least has the right attitude about her LoL habit. When someone tweeted at her that they “used to respect [her] but playing League is too far,” AOC had one thing to say in response: “Understandable“.