ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – If you ask Mike Pendleton, there are two key elements that make soccer fandom just that little bit different.

“On the surface, it’s the atmosphere, it’s the buzz or the hum that you get in a game,” said the Tampa Bay Rowdies fan recently. “I grew up with baseball, I love baseball, a baseball game isn’t participative in the same way, so I think the buzz and the atmosphere and the feeling like you’re being a part of something is the initial draw.

“Then, I think when you get into it, it is familial. You feel like there’s a community around something that was missing for me in any other sport. … It feels like we have a role, and we feel like we’re participating, it’s certainly for the club that you go, but it’s also for that group that you see every Saturday night.”

Pendleton speaks from experience. Like many fans nowadays, the excitement of the FIFA World Cup was his first real introduction to the sport, with the 2014 edition in Brazil the key tipping point.

“I really got sucked in and after that I thought, ‘I have to have more of this, I need to see more of this,’” he said.

And so, soon after the tournament ended, Pendleton found himself in downtown St. Petersburg at his first Rowdies game at Al Lang Stadium. He found it unlike any sporting event he’d been to previously, with Ralph’s Mob’s presence on the opposite side of the main stand leaving a lasting impression and providing the impetus for Pendleton to return.

Now, for most people, that might be enough. A good night out at the game, meet old and new friends and have a good time, and then go home at the end of it all. But not here.

Instead, Pendleton decided he wanted to know more. Much more. In fact, in the five years since Pendleton’s first Rowdies game, he’s become one of the sharpest fans in lower division soccer, whether through his interactions on Twitter or Reddit where he can be found through his handle, @Phat7Deuce, or when you’re talking to him in person.

From beautifully designed attendance graphics that track the weekly counts across North America’s professional leagues to memes and videos that have put Zlatan Ibrahimovic in a Rowdies uniform or memorable moments to music, Pendleton has become a unique voice in a soccer community that has seen its major growth occur online.