A Gentlemanly Chat With… RIOTGradius!

While looking for new streams to feature in our community series, I ran across the stream of genuine Rioter RiotGradius who – according to his Twitter feed – is part of the Information Security team at Riot Games. Gradius is ranking up in Silver IV solo/duo queue, so I asked if he’d answer some questions about his experience in ranked and if we could gain some insight about what it’s like to work for Riot Games. The following is an interview conducted via-text, formatted for the blog. Please give Gradius a big THANK YOU on Twitter or here in the comments for sharing his time with us!

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allMIA: How did you come to work for Riot?

RiotGradius: I started working for Riot after meeting them at SCALE last year. I met a few of the recruiters and network dudes there, and I gave them my resume. I was already a pretty avid player of LoL, so this job sounded awesome. After some back and fourth with recruiting, I got myself a summer internship. That turned into a full time job after the internship period!

allMIA: Who is your favorite Rioter to work with in the office?

RiotGradius: Honestly, everyone here at the office is great to work with. It’s super apparent that we’re doing what we do because we love the game and our players. At first I thought it was the “company motto” but it really is how things are run around here. Though, I have to say that “working” (read : nerf wars) with the Network OPs team is a lot of fun.

allMIA: What’s your favorite champion and role at the moment?

RiotGradius: Favorite champion right now would have to be Sona. I’m having a blast supporting with her. Favorite role right now is support! Been doing a lot of that, after coming off a spree of jungling.

allMIA: I see you’re climbing ranked solo/duo queue. What advice do you have to fellow summoners who are also trying to improve their game?

RiotGradius: The biggest thing I’ve seen recently that will destroy a game before it starts is people being stuck in one role. Don’t always assume you’re going to play your favorite role. Yes you might have a “best role,” but be prepared to play any of the 5 roles. If you’re particularly bad at a role and your team is needing you to play it, specify that it might be better for someone else to take that role since it is your worst role. This is much better than calling “MID” at the beginning of a game and not working [with] your team.

allMIA: If you were a LoL Champion, what would your Ultimate be?

RiotGradius: “Distracted” Passive: For every minute in lane, RiotGradius recieves -5 Ability to Focus. As Ability to Focus decreases, bad calls, lack of MIAs, and map unawareness increases. When RiotGradius returns to the fountain, Ability to Focus is reset to 100.

Active: RiotGradius gains +100 focus. All abilites that are normally decreased during laning are increased greatly. This focus then continues to drop as normal. (180 Second Cool Down)

allMIA: If you could have a chat with any champion in LoL who would it be and why?

RiotGradius: I’d love to chat with Riven. Mostly because I have a LoL-crush on her, but also because I think she’d have a lot of really cool stories about the battles she’s fought in as well as how her life changed after leaving the Noxian army.

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Cool, huh?

Like the interview? Leave a comment! We’ll be reaching out to Rioters, prominent members of the community and average leaguers alike to bring more Q&A content to the front page of allMIA soon! Your feedback is very much appreciated!