What is your name?
Joaquim (although everyone in the UK calls me Jo).
Where are you based?
I'm based in London for the last 6 years of my life! Right now, due to the pandemic, I've come to Portugal (my country of origin) to be with my family as my work allows me to work from anywhere in the world right now.
What would you like to share about your family?
I'm very proudly Portuguese from a small town called São Pedro do Sul. This is in the interior (center north) of the country and sits in a beautiful Valley between several mountains. It's the type of place where there still exists a lot of community connection, where people know you by name and who your relatives are.
A fun fact about my family is that both my parents were born at home and in the same street! That street is a 2 min drive from their current home and they've never lived anywhere else (or felt the desire to).
Currently, I work in Media and Advertising, being something that I kind of fell into by accident and decided it would be a good place for me. My dream still is to one day be able to do my job within the esports space.
Do you have any pets?
Currently none in London (it's so hard to find a landlord who's ok with a pet!!). Here in Portugal I have Laica, who's one of the happiest doggos I've ever seen. She's awesome and has an un
limited desire for people to play with her and pet her.
She's a cross breed between Pointer and Braco, but her hunting instincts are definitely not there and she's the biggest pacifist on earth.
During the day I'll play with her in between work meetings to take a break from the stress and it's definitely game changing!
How did you start watching/playing LOL?
When I was growing up I never had a gaming console and my first PC would not run any games, so I was never a gamer as a kid / teenager.
When I was 18, some of my friends started playing and I got a laptop. My first game ever was with Blitzcrank, I played horribly and my friends laughed at me, but we all had a great time. We played occasionally here and there, but back then the game was VERY different than what it is nowadays. After a couple months, there was the Season 1 World Championship. I followed it religiously and that made me fall in love with the competitive side.
Haven't really stopped playing League ever since. I do go on regular breaks (from 1 to 6 months without playing) because of work or just general lack of time, but I never stop following competitive League.
Over the years I've seen people coming and going in the scene, all my friends stopped playing and still, this is the one thing that kept constant through my adulthood. It's something that weirdly means a lot to me.
What does the LOL community mean to you?
The community means a lot of fun to me. It means memes and good times.
One of the bad things about online communities is the negative aspects that eventually show up. It's impossible to have a community of millions without some weird takes or bad faith comments somewhere. But what I like to think to myself is that the majority of fans are just regular people who want their favourite teams / players / personalities to succeed without wanting anyone to be down.
Just this weekend we saw a great game between the team that I support (G2 Esports) and another great team (Rogue). Most of the comments were of appreciation for the teams and players for such a great game being played. Last year G2 vs FNC is also such a good example of people just coming together in how awesome the play was, with the most common comment being "what a banger". From both sides, regardless who takes the win, everyone gained that day.
Finally, instances like what happened to you meant a lot. There is this impression that people who watch video games are angry teens, which is disrespectful to both gamers and angry teens. There is no 1 definition of people who are passionate about this, but when we see something that is wholesome and well intentioned, we will jump on it and support it. I was very proud of everyone for seeing someone who didn't understand what was going on and the community tried to bring you up to speed, being respectful and supportive. This is one of the best examples in my opinion.
What are your other passions? What do you like doing with your time?
I do have a lot of other passions and not enough time in the world!
As I said, I come originally from a region with a lot of mountains and nature, so hiking is something that I love and is very natural to me. I enjoy nature a lot.
I love to watch stand up comedy (one of the best nights of my life was seeing Dave Chapelle live in London), watching TV shows, I read a lot of news content about politics (my current job is tied with politics) and economics.
I also love baking and cooking (which was my profession for a couple of years), so sometimes I'll go on a baking rampage. Usually no one complains :D
Thank you so much for sharing your story Joaquim. You are right about the community being mostly made up of very lovely people who have been lovely to me! Lots of Love LeicesterLadyPerkz xxx
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