The Storm behind the Surge
I grew up in a family of athletes and was one from as young as I can remember until my playing days came to an end in college. I hunt, I fish, I love being outside and because of that I have many friends with like interests. However, something I don’t have in common with any of them is I am a nerd, and I am damn proud of it. My whole life people haven’t understood what video games and nerd culture has meant to me but it has helped me through the darkest times of my life and it’s given me a creative outlet like no other.
I first got a Play Station with the pop of screen when I was seven years old; my grandparents had given it to me for my birthday. I got three games with it initially, and it happened to be the trilogy of Spyro The Dragon. From then I was hooked, I played through all of them and beat them and the arsenal of games slowly grew and grew. Years later I was given the PS2 and led a 10 year dynasty with Georgia Tech on NCAA 07, while still playing the newer Spyros and everything else. However this was before online gaming was heavily prevalent so I was simply “Player 1”. I had an identity in everything else I did, my sail number for racing was 15589, and the number on the back of my jersey in football was 20. However in the game industry at the time I was player 1. I had a gaming desktop that I got my freshman year of high school but I primarily played RTS games like Supreme Commander which my screen name was just Radialrocker101 because that was my email at the time. This was all fine and dandy but it wasn’t me if that makes sense. That is until I got an Xbox 360, my sophomore year of high school; then it all changed.
Please pick an Xbox live Gamer Tag…. Hmmmm well I don’t know. Then it just clicked. TheStormSurge, for those that don’t know me I am an absolute weather nerd, I have lived through over 20+ tropical systems growing up in Florida and spent the majority of my free time on the water either running from or chasing bad weather on the water. TheStormSurge was perfect to me. Now if you don’t know what storm surge is let me explain. Storm surge is a rising of the sea as a result of atmospheric pressure changes and wind associated with a storm. It’s essentially a huge influx of water that leaves destruction in its wake. This was perfect for me because I am a super competitive person. From then the rest was history, once I got my Xbox 360 I got big into COD, I was in a clan in Black Ops one and two and was an absolute nightmare to deal with in MW3, Win or Die, was the clan, we played domination and wrecked. All of my friends played COD and Halo and it started to give me an outlet outside of my life of sports. I found solace in video games because it helped me block out the outside world. Then in 2011 my friend showed me this game in our schools computer lab, League of Legends, and I thought hmmm this looks like fun.
I didn’t really start playing league of legends until season 2 and back then I was just a noob who would run the dumbest stuff down mid lane and get absolutely waxed. Then I went off to college, and LoL kept me in touch with some friends from back home, and in Season 3 I was introduced to ranked, and the book changed again. I said before I was a competitive person and let me give you some more context on this. I play to win, on everything, doesn’t matter if it is for fun, or just messing around the instinct within kicks in and this guy doesn’t mess around. I was nationally ranked in racing for sailing, and I took no prisoners on the water. When I moved to Naples Florida from Orlando, sailing was what I got into. I wasn’t the biggest kid, actually I was quite the opposite, if my name wasn’t TheStormSurge I’d be called Slim Reaper. I was 5’8 until summer of 2010. Then I rocketed up to 6’1 and wouldn’t grow another inch. Then my first love came calling my name. Football, I was a starting cornerback my senior year of high school and wasn’t afraid of contact. I lived for violence on the field and getting a W with my team, no matter the cost.
So back to ranked. Holy hell this game has a competitive mode. I’m in for the long run and so I started my grind I was a silver player until season 5. Then summer of 2014 I had an internship in New Orleans with a software company called Susco. I was a kid surrounded by likeminded people but I don’t really look like your typical nerd. I wear boots and jeans and I don’t wear graphic Ts. Then one of the first few days I was at my internship Manders invited me out to lunch with the rest of the guys, and naturally what conversation came up at the Chinese restaurant? You got it, League of Legends. So I sat back and listened and when the time was right I interjected and said “Yeah well Swain is good but Anivia is my girl” and I remember Ashton Stockman immediately going, “Well we had reservations about you at first but you are one of us!” After that summer I went back to Ole Miss for my junior year and I got to play consistently with Manders and Maurice. In S5 I got gold five and began to realize I’m pretty good at this game and winning is fun. In S6 I became online friends with Flyamese Cat through Manders and the rest is history. In the most recent season I finished in Gold 2 and internet permitting I am hoping to make it to Plat this season.
There’s a lot more I could go into about myself but we could be here for quite some time, but that is the little rundown of The Storm behind the Surge and if y’all want to learn more about me there will be some personals coming, I promise. Until then I’ll see y’all here and out on the rift.

– TheStormSurge