Rivers and Roads Blog by Patty Inwood
While Luke was in high school he began gaming competitively. How does this happen, you ask? How do you go from playing in your boxers in the basement to traveling the US on a team? lol It makes me giggle just thinking about it. What the hell? Only Luke could make a career out of something like this.
But he did. You see you play online and they track your scores and then someone reaches out and says, ” Hey, wanna team up?” and you start scrimmaging as a duo. Trevor Ruxy was Luke’s “Day One Duo.” I can’t even type it without having a moment. Sigh. Trev was from our neck of the woods and he and Luke started the Call of Duty circuit together. They were doing pretty well when a young man named Anthony “Powuh” Boberick stumbled onto them. He was most definitely a mentor and coach and when Luke passed away Anthony trekked all the way up to the wake. I have no words for that.
Luke is trending in the U.S. right now thanks to the gaming community. I knew Luke personally and he would loved to see this. #RIPLukeInwood — Pete Bilzerian (@PeteBilzerian) April 14, 2015
When Luke was trending on Twitter all around the world I think we were all amazed.
@UMGEvents a great member of the community has past away, I propose for UMG Cali we have a moment of silence to honor Luke. #RIPLukeInwood — Austin (@MoneyMizuno) April 14, 2015
Trev and Luke and Anthony went to Cali for their first tournament and from that moment on, Luke was hooked. He loved the competition and he loved the lifestyle. He definitely stressed about the teams and the winning, but when the whole rest of his life was going to heck in a handbasket, he at least had the gaming. Luke kept the gaming side of his life pretty much separate from most of his friends. I am not sure why this is, but I think I understand it. Sometimes you just want a part of yourself to be yours, you know? You don’t want to have to explain it or defend it. You just want to enjoy it and COD gaming was that for Luke. THANK GOODNESS. I hesitate to think where Luke might have been emotionally if he didn’t have the gaming community, and his role in it, to lift his spirits and fuel his confidence when school was making him feel so shitty about himself.
“So I met Luke back in 2014 when my friend Anthony told me he was going to be attending MLG Anaheim 2014 with some new talent he found and asked me if I wanted to come coach and hang for the weekend. I started getting on and watching them practice and tried to help out Luke and Trevor as they were new to the scene, but were eager to learn and succeed. Just like always when practice time was over we just stayed on for another 2 hours and talked, getting to know each other better. We talked about anything and everything. Sports, friends outside the game, etc. Then comes time to fly across the country to play Call of Duty. In game Luke was a monster. He had such pure, raw talent and it was just waiting to be unleashed before every game he played. Not only was he a very skilled player but he was the most fun out of game also. From our walks to 7/11 at 2am because we wanted snacks, to him just making everyone laugh no matter what the situation was, he was the best kind of person to be around. He was truly special and there’s no doubt in my mind if he wasn’t taken from us too soon, he would’ve made a very nice living from playing video games.”- Chris
And that’s what I need you to know: Every child needs to understand that who they are as a student is not the whole of who they are. We need to define our children by their character and by their passions and by their heart. I have a student at school this year who really struggles. Like can’t read kind of struggles. Can you imagine if all he thinks about himself – his confidence and self-worth – is based on how he does in class? UGH He is the sweetest of children and has a huge heart and is so well-liked by his peers and isn’t that what he should be focused on? Shouldn’t that be what we are all focused on?
I have included, today, some words from two of Luke’s gaming buddies. I hope you are struck, as I am, about how they talk about his sense of humor, his fun attitude, his passion for the game, his heart. I hope you define yourself by that, my boy, on the other side of the stars. Xxx
“Luke and I first met online in a random Gamebattles forum. Gamebattles is simply a gaming platform where you can play competitive matches. We met in a forum of people just looking to play fun matches together. We had played a few games together and were just talking and he mentioned where he was from. It struck me because he told me his high school and that morning I was actually at his highschool for a track meet. It was crazy to me how I was just at his school that morning and then I randomly met him online and we began talking. Neither of us had truly played competitive before so we were looking for people to join us and start a team together. We met our future teammate PoWuH in a game and hit him up to play and he almost fathered us in competitive play and showed us the ropes to everything. He took us under his wing and we created a great team together. Going into our first competitive event together in California it was almost a little awkward because Luke and I butted heads a lot online and weren’t the best of friends. It was honestly safe to say we didn’t like each other at all. When we flew to California together and competed our relationship did a full 180. We just became best friends that event and spent the entire weekend not only with our team but just hanging out the two of us. It was crazy how all the beef we had was just dropped and our friendship truly started that weekend. I remember one key moment that weekend we were walking in downtown Anaheim together just talking about life and our team and how we did that weekend and it was all just so honest and warm hearted. I stopped competing for a couple of events and then before one of the events in November of 2014 I convinced my team to pick Luke up because I knew how incredibly talented he was and how much I would love to team with him again. We had a great event together and he did amazing as he always did. That was my last event competing but that didn’t stop us from keeping in touch every now and then until his accident. Meeting Luke was one of the best things in my life. He was a fierce and very talented competitor but he was also just a fun teammate. Always such positive vibes, cracking jokes, and just being a good person. At Anaheim he was almost late for one of our matches because he was busy outside chatting up a homeless man he just met. That’s who he was though, just a loving person who was happy to talk to everyone. We came up in the scene together, both starting from nothing, and he was my true day 1 duo. We shared so many memories together that I’ll never forget. Memories I’ll never be able to replicate again. Not a day goes by I don’t think about him or miss him. He had such a bright future ahead of him but I can find peace in the fact he made everyday worthwhile. He lived his days to the fullest. I know he’s resting in peace and I can’t wait to see him again someday. Rest easy King Luke, we all miss you.” – Trevor
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