Why is this thread written in past tense? Is Rol not writing any new posts?

He has completely abandoned us

Oh no!
Was it because of something that happened or did he just go quiet without an explanation?

It's the latter. It was so sudden that some of us are worried that he might be dead, but of course we don't know if that's the case or not.

To answer your question "did he go quiet without  an explanation" , the answer is pretty much yes and it's the only time Rol did anything quietly leading as Zkug said to speculation as to what had occurred for him to leave. still he wasn't one to make one of those  I'm leaving posts that seemed to be aimed at hopefully gaining an avalanche of responses that I have seen posted on here, the exact circumstances of Rol leaving be it related to health,lack of motivation or numerous other reasons only Rol can answer. 

Still my theory is Rol simply thought his job here was done.  the forums were very much past their heyday and there was little else to keep Rol's interest, being given the task of running the polls and his popular road to 160 million thread helped somewhat in prolonging his stay but were talking about someone whose involvement on this site went as far as keeping his own personal  databases on VGchartz posts so they were never going to be enough.

In the end ROL joins a long list of many great long time users that have left with little to no fanfare so like those that went before him the best we can do is hope they are enjoying a good life.

I don't have that many cool stories to tell but I just realized the extent to which Rol influenced these forums. Back in 2007-2010, the glory days of the Wii and DS, Rol basically led the Nintendo community on this site.

So, to add my own story, I want to talk about Sean Malstrom and Rol's possible secret identity.

If you don't know, Sean Malstrom was a famous blogger (he still blogs, but is a lot less famous now). In fact, he was the blogger that spread the word about Nintendo's strategy: The Wii was a disruptive product and the DS a blue ocean product. If you hear these words today, it's because of Malstrom's blog posts from 2005-2007. He had one piece called "birdmen and the casual fallacy" in which he explained why the Wii was a success and why Sony and Microsoft struggled and couldn't just copy it. It was a magnificent piece. 

I'm pretty sure Rol read Sean Malstrom's blog. In fact, I wondered if Rol was Sean Malstrom.

Rol was basically the gospel of Malstrom on this website, even though he never directly admitted it. Rol had a deep understanding of the Wii's success and as I was fascinated by these business theories, I gobbled them up and so Rol and I often argued side-by-side. Rol so perfectly explained the things Malstrom explained (just in other words) that I often wondered if Rol had a secret identity. Was he actually Malstrom? I will never know, but I think it's a cool theory.