Since it was launched in 2009, League of Legends and its global community of fans have grown tremendously. It should come as no surprise that so many LoL memes have been created through the years.
Built upon hours of gameplay, hundreds of patch notes, and thousands of reddit posts, many of the game’s best moments and trends have been deemed worthy of immortalizing most viral form of content in the internet age. Here are the top five classic League of Legends memes every Summoner should know and use on the Rift:
I’m Jarvan, I’m helping
Jarvan IV is a fighter who can build damage, tank, or hybrid and is typically played in the jungle. His abilities Dragon Strike (Q) and Demacian Standard (E) combined with his ultimate makes him a natural initiator for his team.
His ultimate, called “Cataclysm”, is one of the most unique in the game: Upon impact, he creates a circle of impassable terrain that traps all enemy and ally units inside.
As Cataclysm is so good at locking down enemy heroes, players love to combo his ultimate with Miss Fortune’s or Galio’s ultimate, for example. However, by using it, Jarvan also risks trapping his own teammates inside, subjecting them to grave danger. As shown in the image above, the enemy Anivia is casting her Glacial Storm ultimate to damage everyone within the circle.
And so, thanks to all the Cataclysm fails on the Rift, the meme “I’m Jarvan, I’m helping” was born. Said sarcastically, you can direct this to your Jarvan teammate when he mistakenly traps his own support and AD carry inside with him, causing them to die.
ok
Champion voice lines are an integral part of the League of Legends universe because they build character and add personality. You can hear champions’ voices in-game when you use them, when you intentionally press Ctrl+2 to taunt, and during Champion Select.
When Rammus was released as part of the original roster of champions during closed beta back in 2009, fans were quick to notice his… minimalistic approach.
In contrast to Katarina’s sassy “Violence solves everything,” Ryze’s impatient “A step ahead of cataclysm,” or Annie’s cunning “You wanna play too? It’ll be fun!” Rammus’ main voice line is “Ok”.
In fact, he only has a total of six voice lines, all of which contain only one word — “Alright,” “Yeah,” “Hmm,” “Yeh,” and “Right” — spoken snappily in a very low voice. This mysterious aura is an extension his official League of Legends lore, where Riot writes, “idolized by many, dismissed by some, mystifying to all, the curious being, Rammus, is an enigma.”
If you’re playing Rammus, it’s a given that you should only respond with “ok” in chat. Even if you’re not, Summoners will understand if you start replying with these two simple letters in an effort to lighten up the mood.
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Yasuo’s 0/10 power spike
Yasuo users tend to die. A lot.
The design of this champion means that he has to go in deep in order to be effective. His goal? Land Last Breath on as many enemy champions as possible.
An assassin that requires quick animation cancelling, prime positioning, and execution of slick combos with flash, Yasuo is a high skill cap champion that a lot of mid laners, top laners, and bot laners enjoy playing but not necessarily excel on.
Many Yasuo players end up dying multiple times in-game no matter the rank. It happens so often that Summoners have accepted it as the norm, joking that he actually reaches his power spike the moment he racks up ten deaths.
In actuality, if the Yasuo player hasn’t intentionally fed those ten deaths, it’s still possible for him to come back. Accumulating ten deaths means that the game has reached the mid to late stage. By then, Yasuo would have enough gold to buy at least one-and-a-half to two items, and do some real damage in team fights.
Better nerf Irelia
Once upon a time in 2011, Irelia was in the meta.
She was strong due to her one-item power spike with Trinity Force. A champion that dealt true damage, could heal off basic attacks, and had high mobility, she had little to no counters at that time.
As usual, Riot nerfed her thereafter, which allowed other overpowered meta champions to rise. In the next patch, the community expected the game developer to dim down these OPs, but instead, they nerfed Irelia.
In the following patch, the LoL community once again expected overperforming champions to be nerfed. Instead, Riot nerfed Irelia. Again.
And so the community coined the meme “Better nerf Irelia”. What’s the solution to 200 years? Better nerf Irelia. What should be done about Samira? Better nerf Irelia.
200 years
“200 years” originated from a conversation between Riot Games’ Champion Designer Nathan Lutz and LoL players on Twitter.
Riot Lutzburg had given an update on Wukong on the PBE in January 2020. A one-trick Wukong player gave feedback on the reworked design, saying that Wukong’s damage was too low. Another LoL player, Matt, chipped in to back him up, in which Riot Lutzburg replied:
The LoL community took this hyperbole to refer to any balance change or champion design they thought Riot made a huge mistake in. In Spring 2020, every highlight play was an Aphelios highlight. With five guns, two of which he can equip at any time, and an ultimate that applied their various effects, he was too overpowered.
Aphelios’ name has since been replaced with “200 years” which you may sometimes hear on LoL esports broadcasts. Even after multiple nerfs, Aphelios is back in the meta for the 2021 season thanks to buffs to Hurricane.
When Samira was released, the community questioned if she was “300 years” because of her raw power, mobility, and ridiculous toolkit for an AD carry. You could even say that Samira is “500 years” depending how absurd you think her design is.
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