League of Legends Memes That Hit Harder Than a Fed Zed

The best-known League of Legends memes are older than most current champions: “ok” from Rammus (2010), “Mord es #1 HUEHUEHUE” (2010), Garen‘s Spin to Win, Gangplank’s “it was K” (2011), Draven’s moustache (2012) and Raise Your Dongers (2013). Below, each one with where it started and what it means, plus the chat phrases you’ll still see every game.

Dates and origins come from the Know Your Meme entry for League of Legends and its linked entries, which trace most of these back to the old official forums. Those forums are gone. So are many of the original threads (Know Your Meme often cites them through the Wayback Machine).

Where did the classic League of Legends memes come from?

Mostly from the official forums in 2009-2011, then Reddit and Twitch. League launched on October 27, 2009, and the first wave of jokes came from players and Riot staff talking to each other in the same threads.

What does “ok” mean in LoL?

It’s Rammus. The armadillo barely says anything except “ok”, and on September 11, 2010 a forum thread turned that into a reply style: nothing but “ok”, lowercase, no punctuation. Funny enough, it started as a way to derail troll threads, and anyone who broke the pattern got downvoted out of sight. You still see it under any Rammus clip. The catch is that newer players often think it’s just people being rude.

Why do people say “Mord es #1 HUEHUEHUE”?

Because of a parody tier list. On October 30, 2010, a user called futebolBR posted “Brasil 5v5 Tier List”, which ranked Mordekaiser as the best champion with the description “es the best, #1, best, shield es always win, never loose”. Any Mordekaiser mention after that drew the same reply, and the “huehue” part became the shorthand for Brazilian players in general (Know Your Meme has a separate entry for it). Is it a little mean? Sure. It stuck anyway.

Spin to Win, Demacia and other champion memes

Garen’s Judgement makes him spin with his sword, and at release he was strong enough that pressing one button and spinning through people felt like the whole plan. That’s “Spin to Win”, plus “Demacian justice hides in the brushes” for the habit of waiting in a bush to spin on whoever walked in.

The joke reached the game files, too. According to Know Your Meme, Wukong’s ultimate, Cyclone, is named “MonkeyKingSpinToWin” internally.

Gangplank got “I ate some oranges and it was K” in July 2011, from his ability that removes crowd control by eating citrus. A fan band, The Yordles, even made a parody song called “It was K”. Then there’s Dunk Master Yi: a YouTube guide by “notue” that renamed half the game (Health Potions became Red Sodas, Wolves became Dog) and finished every kill with “Get Dunked”. Vi sometimes shouts “Get Dunked” on her ultimate, which tells you how far that video travelled.

Which LoL memes came from Riot staff?

A few, and Riot played along. Jesse Perring, a Riot employee, became the game’s Chuck Norris after a September 29, 2009 thread by another employee, Skribbles: every joke is an impossible feat he casually pulls off. In January 2011, a fan comic built from stills of Riot’s patch preview videos gave Phreak the name “Dance Master Phreak” after a story about dancing to Britney Spears’ “Hold It Against Me”. The same comics called balance designer Morello “Nerf Master Suck Town” for his nerfs, and he even used the nickname himself on the forums for a while. Honestly, can you picture a balance designer doing that today?

League of Draven and Raise Your Dongers

Draven was released on June 6, 2012, with lines like “Welcome to the League of Draven” that players loved quoting. A week later, on June 13, a Reddit user posted an Imgur album with Draven’s face, moustache and grin pasted onto other champions; by June 2013 it had over 8.7 million views, and the face spread well beyond League.

Raise Your Dongers is a Twitch one. Streamer Michael “Imaqtipie” Santana played a lot of Heimerdinger, nicknamed him “donger”, and his chat ran with it until the emoticon ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ became its own thing; he tweeted “raise your dongers” on June 17, 2013. Nobody really knows what it means. That’s sort of the point.

LoL chat phrases that work like memes

Not every League joke has an origin date or its own Know Your Meme page, and some of the most common ones are just phrases players type at each other in nearly every match. To be fair, they’re worth knowing if you’re new (or if you’re about to queue ranked for the first time on a fresh account).

• “jungle diff”: blaming the jungler for whatever just happened, usually unfairly.
• “ff15” means let’s surrender at 15 minutes, as early as the regular vote allows.
• A 0/10 player who insists they “scale”: the oldest excuse in solo queue.
• “L9”, which has a real history behind it; we covered it in what L9 means in LoL.

Where can you find new League of Legends memes?

Reddit is still the main place, along with Twitch chat during big streams and pro matches. Our list of LoL subreddits worth joining includes the ones built for humour, and if the jokes about Iron and Bronze go over your head, the League of Legends ranks guide explains the ladder. For League of Legends memes from the original era, Know Your Meme’s archive is the best record left, since the old forums are offline.

FAQ

What is the oldest League of Legends meme?

Among the ones Know Your Meme dates, the Jesse Perring jokes are the earliest: the thread started on September 29, 2009, a month before the game launched on October 27, 2009.

Why does Rammus say “ok”?

“Ok” is one of Rammus’s few voice lines. In September 2010, forum users started replying with nothing but “ok” to derail troll threads, and it became a meme.

What does “Spin to Win” mean in LoL?

It refers to Garen’s Judgement, a spinning sword attack. At release Garen was strong enough that spinning into enemies often won fights on its own.

Who started “Raise Your Dongers”?

Streamer Michael “Imaqtipie” Santana and his Twitch chat, from his habit of calling Heimerdinger “donger”. He tweeted the phrase on June 17, 2013.

What is League of Draven?

A photoshop meme that pastes Draven’s face and moustache onto other characters. It started with a Reddit post on June 13, 2012, a week after Draven’s release.