League of Legends: five of the best memes from the 2010s

League of Legends. Photo courtesy of Riot Games. /

With the first decade of League of Legends coming to an end, here are some of the best memes and funny moments from the last 10 years.

10 years of League of Legends thrills, spills, great players, great teams, and great memes. As we approach the end of the year and the decade, it’s time for us to look back at some of the greatest moments that the game has produced. In a game that has built its identity around inside jokes and iconic moments, it seems appropriate to start it off by looking at the best memes League of Legends has produced over the last decade.

Garbage “cannot”

One of the more memorable memes of the last 10 years is much more on the wholesome side than a lot of the rest, so it’s a great place to start. In a post on Reddit, a user posted a screenshot of his teammate’s inspirational words.

Titled “Inspirational words from a Silver player” the message is, in true League of Legends community fashion, both uplifting but also tongue-in-cheek.

"Unless you’re smurfingyou’re all trashbut that doesn’t mean you should give upor lose hopeit’s called garbage cannot garbage can not"

It both encourages players but also insults them and is honestly what most players in the League community need to hear. Be sure to check out the comments for some other hilarious jokes/puns.

Smite support Singed

Aside from being incredible alliteration, this was an extremely controversial topic a few years back when a player was threatened with a ban for playing Singed support, taking smite, and leaving his ADC alone in lane while he constantly counterjungled the enemy team. There was a ferocious debate as to whether this strategy was “fair” (both to his team and to his AD Carry), whether it was banworthy just for playing this incredibly off-meta strategy,

The ultimate determination from Riot was that playing these off-meta picks was not a bannable offense. However, it would be bannable if the player did not communicate this strategy to his teammates before and during the game.

Three years later, there is still a lot of debate as to what level of “troll” picks or gameplay strategies warrant a ban. But the legend of the support Singed remains as the spiritual successor to Disco Nunu.

Shyvana and Ezreal

Three years ago, a post blew up on the League of Legends subreddit that read like a question to be asked in an after-school special but somehow mixed with League lore.

"Lorewise if Ezreal kissed Shyvana’s leg how would she react in your opinion? Would she feel shy/embarassed or mad or would she do something different?"

To this day, we do not know the answer to this question. What we do know, however, is that this meme remains in the minds of all League of Legends players. It’s been referenced and (attempted to be) replicated throughout the years since, but when the servers are finally shut down someday I truly hope Marc Merrill answers this burning question.

Grave’s cigar

It seems so quaint that one little object in a champion’s splash art could cause so much controversy but back in 2014 Riot made the decision to remove the Outlaw’s smoke due to fear of censorship and age restrictions in various international regions. There was outrage, despair, and even a Change.org petition to bring the cigar back. It wasn’t until 2017, three years later, that Riot finally relented and gave him back his cigar to the delight of many fans.

Through this dark time, however, a meme was spawned in order to help the community cope with this terrible loss. “X can have Y, but Graves can’t have a cigar?” There is a thread filled with some of the best of these, that I would highly recommend you check out, but here are some of my favorites.

Gangplank can flay a person alive and carve art into their leg bone but Graves can’t have a cigar?
Singed can be responsible for chemical genocide but Graves can’t have a cigar?
Teemo can exist but Graves can’t have a cigar?

Reality denial guy

Ever heard League of Legends players respond to a statement with “what’s your point?” It comes from this clip uploaded several years ago of perhaps the most delusional player in the game’s history. Now known affectionately as “Reality Denial Guy,” he has become the embodiment of all toxic low elo players.

Next. 50 champions everyone hates to play against. dark

Today, League players will reflexively respond that “X champion doesn’t even do anything” or “he’s useless” even as their enemy is diving them to go godlike. And if you point that out they will (hopefully) tongue-in-cheek answer with “okay what’s your point?”

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