Today is the anniversary of Leeroy Jenkins, the greatest video in nerd history

It's been 12 years since one of the defining pieces of internet culture came to light.

Back in May 2005, a video was uploaded to World of Warcraft fansite Warcraft Movies. The video featured a guild of WoW players about to enter a dangerous area, discussing strategies, calculating percentages and generally taking the whole thing quite seriously.

Then out of nowhere comes Leeroy Jenkins. Who is Leeroy Jenkins? Leeroy Jenkins is a maverick, a loose cannon, a force of nature. While his compatriots are crunching numbers and plotting their next move, Leeroy shouts out his own name and charges into the fore.

His fellow players, momentarily stunned, decide to run in after him, and everything goes to pot. And so, an internet legend was born.


Honestly, if you've never seen Leeroy Jenkins, you need to correct this right away. If you've already seen Leeroy Jenkins, why not relive the magic of one of the internet's earliest gems?

Now it's worth mentioning that this isn't the original video; that has been lost to the corridors of WoW cyberspace. Nor is it even the first YouTube version - that one is sitting on over 46 million views, but we like HD, so we're giving you HD... or something close to it.

It doesn't matter what definition you're watching Leeroy Jenkins in, though. What matters is that you have your sound on and that you wait for it. It's so worth it.