When we wrote Yasuo, we referred to his combat utterances as an “ancient Ionian dialect,” which was a canonical way of justifying his faux-Asian vernacular. (He wasn’t the first one to speak an ancient Ionian dialect, by the way—listen carefully to Karma when she casts Mantra.) The practical truth is that we chose not to connect Yasuo’s ability grunts to any existing culture on Earth, since doing so would a) break the fiction of Runeterra and b) make localization tough for every region that has to translate them into equally distinct and memorable phrases in its native language.

Yasuo’s co-writer ManWolfAxeBoss lived in Japan and speaks fluent Japanese, so we asked him to write lines for Yasuo to shout during high moments that would evoke the power and emotion of a samurai flick—but without any actual Japanese words. (Just a typical example of the fun and absurd challenges we can face when writing for League of Legends.) Given how legendary the cry “hasegi!” has become within the League community, I think he did an amazing job. Some things never dull!