Memes are a big part of any esports community. They bring people together, facilitate communication, and represent one of the clear signs that you’re a part of the community. If you know memes, you must have been paying attention to the secret life of Dota.
Here’s a top 10 list of Dota 2 memes you might have come across in your pubs or while watching professional tournaments.
322
This is the go-to meme for situations in which someone is throwing the game. Whenever a team has a massive advantage and starts making really bad moves, the chat goes wild with “322” messages. Why 322?
The reason has to do with Alexei “Solo” Berezin’s past. He is currently the captain of Virtus.pro and is one of the best at what he does at the professional level. However, his past includes a gambling incident that no one seems to forget: He won $322 after betting $100 against his own team. Needless to say, he threw the match with some questionable plays and got caught for it. Even though the event took place a long time ago, but the meme remains alive and well to this day.
17%
This meme has to do with Spirit Breaker’s Greater Bash ability, which has a proc chance of 17%. However, it often feels like the proc chance is a lot more than 17%, simply because the hero bashes you just at the right time or multiple times in a row. In order to make fun of situations like this, when RNG seems to heavily favor someone, players and casters like to use the meme “17%,” which basically translates to “100%.”
Mid or Feed
This is one of the oldest memes in Dota and MOBA games in general. You don’t hear it that often these days, although some people still spam it in chat before a pub game begins. Mid or Feed simply means “You either let me play in the middle lane or I go kill my hero repeatedly and make sure you lose the game.”
The reason why this meme is not as common these days as it used to be has to do with the more recent updates to the matchmaking system. Now you can choose your desired role when finding a game and this eliminates the unnecessary fighting associated with the frequent cases of multiple players wanting to take the same role.
Is This Balanced?
This is another famous meme that was born at The International 3, after Na’Vi used their revolutionary fountain hook and abused a game mechanic that nobody else seemed to know about. Their repeated fountain hooks allowed the CIS team to win an unwinnable match against a Chinese opponent and qualify for the Grand Final.
The phrase “Is this balanced?” belongs to Loda, an Alliance player at the time, who was absolutely appalled by the manner in which Na’Vi won the match.
The Game is Still in Beta
This meme is often used when something unexpected goes wrong on the technical side. It can be a visual bug or anything else that resembles a bug. In such situations, the typical thing to say would be “How is it possible to still have bugs in this game 10 years after its release?” Instead, people make fun of the situation pretending that the official version of the game hasn’t been launched yet and that the existence of bugs is perfectly normal at this stage. After all, “The game is still in beta.”
Pizza Party
This is one of the cruelest memes in Dota 2, and it’s connected to a well-known player who is famous among other things for getting teammates kicked. One time, his team (Fnatic) had a pizza party qualifying for a big event. At this party, EternalEnvy (the player who created the meme) allegedly arranged for someone else from the team to get kicked in order to make room for a much stronger player. So now, every time there’s word about a team eating pizza at an event, everyone reacts with this meme: “Pizza party.” It suggests that someone will inevitably get kicked.
Fired!
This is another Dota 2 meme or inside joke that originated under unfortunate circumstances. One of the former Dota 2 casters and hosts, 2GD, got fired after repeatedly breaking the rules and was told that he’ll never work with Valve again. After this event, a lot of people have remembered the event and the meme it created: “Fired!” Whenever someone does something stupid, unusual, or questionable on-air, the chat always reacts by spamming this meme.
MLG
MLG was one of the first big esports events and got associated with the idea of being a professional gamer. When people say “MLG,” what they really want to say is “I’m at MLG’s level” or “We’re pro here.”
