"He was the first person the Light called": World of Warcraft Midnight turns to the MMO's mightiest hero to help us push back against the Void – Leeroy Jenkins

Blizzard's decided to go a bit Avengers: Endgame with World of Warcraft: Midnight, as the opening set-piece involves characters from across the MMORPG's history helping to defend the Sunwell. There are plenty of faces to pick out, but one particular hero stands alone - the inimitable Leeroy Jenkins himself.

Fellow millennials and older folks won't need reminding of this guy's importance to Azeroth, but younger generations might not be aware. Essentially, he's an OG World of Warcraft meme, going viral in 2005, well before smartphones were ubiquitous and when YouTube was but a neat-seeming new video platform nobody was quite sure of.

In the clip, the eponymous legend pre-emptively takes his Paladin roaring into battle during a raid, using his own name a battle-cry. He and the rest of his guild are then minced, much to our collective hysterics, and his antics became synonymous with the game. To give you a sense of just how popular Jenkins was, he appeared on-stage at BlizzCon 2007, and there have been numerous references to the meme, including on How I Met Your Mother and Jeopardy!.

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Since Midnight is the second act of the epic Worldsoul Saga, it only makes sense our man Leeroy would make an appearance, and players enjoying the expansion in early access were quick to notice his presence. "I was delighted to find Leeroy. But he really needs to be informed about transmog," says one fan on Reddit.

Indeed, Jenkins is sporting the same costume he had years ago. It's called fashion, look it up. "He was the first person the Light called," another player adds, something I choose to believe is canonically correct. "The best part is that his combat voice seems to be actually extracted from the original audio. It's even low-quality sound," a third Redditor states.

As an absolute sucker for low-poly tributes to the vibes of yesteryear, I applaud Blizzard's dedication all the way around here. Midnight's early access is currently running for those who pre-order the Epic Edition, with full release on March 3. If you're booting it up now or then, you know exactly what to shout as you dive in.

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