Leeroy Jenkins, sometimes mis-spelled Leroy Jenkins and often elongated with numerous additional letters, is an Internet phenomenon named for a character created by player Ben Schultz in Blizzard Entertainment's popular MMORPG, World of Warcraft. The character has become popular thanks to a machinima video of the game that circulated around the Internet. The phenomenon has since spread beyond the boundaries of the gaming community into other online and mainstream media.
The Internet phenomenon started with the release of a video clip online to the World of Warcraft forums. The video was released by the World of Warcraft Alliance player guild "Pals for Life" on the Laughing Skull PvP realm. It features a group of players discussing a detailed battle strategy while one of their number, Leeroy, is away from his computer. Their plan is ruined when Leeroy returns and, ignorant of the strategy, immediately charges headlong into battle shouting his own name as a battle cry. His companions rush to stop him, and his subsequent actions ruin the meticulous plan and the encounter ends in failure for the group. His response to the other players' reactions, "at least I have chicken", was also much parodied.
The August 2005 issue of PC Gamer UK featured an article on the video, titled "The Ballad of Leeroy Jenkins." According to the article, the video was designed as a negative commentary on the kind of "nerd-guilds" that meticulously and statistically plan out raids with all the seriousness of actual military tactics. Leeroy is in fact the hero of the piece, acting against the geekiness of his guild.
Source: Wikipedia
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