Online gamers usually become famous because of their streaming channel or discord server. 15 years ago, however, when Classic WoW was the only WoW there was, a few players found ways to become well-known in the community without those modern venues. All of the following players became famous for a variety of reasons. Some were the driving force behind memorable events, while others were masters of the game and pushed the limits of what World of Warcraft was capable of back in the day. 

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A few of these famous players would go on to make carers out of their expertise and content creation while others faded into relative obscurity. Their legacies still echo in the retail game and World of Warcraft Classic.

Updated by Kristy Ambrose, January 10th, 2021: Now that Classic WoW is officially in its final phase and talk is starting about The Burning Crusade expansion, there are a few more players who have made a name for themselves. It's not always about the most popular streamer either, as some players have gained notoriety through charity work, their love for the gaming community, or the strides they've made as a dedicated WoW player. As we close out yet another decade of WoW, here are a few more famous names from Blizzard's flagship game.

15 Jokerd

Via: ign.com

One of the more recent entries to the famous WoW player roster, Jokerd was and remains a relatively unknown character. Until his gnome mage attained a controversial world first, the very first level 60 character in Classic WoW, he was just another obscure gamer with a Twitch stream. When he set this record in only four days in 2019, beating even famous guilds like Method to the punch, accusations flew about account sharing and abuse of the layering system.

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Jokerd acknowledges that he used layering, but at most this was an exploit, not abusing a bug or cheating. It was partly the debate about the early state of play in Classic WoW after launch that made Jokerd and his speedrun a popular trend.

14 Leeroy Jenkins

This is the one everyone knows, even the non-gamers, so we'll start with him. He's so famous, we made a verb out of his name. Get that raid together before someone "Leeroys" it! This was a viral video before viral videos were a thing and made the MMORPG phenomenon part of mainstream popular culture.

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The video was always intended to be satire, but it was so convincingly done that many people took it as a real in-game raid gone wrong. The guild "Pals for Life" was real enough, however, so at least we know the video was entirely staged. Its universal appeal was because of its sheer hilarity, so even gamers got a laugh out of Leeroy's misguided enthusiasm.

13 Athene

His real name is Bachir Boumaaza and he's originally from Belgium. Most of the public attention he gets is due to his streaming videos, which he has been making since 2007, along with a few world firsts he also attained. Bachir was the first player in the world to reach level 85, although this was on his Paladin Forscience, not Athene.

Despite the persona of his best-known character Athene, a brash and conceited World of Warcraft player, Bachir has gained some recognition for his charity work and support for progressive causes, such as Save the Children. His Twitch account raised more than $10 million for the organization during an event in 2013.

12 Pat PvP

The Tauren warrior known as Pat became a legend among PvPers, not only because he was great at the game but because he was the first player on his server to have a hardcore PvP amour set. That was the Valor Set, and when it was combined with his epic weapon, the Obsidian Edged Blade, he was a force to be reckoned with. The videos that he made still appear in various places on the web and are still amazingly popular despite the fact that most of them date from 2005. Warriors and PvPers alike still refer to his style when building their own armor sets.

11 Vurtne

Hailed as the grandfather of Mage PvP, Vurtne made this casting class famous for PvP prowess. He integrated his engineering and secondary skills, mostly first aid, into his matches to make himself almost invincible. He rode through Azeroth humiliating Alliance players and beating every class he came up against.

Vurtne's videos are from the days of vanilla WoW and you can find several of them on YouTube. They're accompanied by some badass heavy metal soundtracks, too, which adds to the adventurous atmosphere. Vurtne also made this disheveled Forsaken toon look cool, which is no mean feat for an undead character.

10 Kungen

Kungen, one of WoW's famous players
Kungen, one of WoW's famous players

The name "Kungen" actually means "king" in Swedish. His real name is Thomas Bengtsson, and he truly is royalty among tanks. Kungen is still an active player on his server, Tarren Mill Europe, and leads the guild Ensidia. His long and honored history goes back into the days of vanilla WoW when he founded the guild Nihilum on the server Magetherion. Kungen has made such an impact on the game that when Blizzard's card game Hearthstone released the Wrath Gate booster pack, he got a card named after him, Kungen the Thunderer.

9 Dysphoria

If you've ever seen or heard of a show called Hunter vs. World then you know something about Dysphoria and his wonderful adventures in Azeroth. A female Night Elf Hunter, Dysphoria used class-specific skills like feign death, traps, and kiting to solo some of the most difficult mobs and dungeon runs in the game.

One of the most famous of these was the Dire Maul North Tribute Run, a challenge that consisted of claiming the kingship of the ogres without killing any of the guard ogres. For a group, this was nearly impossible but Dysphoria found a way to do it all by himself.

8 Ephoenix

Ahab Wheathoof, Memorial for Ezra Chatterton
Ahab Wheathoof, Memorial for Ezra Chatterton

"Have you seen my dog?" Asks the humble Ahab Wheathoof, a Tauren farmer who stands by the bridge next to Bloodhoof Village. The quest to find Ahab's dog only exists in the game's retail version and is a part of the an-game memorial for a player named Ezra Chatterton.

In the game, his character was Epheonix, and he played World of Warcraft on the Norgannon server in 2008. Ezra was a brain cancer patient, and through the Make a Wish Foundation, he created a character and a quest in the game that he loved. He was also the first player in the world to possess two special items, an epic mount and a crossbow, both inspired by his favorite mythical bird.

7 Indalamar

Either you love Indalamar for his brilliant interpretation of vanilla warrior prowess, or you blame him for the nerf-hammer that Blizzard brought down on the class after seeing his epic video. Warriors had a reputation for being weak, but Indalamar disagreed and made a video to prove it.

He used his Blood-Thirst ability and a variety of talent points and trinkets to destroy several high-level mobs without even stopping to heal in a mere three minutes. This overlapped into real life, where Indalamar was eventually hired by Blizzard as an in-game item developer after demonstrating his knowledge of the subject.

6 Dives

You may not know his name, but you've probably heard his voice, especially if you've got the Deadly Boss Mods addon which features his screaming voice. Most WoW players have seen the infamous "Onyxia Wipe" video featuring an excited raid leader taking his frustrations out on his fellow guild members. The dialogue is funny but by accident. It's also abusive, loud, and filled with creative expletives.

It was actually one of Dives' fellow guild members that added the funny animation to go along with the actual raid video. Unlike the famous Leeroy Jenkins video, this is authentic, and Dives' screams of rage became symbolic of the trials and tribulations of raiding.

5 Kralnor

Do you like staves? Then you might have heard this famous name. It was not an in-game event or heroic battleground move that made Kralnor famous, but a cryptic and mysterious post in the World of Warcraft forums. Kralnor started a thread by hinting that he had a really nice staff that was somehow contraband. He seemed to suggest that he could get in trouble in someone in a position of authority at Blizzard ever found out what he had. Then he invited other stave users to talk about their own weapon of choice.

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Many people replied to the post, with many users mentioning their own staves but others asking him what exactly his post meant. The thread got so popular that it made Kralnor, and his mysterious stave, a permanent fixture in WoW history.

4 Angwe

This guy combined PVP with trolling, making a name for himself among the unfortunate Alliance players in Menethil Harbor. A low-level area for Alliance players, Menethil Harbour is in the Wetlands and serves as a transit point from Auberdine in Kalimdor. This was Angwe's hunting ground, and he was such a brutal ganker that Alliance players started to take extra precautions to avoid him.

As a Rogue, he could stealth in and out of any area, and in a low-level area, he was virtually invincible. To add insult to injury, he rolled an Alliance 'toon and trolled the players he had just ganked. He took screenshots of a few of the more memorable conversations, which only added to his fame.

3 Jarod Lee Nandin, aka NWBZPWNR

Here's a unique entry on our list. There are a few different ways for players to become famous and Jarod Lee Nandin attained his immortality through one of the most badass cosplays that the gaming world had ever seen. His recreation of the fearsome villain from South Park's iconic episode "Make Love Not Warcraft" at BlizzCon 2013 went viral for not only the brilliant likeness but the faithful recreation of the whole persona.

Jarod was active in other ways in the community and was known for his generous and supportive personality. Sadly, we lost Nandin this year to COVID-19, but look for an in-game memorial to appear in his honor someday.

2 Mute

The show was called World of Roguecraft and you can still see it on YouTube, but that's not what really made Mute so famous. Mute's talent was being a PVP master while missing half of his armor while using white weapons. Part of the reason he did this was to prove that you need to know how to play your class, which is where the real power lies. Plenty of players, Rogues and others alike, were inspired by his tips and tricks.

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The dialogue in his videos is also really funny, with one introduction consisting of a conversation between Mute and a hapless Rogue who was complaining about recent nerfs to the class. The opening montage includes dialogue and soundtrack from the original Highlander movie, another badass feature.

1 Swifty

You probably know Swifty these days as a content creator, but back in the days of vanilla WoW he made a name for himself as a PVP mastermind. He played a Night Elf and earned the title of Grand Marshall with some amazing innovations, utilizing everything from engineering items, bugs, and other clever tricks to build a career out of his gaming skills. His early videos that showcased his ideas were some of the first game-related montages to appear online, and you can still see some of them his YouTube channel, Swiftyalong with a lot of modern WoW content.

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