LoL players finally understand a 14-year-old Jax joke

One of the oldest, most peculiar inside jokes in League of Legends might help explain why Jax pursues a career as a fisherman in an alternate reality. 

In a thread posted to the League subreddit earlier this week, players collectively came to the realization as to why Jax has a talent for fishing and why the Angler Jax skin even exists to begin with. It doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense on the surface why Jax would be directed toward fishing, but the original poster of the Reddit thread, a user named DerFuro, pointed at one of the champion’s most iconic quotes as a reason why. 

Jax’s most famous voice line in League is “imagine if I had a real weapon,” a reference to the fact that he purposefully hinders his own abilities by fighting with a lamppost. Had he used a “real weapon,” he’d simply be too powerful. But what if he used a “reel weapon?”

In the Angler Jax skin, he’s equipped with a fishing rod, which is a reference to the famous voice line. The skin has been in the game since June 2010, and many League players (including myself) are only just making this realization. 

“I always just assumed it was some random thought of Riot to give him the Angler skin and him being able to fish in the river (even though this feature was added rather recently),” DerFuro said in their Reddit post. 

Another player in the Reddit thread made the connection that Jax’s old passive icon was an image of him fishing. This had been the case up until Jax’s complete visual update last season. 

While standing in the river as Jax on Summoner’s Rift, you can stop all movement and after a brief pause, you’ll cast your weapon into the river and fish. Occasionally, you’ll be rewarded with one gold. You don’t even need to be using Angler Jax—or the skin’s “reel weapon”—to get the gold.