This is not a drill—Graves could be getting his cigar back

How often in life do you desperately wish for something, only to find out that it might actually come true? Life only has room for a few of these sweet, beautiful moments, and Riot is giving us one in League of Legends.

Graves is getting his cigar back.

For those that have only been playing League for the past couple of years, we feel sorry for you. Not only did you miss out on the glory days of Kha’zix mid and AP Master Yi, but you weren’t able to witness the glory of Graves having a big, badass cigar. That’s not to say you haven’t heard of it though, because it’s becoming quite a widespread meme.

Graves’ cigar was removed back in 2014 due to issues with tobacco use laws in games and advertising. Riot took to the official League forums to try to help the community understand why they committed this heinous crime, but the community revolted. Controversy was everywhere, and for good reason. To the players, Graves’ cigar doesn’t represent a simple roll of tobacco, it represents everything wholesome and good that their favorite champions have lost over the years. Master Yi lost his AP scalings, Lucian lost his wife, and Graves lost his cigar. At least Fizz can still be an AD tank, right?

Soon, everyone was absorbed in the conflict. There were countless posts on the forums and Reddit asking things like, “Why can Leblanc one-shot me with one ability but Graves still can’t have his cigar?” It was unjust, cruel, and unfair. In a sign of protest, the League subreddit changed all of their champion flairs to include tiny cigars, except for the Graves flair, of course.

In an attempt to quell the outrage, Riot mentioned that it was possible for Graves to vape when the new client was released, but unfortunately, the feature never arrived in the live client.

But all that is behind us, and the rioting can end, because Graves’ cigar is coming back. His splash art on the PBE was updated to include his trusty ol’ cigar, so we might be able to see Graves in his complete glory when the next patch rolls around in a couple of weeks. Keep in mind though, this is the PBE we’re talking about—everything is subject to change or be removed before it goes live. But Riot wouldn’t do that to us, right?

Unfortunately, this means the end of a meme as well. Maybe now we could switch it to something else that was unjustly stricken from an innocent champion. We could say things like, “Oh, so Graves can have his cigar, but Kalista can’t be anything but trash?”

Ah, never mind, it just doesn’t have the same ring to it.