Chinese internet slang comes from the most unexpected places.

Online gaming is one major source of viral memes.

There's one game in particular which has given rise to so many slang terms:

League of Legends (英雄联盟 yīng xióng lián méng).

And that's where our Phrase of the Week comes from this week.

The phrase:

"kudos to me" (爱你老己 ài nǐ lǎo jǐ).

This began life as a famous line said by the character Sett in LoL:

"Love you, mom, see you tomorrow" (爱你老妈，明天见 ài nǐ lǎo mā, míng tiān jiàn).

Players adopted it as a playful goodbye between gaming sessions.

Then someone made a simple swap: 老妈 (mum) became 老己 (dear self).

The phrase exploded after a late November 2025 video showed someone peeling a pomelo for themselves, captioned:

"I wanted to eat it but didn't want to peel it. So I peeled it for myself. Kudos to me, see you tomorrow" (我说想吃柚子但不想剥，所以我给自己剥好送给自己了，爱你老己，明天见).

And now this phrase has had around half a billion hits on social media channels in the last month.

The gaming origins matter.

Online games have massively influenced modern Chinese expressions, including some phrases we've been discussing in RealTime Mandarin.

Phrases like:

• "PK" — to battle

• "Break defences" (破防 pò fáng) — to feel emotionally overwhelmed

• "Total wipeout" (团灭 tuán miè) — collective failure

"Kudos to me" (爱你老己) is just the latest example.

Want to check out more modern Chinese slang phrases which started life in gaming chat rooms?

Check out this one from the archive: