# Maining Hanzo "Maining Hanzo" is Overwatch community shorthand for stubbornly locking in the bow-wielding defense hero Hanzo Shimada despite lacking the aim to make him useful. The label formed alongside the game's May 2016 launch and by that October had jumped out of gamer forums onto a Cards Against Humanity anti-Trump billboard in Orlando. ## Origin Blizzard Entertainment released Overwatch on May 24, 2016, with Hanzo shipping on the launch roster as a defense hero armed with a longbow[2]. Two days later, on May 26, the 'Overwatch People' Facebook page posted a picture pairing a clean-cut man with a bearded one under the caption 'when she says she only dates Hanzo mains,' one of the earliest catches of the archetype online[3]. The player-choice arguments in matches ramped up immediately, giving the joke a target audience of every teammate who had ever been sniped on by a Hanzo whiffing three arrows in a row. - **Platform:** Overwatch community forums / YouTube (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2016 ## Overview Hanzo Shimada is one of Overwatch's two sniper heroes, wielding a bow that rewards pinpoint aim and delivers almost nothing when a player keeps missing[2]. Locking him in without the mechanical skill to actually land shots hands the enemy team free fights, which is the exact archetype the joke targets[3]. Calling someone a Hanzo main is not a compliment. The format typically shows a scruffy loner type, sometimes paired with fake dating-app captions, sometimes drawn as Hanzo himself pleading his case after being called a weeb[3]. Longer variants take the form of first-person stories written in the voice of a smug teenage Hanzo main who blames teammates for every loss[4]. The joke leans hard on Overwatch's voice-chat culture and the constant arguments over team composition, where 'switch off Hanzo' became a stock complaint. ## How It Spread The label caught fire quickly on YouTube. On June 28, 2016, YouTuber FUNKe uploaded a parody titled 'Want to Main Hanzo?' that lampooned refuse-to-swap players and drew more than 375,000 views within four months[1]. Around July, iFunny user FishBoyChico posted an illustration of Hanzo pleading 'It's not what you think' after being called a weeb, one of the earliest character-voice image macros in the format[3]. On October 10, 2016, Redditor clockworkpotato72 submitted 'A Day in the Life of a Hanzo Main' to /r/Overwatch, a first-person story from the perspective of a smug teenager that pulled roughly 5,500 votes at 92% upvoted and over 530 comments in a week[4]. By this point the joke was standard vocabulary on the subreddit. The meme jumped into political ad-buying that same month. The Cards Against Humanity super PAC Nuisance Committee launched a campaign called 'Trump is Not a Team Player' with comic artist Daniel Warren Johnson drawing Donald Trump as various Overwatch characters including Hanzo, and on October 14 the PAC bought a billboard in Orlando, Florida showing Trump at a computer with the line 'Trump mains Hanzo and complains about team comp in chat'[3]. The billboard confused enough non-players that the next day Redditor o0shad0o asked /r/OutOfTheLoop for a translation[5]. ## How to Use Call a teammate or public figure a 'Hanzo main' when they refuse to adapt, chase personal glory over objective play, or complain about team performance while contributing little. Common conventions include pairing the label with images of unkempt loner archetypes or writing first-person monologues in the voice of a smug player who blames everyone else. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Maining Hanzo? It is Overwatch community shorthand for stubbornly picking the sniper hero Hanzo Shimada in team matches despite lacking the aim to make him useful[3]. ### Where did Maining Hanzo come from? The label formed alongside Overwatch's May 24, 2016 launch, with early jokes on the 'Overwatch People' Facebook page on May 26, 2016 and a June 28, 2016 YouTube parody by FUNKe titled 'Want to Main Hanzo?'[1]. ### What does Maining Hanzo mean? It means someone who repeatedly locks in Hanzo without the mechanical skill to hit shots, ignores objective play, and often blames teammates for the loss[3]. ### How do you use Maining Hanzo? Call a teammate or public figure a 'Hanzo main' to mock refuse-to-swap behavior, ego picks, or complaining about team comp while contributing little, a usage popularized by Cards Against Humanity's October 2016 anti-Trump billboard reading 'Trump mains Hanzo and complains about team comp in chat'[3]. ### Is Maining Hanzo still popular? It is a classic 2016 Overwatch meme still referenced by veteran players and tied to that game's original community culture rather than to any current news cycle[4]. ## References 1. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh_T6nh5wM4]() 2. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overwatch_(video_game)]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/maining-hanzo]() 4. [https://www.reddit.com/r/Overwatch/]() 5. [https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/maining-hanzo Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library