The phrase was first used by the (almost) famous Heroes of Newerth caster BreakyCPK (commonly known as Breaky). It's become sort of a catchphrase for the caster from honcast, and it's very common to hear the words uttered in competitive HoN matches these days – perhaps a little more common just a few months ago. Every time the caster uses this phrase to describe the situation, the TwitchTV chat explodes with hundreds of "ლ(ಠ益ಠლ) But at what cost?" messages being sent.

Breaky is a Heroes of Newerth caster. He's been working with S2 Games (the creators of Heroes of Newerth) for nearly 2 years and did competitive HoN casting even before he got in touch with the game developers. He's been casting for other games as well, but it's almost been exclusively HoN for about 3.5 years. He's been casting at events in Thailand, Sweden and USA.

The phrase "But at what cost?" described a comeback or turnaround, where the initial fight or struggle was initially in favor for one of the two participants, but the other participant came back on top in the end. In games like Heroes of Newerth, League of Legends and Dota 2, this would apply to situations where for example a carry hero attacks another – weaker – hero for a quick kill, but the other team counterattacks and by killing the carry ends up on top. The same applies to other games and situations, but seldom literary.

The meme on the other hand is the chat messages that comes in response to the phrase commonly used on livestreams. When a person on the livestream uses the phrase to describe the situation, the chat explodes with "ლ(ಠ益ಠლ) But at what cost?" messages being sent from users aware of the meme, and willing to spam. This meme is almost exclusive to TwitchTV, but has recently been seen on Reddit, but in a rather mocking fashion.

The meme has lately spread to outside the Heroes of Newerth community, to gaming communities for games like StarCraft 2, League of Legends and World of Warcraft. The meme can be found on livestreams for these games, to both great confusion and often anger from the people unaware of the meme. The meme spread trough viewers that watch more than just Honcast on TwitchTV, and together made it appealing for others to spam the message.

The meme can be seen in action on a livestream by sodapoppin (a popular WoW livestreamer) in this image:

Sources and additional information

• Read more about Honcast on honcast.com.
• Read more about Heroes of Newerth on heroesofnewerth.com.
• Read more about Breaky on his Reddit AMAA.
• Contact Breaky on Twitter and Reddit.
• Watch Honcast on TwitchTV and YouTube.