W3 R L33T!!

Th3 P30pl3 0f Th15 Gr0up 15 L33T!!
W3 Sp3ak:
1337
L1Ght L33T
Simpl3 L33t
0r 4nyTh1ng L33T!~!
1 Sp3aK : L1Ght L33T

k3y 0f 1337:
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz=
48(d3f9h!jk1mn0pqr57uvwxy2

K3y 0f L1Ght L33T:
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz=
4bcd3fgh1jklmn0pqr5tuvwxyz

K3y of Simpl3 L33T:
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz=
abcd3fghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

Wh4t 1s L33T???--
As the Internet was coming into its own, during the early 1980s, hackers that didn't want their websites, newsgroups, etc, to be picked up in a simple keyword search began using numbers to replace certain letters (mostly vowels) such as A = 4 or E = 3.

At this point, l33t speak was only known to a select few and only used when necessary. However, in 1994, id Software began to add Internet connectivity to Doom and Doom II, leading to a revolution in PC gaming and also to the rise of l33t speak.

As with any type of competition, 'smack' talk became prevalent in online gaming. Phrases such as 'I am elite' became common place, and somewhere down the line l33t speak crept in, reforming the phrase into '1 4m 3l1t3' in order to demonstrate that the speaker was a hacker and someone to be feared. It was further exaggerated by purposeful bad spelling and eventually wound up as something like this, '1 4m 3l33t!' and simplified to, '1 4m 133t'. Hence the name 'l33t speak'.

l33t speak was still relatively unknown to the Internet masses at this point. It had almost disappeared from gaming entirely. However, a very popular web comic called Megatokyo brought l33t speak into mainstream with its infamous speak l33t? comic. These days l33t speak is very well known to the hardcore Internet community (especially gamers).

As you've already seen, basic l33t is just replacing vowels with numbers:

A = 4
E = 3
I = 1
O = 0


Sp34K L33T 3v3n 1f U d0nt kn0w h0W!!!![www.l33t.com]
313V4T3D G4M1NG N3TW0RK[elevatedgamers.com]
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