Doesn't matter how good your meme is. It matters if you're Raydog.

It's true that well-known users have a lot more views on their memes, and that gives them an advantage from the start. Also, I think there are some users who give them automatic upvotes regardless of meme quality, which is sad (but there's nothing we can do about that).

But, despite the clear advantages well-known users have, there are memes on the front page from unknown users all the time. So it can happen. In fact, I think it would be unusual to have a time where the front page has memes only by well-known users. I always see memes by unknown users there.