Story Behind League of Legends' Game 5 Anthem Silver Scrapes
Game 5 is on the line and Twitch chat goes “bee woo woo…”
Anybody that has been following the professional scene of League of Legends can tell you how hyped up the fifth game in a best-of-five series can be. Well, this is not technically just about witnessing another nail-biter but it has to do with League of Legends’ accidental anthem - Silver Scrapes. It is a bit of an inside joke in League of Legends esports and is officially the “Game 5” song of the scene.
If you watched the League of Legends European Championship playoffs series between Team Vitality and Excel Esports on 27th March or the League of Legends Champions Korea playoff match between Gen.G and Damwon Kia, you must have heard Silver Scrapes play in between the fourth and fifth games. It has become so iconic that the community calls it League of Legends’ Anthem sometimes.
How was Silver Scrapes born?
In 2012, when the League of Legends competitive scene was still growing and evolving, the World Championship was hosted in Los Angeles, California. Riot Games was still in its infancy stage and the live production and the broadcasts were not top-notch at that point.
There were times when Riot took hours together to fix “Technical Difficulties” and during Worlds Season 2, there was nearly a two-hour technical break. Little did the audience know that they would witness a simple EDM song go on to represent League of Legends esports. They heard the same song play over and again on loop while a static screen displayed the “League of Legends Worlds Championship” card. By the end of what might have been a never-ending two-hour loop, Silver Scrapes was etched on the minds of the fans.
Riot Games wrote, “Whenever the production team faced difficulties, they would take large breaks to attempt to resolve the issues. When this happened, they would temporarily display a static stream to the online audience and have Silver Scrapes play in the background. However, these breaks lasted for hours and were very often.”
It added that Silver Scrapes was replayed so much that the community really started vibing to it for its heavy dubstep drops. “Season 2 World Championships lead the frontiers of Esports expansion at the time and Silver Scrapes had evolved to be its anthem. As a tribute, whenever a Best of 5 series reaches the last game, Silver Scrapes is played to commemorate how far Esports has come and celebrate the hype for the final game!” stated Riot.
Silver Scrapes was a track made by composer Danny McCarthy and was purchased by Riot Games for broadcast use. In 2012, Riot even made a small feature on the composer to give the fans an insight into League’s anthem.