Power Rankings: The League of Legends World Championship theme songs
Every year, Riot Games releases a song to thematically commemorate the League of Legends World Championship tournament. Usually, these songs are good enough to get the community hyped up and ready for the show.
But not always. Sometimes, they’re just downright bad. So with World 2016 looming, it’s time to break down the Top 5 World Championship tracks.
Fair warning: I’m a music snob.
5. “Ignite” – Worlds 2016
Easily the least hype of the Worlds songs so far, Zedd’s “Ignite” spends most of its time sounding like a track left off an Anamanaguchi record for not being party enough. Not 8-bit enough to qualify as chiptunes but cheesy enough to disqualify it from the serious electronica heads’ approval, it’s a simplistic and dull effort.
And then, the chorus: “win or die.” really? Those aren’t the only two options in League of Legends, my dude. This isn’t the Matrix. If you die on the Rift, you don’t die in real life. You can also /ff.
I get that Zedd is popular in the EDM scene. He’s an amazing producer and has a bunch of impressive tracks under his belt. This…just isn’t one of them. Here’s hoping 2017 will be better.
4. “Worlds Collide” – Worlds 2015
You wanna talk about bad lyrics? Hoo boy.
Try ‘Hearing voices from afar / Join the madness when the curtain falls / Risk it all, hold nothing back / Seize the day, we must attack.’
Yeesh. Was that ripped from a dream diary? Not even the most unintelligible of black metal vocalists would scratch those onto wax.
Musically, at least, “Worlds Collide” is fine. It’s got the dramatic drums right up in front, backed up by strings and horns to give it that blockbuster movie feel. It’s even got a musical break to let the anthemic chorus do its thing at the 2:58 mark. More or less, it gets the job done of being epic enough to support a big tournament.
Faker save me those lyrics, though.
3. “Silver Scrapes” – Worlds 2012
This counts, right?
The song that penetrated everyone’s skull back in 2012 became the unofficial anthem of competitive League of Legends when it was played on loop during a technical break that lasted hours. And hours. And hours.
The thing is, I’m not even sure if “Silver Scrapes” is a good song. I genuinely can’t tell. It’s so pervasive, so ingrained in pro League of Legends lore at this point that it’s impossible to separate it from the public consciousness. It’s just always there. During a best-of 5 match that looks to head into its final game, it’s lurking, ready to strike. People get stoked when those first piano notes hit the stadium’s speakers, jumping around like House of Pain just hit the stage. But is that because of the track, or the exciting League action that’s about to go down?
I have no idea, so I have no choice but to stick “Silver Scrapes” right in the middle of these power rankings.
2. “Warriors” – Worlds 2014
I’m not an Imagine Dragons fan. “Radioactive” is one of the most aggressively aggravating songs ever, and no amount of lead singers banging on big drums can change that. “Demons” is the musical embodiment of that idiot at a concert who records every song on his raised cell phone and blinds everyone behind him.
That said, “Warriors” is alright. The lyrics are pretty dumb, but they’re literal enough to elicit a cheap emotional response. And singer Dan Reynolds does his best to make it sound like he truly believes what he’s singing. The Imagine Dragons guys are League of Legends players themselves, and you can tell they actually cared about putting something cool together.
Plus, the band played it live at an opening ceremony. That’s pretty cool.
1. “Road to the Cup” – Worlds 2013
Riot’s first attempt at a custom-made World Championship theme is still the best.
Sure, it’s a bit muffled by grunts and groans as the players wielding their signature champions’ armor and weaponry strut their stuff, but it’s still one of the most hype things I’ve ever heard from the Riot Games folks. I’m admittedly a little biased because 2013 was the first Worlds I was able to attend, but I’ve been to every other major League of Legends event since, and nothing they’ve played in those stadiums compares to “Road to the Cup.”
The technical and jagged sounds while Alex Ich’s Kha’Zix is on screen, the noble horns while Cyanide is showing off his Jarvan IV, even the drunken wobbles of the horns when Scarra appears with his Gragas? It’s all excellent, and is more than deserving of the top spot.
Also, Dyrus’ dirt ‘stache.
Taylor Cocke will now quit pretending to be a music writer [Ed. note: No he won’t]. Follow him on Twitter @taylorcocke.
