Sept. 10 and 11 marked the 10-year anniversary of Siege of Orgrimmar’s release for World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria. The expansion finished with the addition of Patch 5.4, with its story coming to an end, but little did players know that one of the cinematics in the latest set of the expansion featured a secret message.
Terran Gregory, Cinematic Narrative Director at WoW, revealed on Sept. 10 on Twitter the exploding boards behind Garrosh Hellscream in the entry cinematic of Siege of Orgrimmar spelled “KEK” for precisely one frame. It’s uncertain whether players have never realized it before, and it was Gregory who broke it down to us after 10 full years. Nevertheless, it’s a smart and hilarious nod to the players.
Gamers, especially those who played WoW, should know the definition of “KEK”. While on social media people use short terms like “LOL” to express laughter, gamers use “KEK,” especially in WoW. In Blizzard Entertainment’s game, if a Horde player writes “LOL” in chat to an Alliance player, the latter will read it as “KEK” due to in-game language differences.
In the cinematic, Garrosh prepares to lead “True Horde” to total victory. Taran Zhu, the leader of Shado-Pan, tries to stop him, but after a fierce fight, he is defeated, and Garrosh returns to Orgrimmar to face the combined forces of the Rebellious Horde and Alliance.
Siege of Orgrimmar marked the end of Mists of Pandaria, with the Alliance and Horde defeating Garrosh and sending him to stand trial in Pandaria. Vol’Jin was elected the new Horde Warchief, and the peace was seemingly finally upon Azeroth.
Everyone who has played the expansion and the following Warlords of Draenor knows it wasn’t the end of Garrosh’s story though. It turned out that the Warrior orc had some more KEKs to say before being ultimately defeated.
