A brand new League of Legends World Champion. Explosive “Rise” opening anthem by Bobby of iKON. The Glitch Mob. Mako and The Word Alive. K/DA comes to life in the Opening Ceremony. That’s the list of things you missed if you did not catch the League of Legends Worlds Championship 2018.
Spoiler warning: The final part of this article will reveal the winner of the Worlds Championship 2018. You have been warned!
K/DA comes to life with AR
Let’s start with the much anticipated opening: K/DA’s star studded performance. K/DA compromises of Madison Beer, Cho “Miyeon” Mi-yeon and Jeon “Soyeon” So-yeon of the group (G)I-DLE, and Jaira Burns; a collaborative group of American and K-Pop singers.
Much like last year’s Elder Dragon AR, this year Riot brought the group K/DA to life using AR during their Opening Ceremony performance of Pop/Stars. The performance was really something as we could watch the K/DA skins perform alongside their real-life counterparts. If you are a fan of K-Pop and League of Legends, this performance will not disappoint! Not only does it contain beautiful K-pop verses, it also features the amazing voice of Madison Beer and Jaira Burns; and to top it all off, it has a rap section which I enjoyed immensely.
K/DA – POP/STARS (ft. @madisonbeer, @G_I_DLE & @JairaBurns) pic.twitter.com/wLRLstYMvj
— LoL Esports (@lolesports) November 3, 2018
Of course, it doesn’t stop there. Along with the opening ceremony, Riot also dropped an Official music video and made the K/DA skins available for purchase in store. Be right back as I loop the music video for the umpteenth time while purchasing the skin bundle.
“Rise” Worlds 2018 Theme Song
RISE! Ever since Rise was released by Riot over a month ago, the music video has accumulated over 50 million views! Now we are treated with a live performance with the addition of none other than Bobby of iKON. Bobby performed a remixed version of Rise so this comes to no surprise to anyone. However, the performance is just as hyped and amazing as usual. You just can’t helped but to scream RISE each time during the chorus.
Sticking true to the name, the platform that held the players rose from two ends and moved slowly to the center of the stage during the performance, where they met up with the performers and the trophy. Commence the death stare!
Invictus Gaming wins it all
Fnatic, the Western world’s final hope, fell to Invictus Gaming in a 3-0 sweep. This is a birth of a whole new dynasty. A dynasty without the Koreans. Ever since SKT won the Season 3 Worlds Championship, a non-Korean team has never been able to knock a Korean team down from the pedestal. In 2018, it all changed. Also known as the World’s of Upsets, none of the Korean teams even made it to the semi-finals.
Instead, 2018 is the year of the Chinese Dynasty for the League Of Legends Pro League with a Chinese team winning all of the major International LoL Championships. Still, coming into the World Finals, no one expected for IG to hoist the trophy. Definitely no one expected to see such a 3-0 sweep stomp on Fnatic. Looking through the games, it seems like IG was unstoppable and was playing against an amateur team.
IG’s top laner, Kang “TheShy” Seung-lok made an example of Fnatic’s Gabriel “Bwipo” Rau by killing him over and over in Game 1. Game 2 came IG’s mid laner, Song “Rookie” Eui-Jin’s turn to dominate over the crowd’s favourite, Fnatic Rasmus “Caps” Winther, proving to the world that their favorites should absolutely be Rookie.
Game 3 had the AD carry match-up between IG’s Yu “JackeyLove” Wen-Bo and Fnatic’s veteran, Martin “Rekkles” Larson duking it out. JackeyLove proved that he can stand toe-to-toe with the veteran and crush him at his own playing field.
Let’s not forget IG’s jungler Gao “Ning” Zhen-Ning that absolutely turned on during the finals. Ning is your 2018 League Of Legends World Championship Finals MVP. His performance was beyond expectations in the three games, having gone deathless in the first two. Not only was he able to consistently gank top and get TheShy ahead very early into the game, he was also able to propel his team forward through creative early ganks.
With that, Invictus Gaming, an organization as old as the World Championship itself, hoisted their very first international trophy of their organization. GG IG!
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