LoL Worlds 2021 Opening Ceremony Review

The 2021 World Championship Finals kicked off with a unique opening ceremony. What made it so different from previous years and how did it turn out?

Enemy Imagine Dragons
Enemy also got played at the 2021 World Championship opening ceremony. | © Riot Games

The 2021 World Championship Finals started off with an insane opening ceremony featuring a massive cast of artists, showing off the world of Runeterra perfectly. Integrating Zaun and Piltover characters have made this a unique and interesting ceremony.

In previous years, artists stomped the stage in front of a crowd of fans, but this year Riot shook up the ceremony. Since the 2021 World Championship finals is not in front of a live audience the whole ceremony took place in Runeterra. How did Riot pull this off?

Vi and Jinx Kick Off the ceremony

The show started off with Vi and Jinx as children. Jinx tinkers with some toys, building them, while Vi tries to console her. Could this be a scene from the upcoming show Arcane? Maybe. The first artist was Bea Miller, showing off the Zaunite underground.

Her song Playground fits perfectly and is going to be featured on the soundtrack of Arcane. Throughout the song, we got to see the hustle and bustle of Zaun, which makes us even more excited for the series.

Imagine Dragons Make a Worlds Comeback

In 2014, Imagine Dragons hit song Warriors was the World’s theme. Imagine Dragons featured in the opening ceremony. Seven years later they came back once more, playing their new hit song Enemy, featuring JID.

Throughout this portion of the ceremony, we find out more about the struggle between Jinx and Vi, which will probably take center stage throughout Arcane. Jinx battles her inner demons and her mental illness, but what is the cause?

PVRIS in Piltover

PVRIS finished off the show. With the intro to the 2021 Worlds song starting, the surrounding city of Zaun transformed into Piltover and we got transported to the upper city, with PVRIS taking center stage, showing off the song Burn it All Down.

Then we see the Incognium, and are transported to Iceland, where the two competing teams are standing, ready to go head-to-head. The Incognium is also on the middle of the stage, the Summoner’s Cup in the middle.

Thoughts on the Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony was insanely well done. SInce there is no live audience, doing it in this style, and pushing the upcoming Netflix series one last time worked really well. The music combinations was great and the animations were smooth and well done.

Overall, this was an insanely well cone opening ceremony and fans got excited for both the show and the finals of the 2021 World Championship.

Sabrina Ahn

Sabrina Ahn is the League of Legends and Riftfeed Lead. During her time at Concordia University in 2014 she fell in love with LoL and is playing it since – how she hasn't lost her sanity is still unclear....