League community split on LoL 2020 World Finals Opening Ceremony

As the dust settles on what was one of the most competitive LoL tournaments in recent years, let’s recap how the community reacted to the Worlds Finals Opening Ceremony.

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The League of Legends World Championships has quite the reputation for stunning CGI antics, as well as a host musical performances from some of the world’s biggest names. With bands such as Imagine Dragons and The Glitch Mob all having made their stamp on the LoL Worlds’ legacy, this year was going to be a difficult feat to pull off.

This wasn’t helped by the impact of the global health situation, which meant that fans could no longer descend in hordes the way they usually would. Without a live audience, it seems like the World Finals Opening Ceremony could be difficult to pull off.

Enter K/DA to save the day. The virtual pop group returned for their performance with Seraphine at the Finals, however, their performance was particularly divisive. Some fans were excited to see their favorite K-Pop idols retake the stage, but others were left disappointed.

Riot Games

K/DA’s performance with Seraphine left a few fans displeased.

Fans react to LoL Worlds ceremony

Several fans took to Twitter to voice their pleasure and displeasure over the Worlds show. Some fans were clearly in awe of what Riot managed to achieve despite the clear constraints that they were working under.

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The vast majority of tweets praised the beautiful CGI that introduced K/DA’s performance.

The introduction saw Akali tearing through the streets of Shanghai on a futuristic motorcycle decked out in a helmet that showed off her iconic K/DA fang design.

The praise, however, appears to end here. As K/DA took to the stage a lot of fans were disappointed by the way that they looked. Kai’sa and Seraphine’s models came under fire, with one fan describing them as looking ‘like the Sims’.

Another fan collated a collection of screenshots of the performance, showing some of the Kai’sa bot’s rather hilarious imperfections.

LoL professionals react to World Ceremony

Several of the casters on the ground, however, praised Riot’s opening ceremony. LEC icon Eefje ‘Sjokz’ Depoortere exploded with excitement seeing the 3D version of Galio that dominated the ending sequence of the opening ceremony.

Lead caster for the event, Trevor ‘Quickshot’ Henry, also commented that the World Ceremony embodied the spirit of ten years of League of Legends.

Finally, a shout out from Indiana ‘Froskurinn’ Black praised the fans for being so vibrant – something that others were concerned would be lacking.

https://twitter.com/Froskurinn/status/1322480805764075520

So was the Worlds 2020 Opening Ceremony good?

It’s important to bear in mind that, while the 2020 iteration of the tournament didn’t live up to the high expectations of its fanbase, Riot Games still managed to make magic within extreme constraints.

The impact of global health situation on the ceremony is clear, and while many of the ideas were great ones they perhaps missed the level of refinement that fans are used to.

• Read More: 4 Seraphine songs on Spotify every League fan needs to hear

However, Riot clearly did the best with that they had. While K/DA may not have impressed, fans loved the remix of iconic Worlds songs into one anthem, as well as the beautiful Chinese cover of K/DA’s ‘POP/STARS’ by Lexie Liu at the beginning of the ceremony.

At its heart, the events were still undisputedly League of Legends, and that’s what matters most.