In 2018, at the start of the World Championship, League of Legends released the music video RISE. MeinMMO editor Alexander Leitsch still enjoys watching the video even four years later. The reason is the wonderful staging of LoL professionals and the story that is told with the video.
What makes the video so special? It shows the rocky path of Ambition, the jungler of Samsung Galaxy in 2016 and 2017. The focus is on four LoL professionals:
- Faker, whom many see as the God of League of Legends. He has already won the World Championship three times. In the video, he represents the champion Ryze.
- Perkz, one of the best European players of that time. He is staged as Yasuo.
- Uzi, one of the strongest AD carries of all time, who has since retired due to an injury. He shoots with Silver Bolts from Vayne.
- Ambition. He fights with the weapons of Kha’Zix and later transforms to Sejuani.
All four wanted to compete for the title, but only Ambition succeeded. The road there was difficult, as he had to face all three opponents and win to reach the title.
Upon his first appearance, you can faintly hear an English shoutcaster in the background announcing SKT’s victory from 2016 – at that time, Ambition only placed second.
One highlight is the encounter between Ambition and Perkz at 0:39. It then spectacularly continues at 1:30 with the fight against Uzi. The AD carry shatters Ambition’s glasses, but he quickly retaliates. Both engage in an intense battle, from which Ambition emerges victorious.
Then it cuts to Faker. He walks in casually with a book and the SKT1 logo on his chest. Suddenly, he transforms into Ryze and simply cages his opponent. Faker emanates a special aura that he also radiates during real LoL tournaments.
The video features beautiful animations in a mix of 2D and 3D, creating an incredibly coherent world.
It is accompanied by the song RISE, which was written and produced exclusively for the video by Riot Music. It creates an incredibly epic atmosphere, making you feel that you can achieve anything. That’s why I’ve certainly listened to the song a hundred times.
In addition, it is full of Easter eggs about other players, teams, and past World Championships. Anyone deeply invested in League of Legends has a lot to discover.
With over 350 million views on YouTube, it is the second most viewed video of LoL, directly behind KDA.
5 Easter Eggs that Fascinate Me About the Video
0:06 – Here, flags from well-known teams such as Saigon Jokers, Edward Gaming, Flash Wolves, Moscow 5, Cloud9, and against All authority are shown. All are great teams that, however, did not manage to win the title. Later on, you see more of these banners.
2:12 – Here you can see the symbols of the last winners of the Worlds on the statues.
2:37 – In Faker’s book, you can see three squares marked with an “X”. This is likely a reference that Faker has always banned the three champions Garen, Gangplank, and Galio in SoloQ, simply because they were the first champions in the alphabet.
3:08 – For a brief moment, more players can be seen, including Doublelift as Jinx, sOAZ as Fiora, and an unknown player from Flash Wolves.
3:21 – At the end, you can see the fallen Uzi, who is waiting for his revenge and finally wants to become a world champion. He made it to the finals twice and additionally to the semifinals twice, but he never won the title.
The epic music, the love for the many details, the Easter eggs, and the staging of the professionals makes my heart race every time I see the video. That also characterizes Riot Games for me.
By the way, Faker was again in the finals of the Worlds in 2022. However, it didn’t go well for him: Twitch: 5.1 million watch LoL – 2022 Worlds Finals shatters viewer number records as the king falls.
