LoL Worlds 2023 Reflections
As the 2023 League of Legends season comes to an end, I want to take a moment to reflect on the 12th annual League of Legends World Championship. The World Championship serves as a pinnacle eSports event across the entire world of gaming, and this one may have just been my favorite one yet. Here’s why:
The World’s Anthem
The World’s Anthem has always been one of my favorite touches of the whole event; this year was no exception. The combination of an extremely fitting and well done New Jeans song with yet another cinematic masterpiece produced by Riot Games makes for what I believe to be the best mix of song and video we have ever seen from a LoL World’s Anthem.
With animation depicting Deft’s career both in game and real life, the music video does a phenomenal job telling the story of Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu. The cinematic visualizes Deft’s many World’s defeats alongside teammates such as legendary support player EDG Meiko in their 2015 defeat to Fnatic, as well as former teammates DRX Doran and DRX Keria in their 2020 defeat to DAMWON Gaming. Riot does a great job of emphasizing the emotion within these defeats.
Keria sacrifices his life for Deft, resulting in pure rage. However, despite his anguish, Deft is unable to avenge his teammate, leading him to fall into something I would consider akin to the “sunken place” in Jordan Peele’s Get Out.
Crying at the bottom of the sunken place, Deft is at the lowest point in his career. However, even after six World’s defeats, Deft refuses to give up. He’s picked up for yet another attempt at World’s as part of DragonX. And in Deft’s 7th appearance at a World Championship, he defeats former teammate Meiko and reigning world champions Edward Gaming in the quarterfinals, LCK superteam Generation Gaming and former teammate Doran in the semifinals, as well as the undisputed GOAT of League of Legends, T1 Faker, alongside former teammate Keria in the finals. Deft completes the Cinderella story and achieves his life long goal of becoming a World Champion. This poetic story combined with beautiful animation is a true stroke of genuis by Riot Games.
Epic Quotes
“All roads lead to me”
Ruler was right—their road did seem inevitable. From the moment JD Gaming was formed and throughout the whole year, it seemed JDG was the clear favorites to win worlds, and maybe even the greatest team to ever be formed. Their roster consisted of 369, arguably the best top laner in the world. Kanavi, widely considered the best jungler in the world. Knight, an established world class, elite tier mid laner. Ruler, best ADC in the world, and in my opinion the greatest ADC of all time. And Missing, the support prodigy with incredible intuition and mechanical talent. The team won both the LPL Spring and Summer playoffs, a feat that had not been achieved since 2018, and dominated the Mid-Season Invitational, not losing a single best of five all year long. They were just two series away from being the first ever team to complete the Golden Road. Who could stop them?
None other than the G.O.A.T. himself, T1 Faker.
For many years now, Riot has built up Faker to be the final boss at each World Championship. Despite Faker no longer being the unstoppable force he was in his prime, this is a narrative I have particularly enjoyed, due to his unparalleled legendary status on a global level. This, along with the added context of Ruler being the first player to hand Faker a defeat in the World Finals in 2017, makes this one of the coolest quotes in eSports history, perfectly hyping up what was sure to be a banger series between T1 and JDG.
“And they like those odds!”
In a year that was dominated by the likes of JDG and BLG, it felt like this was the year of the LPL. But T1 had something to say about that. They defeated LPL 2 seed BLG 2-0 to qualify to the knockout stage. Then, being the only LCK team left in the tournament, defeated LPL 3 seed LNG 3-0 to move onto the semifinals. And then they hand LPL 1 seed JDG their first best of five loss of all of 2023, defeating them 3-1 to move onto finals, where they went on to defeat LPL 4 seed 3-0 to become World Champions.
The hype in the arena following an insane best of five series, paired with an incredible story, and even better words to wrap it all up, is enough to give me chills time and time again. Simply put, this is one of the best calls I have ever witnessed in any sport from Daniel “Drakos” Drakos.
Faker Cements His Legacy
Faker winning his fourth World Championship means he adds perhaps the final achievement to his resume: winning it all, even when you’re past your prime—a true sign of a G.O.A.T.
Whether it’s Tom Brady winning a Super Bowl at 43-years-old, LeBron James winning an NBA championship at 35-years-old, or Novak Djokovic winning 3 out of four Grand Slams at 36-years-old, proving you’re the best even after your prime has always been one of my favorite accomplishments to witness. It voids many anti-GOAT narratives such as benefitting from a weak era, or only having situational success. This championship ensures that Faker will be considered the undisputed greatest League of Legends player for many years to come.
Form is temporary. Class is permanent.
Conclusion
Worlds 2023, barring a lackluster finals, was a perfect event. From a brilliant World’s Anthem, thrilling story lines, and a remarkable finish, this World’s has been one of the most memorable ones yet. Even smaller aspects such as the successful implementation of a new format, and interesting meta evolution throughout the tournament made the event highly entertaining. Overall, I would consider this to be my favorite Worlds yet.