(This is just a fun post because I have too much free-time on my hands. Don’t take it too seriously or read too much into it.)

Since 2019, when the Worlds song Pheonix came out and FPX then won worlds, I’ve always been seeking parallels between the Worlds storylines and the name or the lyrics of the worlds song and funnily enough, I think you make very nice narrative connections between most modern worlds songs and the worlds storylines of the same year.

Starting with 2018, Rise. Some of the lines in this song are “push through hell and RISE!” or “Make them remember you!” 2018 was the year China won their first ever worlds title and thinking about what the LPL had gone through in the years prior to 2018 really makes these lines hit hard. You could say the LPL had literally gone through hell and was at this point basically a meme to the community because everyone thought that Korea would win in the end anyway. So lines like “Make them remember you” or “push through hell” really fit that narrative of IG being the team that made people respect and remember the LPL as the strong teams they actually are.

In 2019 its obvious, the Name of the song being Pheonix and the team that wins the tournament being Funplus Pheonix and the lines in the song saying “Fly fly, Pheonix fly!” and the way FPX first struggled to get out of group, but then rose to the occassion in Quarters and Semis like a Pheonix from the Ashes.

In 2020 the Song was Take over. The lyrics of the song were about taking over, starting something new, pushing the recent worlds storys aside and writing a new story with new players. The SKT dynasty was long gone, SSG the last korean World champs had a terrible season in Korea and the powerhouses from Korea were Nuguri, Showmaker and Canyon, starting something like a new era of the LCK with new players that weren’t as accomplished as Ruler, Deft, Faker or any of the other old stars and a completely different playstyle than we had ever seen another LCK team play. I think this also fits very well with the narrative of this whole worlds. People were once again expecting China to win just like the 2 years prior and JDG and TES were expected to gap every other team at the tournament, but then DWG came and took over and secured Korea’s 5th worlds title.

In 2021 the Song was “Burn it all down” and I think with this song its a bit more of a stretch to make concrete connections between the song and the story of EDG, because it seems like the Songs message could just be applied to each and every team the could’ve won worlds that year. So this is kind of the only year where I feel like there isn’t a strong narrative connection between the song and the winning team. They were just burning it all down I guess.

In 2022 however, I once again think there is a great story to be explored there. I mean the story of DRX is obviously really exciting on its own, but the title of the worlds song that year is “Star walking” and I think there isn’t a much better way to describe the kind of overperformance this DRX roster had, than “they were just walking on the stars”. You could also interpret the song title in two ways: 1. They were symbolically walking on the stars, because of their amazing cinderella story or 2. They were literally walking on the stars… The Star-players they defeated along the way. Knight, Viper, Scout, Chovy, Ruler, Peanut, Faker, Keria, Guma etc…
Also the lyrics of the song also really describe the way how DRX in hindsight kind of felt inevitable even though they were down inside of a series so many times: “Don’t ever say it’s over if I’m breathing!” They were 0-1 down in every single BO5 they played in knock-outs and even reverse swept EDG after a crazy comeback in Game 3. They were literally the embodiment of every Shounen Anime protagonist ever.
" I’m headed to the stars, ready to go far!" this line is self-explanatory.
" They said I wouldn’t make it out alive!" Everyone doubted them from the very start, even in play-ins people thought they would possibly drop out right then and there.
I think it’s crazy that this song about someone never giving up and persevering through it all, was made for the exact year in which this exact storyline actually happenend. I gotta mention as well that this whole song could also just be applied to Deft and his struggle of a career and how he never gave and always pushed through to finally walk on the stars at the very end.

Now in this years worlds, the title of the song is obviously “GODS” and at the start of the tournament everyone was (some as a joke and some not so much) saying that this song was written for Adam and his championpool (Garen; Olaf; Darius; Sett) spelling out the songs title. And altough that obviously was a funny coincidence and made for a great meme, it isn’t a very strong narrative in the end and it also doesn’t really correlate with the songs lyrics. There is however one team in the worlds finals whose story really fits the story of this song, both in title and in lyrics and this team is T1. The funny thing is, that the video to the song, telling the story of Deft and DRX doesn’t really fit all the well with the songs lyrics, since Deft never was the “God” of his story, on the contrary he was the Hero, the Godslayer defeating all these obstacles in his way to finally defeat the God of League of Legends as the last hurdle in Faker. And Weibo is kind of in the same position as DRX last year, taking the place of the Underdogs that unexpectedly made it to finals and now are trying to kill the Gods, T1. Meanwhile I think the image of T1 as the gods really makes a lot of sense based on the way this tournament went. Faker is playing at his peak level, Zeus literally has the name of the God of Thunder, Keria shifts the Meta as he pleases, playing what he wants and how he wants, almost like a God that shapes and shifts the realm to his liking. T1 embody the image of Gods so perfectly that it’s almost ridiculous especially because of Faker, whose best and most iconic champion this tournament is literally a Shuriman God-like figure in Azir.
Also the lyrics of the song fit really well within T1’s story:
“Once you play god, once you play god, they’re gonna crumble one by one” this basically implies that T1 has not been able to be the Gods that they were supposed to be, describing their winless journey for the whole of 2023 and not being able to live up to the expectations, but now that have finally activated their Godmode, now that they finally “play god” and became what they really were all along, everyone is just crumbling before them. (Also really good analogy to how their opponents in quarters and semis seemed to underperform, which can also be called “crumbling”).
“And they’re singin’ your praises la-la-la”; " Screamin’ your name out la-la-loud" This literally doesn’t fit anyone better than Faker, the icon of the game. And especially after his game-winning clutch during semifinals.
“One more step your immortal now” also really fits for Faker and also the rest of the T1, because the one thing that they have been lacking for the past 2 years is an international title, which they definitely should’ve won with this roster. Now they are one step away from truly writing their names into the history of League and making themselves immortal.
“Everybody droppin’ like rainfall” could refer to the other LCK teams being eliminated in Quarters by the LPL.
“This is your moment” as soon as T1 realizes the whole of LCK relies on them to defeat the entirety of the LPL.
“I think church just opened” describes how everyone started believing in T1 after they swept LNG in quarters and even more so after they defeated JDG in semis.
“I can’t lose myself again, help me raise this heart” perfectly encapsulates T1s struggle with their own nerves and mental during previous finals.
“Next on the ladder” symbolizes the LPL gauntlet T1 had to run to get to finals. They played in order of expected power against the LPL teams, first BLG the expected 3rd best team, then they played LNG the expected 2nd best team and then they played against JDG the best team.

I think if T1 win this years wolds, this would literally be the perfect song for these worlds. It blows my mind how many similarities there are between the lyrics and T1s worlds run.

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So what do you think? Do you agree? Do you disagree with any of my interprations? Do you think I’m an idiot with too much time (because I definitely am)?