Worlds 2021 music video is full of players who didn’t even qualify

Ben Mock
Burn It All Down Riot Music Video

‘Burn It All Down’, Riot Games’ official song for Worlds 2021, has left fans confused as many of the players featured in the video will not be attending the event.

The release of the official song for the League of Legends World Championships has become an annual tradition, marking the final countdown towards one of the biggest esports events in the world. ‘Burn It All Down’, the song for Worlds 2021, was accompanied by a video featuring many of the most prominent players in League’s esports scene.

The problem, as pointed out by many fans, is that several of the players featured won’t actually be attending Worlds.

The video for ‘Burn It All Down’, performed by American band PVRIS, featured 23 professional players. However, 10 of the players who appear in the video will not be playing at Worlds 2021, which begins on October 5.

Green = Attending Worlds, Red = Missing Worlds

LCK LPL LEC LCS CBLOL
Faker – T1 JackeyLove – TES Rekkles – G2 Blaber – C9 brTT -paIN Gaming
ShowMaker – DWG KIA Lwx – FPX Wunder – G2 PowerOfEvil – TSM fNb – Vorax
BeryL – DWG KIA Doinb – FPX Carzzy – MAD
Canyon – DWG KIA TheShy – iG Armut – MAD
Chovy – HLE Rookie – iG Hans same – Rogue
Pyosik – DRX Bin – Suning
GALA – RNG
Viper – EDG

So why does ‘Burn It All Down’ feature so many players who failed to qualify for Worlds?

According to PVRIS, who commented on the ‘Burn It All Down’ video, work on the three-and-a-half-minute animated feature began eight months ago.

This would put the start of production in February, meaning that Riot likely had to make predictions of which teams would feature at Worlds.

Big surprises in Worlds qualifying

G2 summer 2021
Very few people imagined that G2 would miss Worlds

2021 has been an unpredictable year for professional League of Legends, which also helps explain the missing players. Only four of the eight LPL players in the video are attending Worlds because none of the LPL teams from Worlds 2020 qualified for this year’s event.

TSM and G2’s failure to qualify was a substantial shock, as was the rise of Brazil’s RED Canids, whose miracle run in the CBLOL Summer playoffs was a surprise to most.

The scope of the video must also be considered. When 23 professional players are included, the likelihood is that some won’t make it Worlds. The eight LPL players in the video are scattered across six teams, meaning that two of those teams wouldn’t make it to Worlds.

‘Burn It All Down’ is a song about defying the history of Worlds, and this has been reflected in how many of the teams that have helped write that history are not in attendance at Worlds 2021.