The 2019 League of Legends World Championship finals kicked off in memorable fashion.
The live event began with an extended musical performance that included Cailin Russo and Chrissy Costanza performing the World 2019 theme Phoenix, as well as Awaken singer Valerie Broussard.
Most notably, League’s new virtual band, True Damage, made its official debut with a rendition of debut single Giants. The song featured a mix of hip hop and R&B influences. Though it didn’t feature the augmented reality trimmings that the Worlds 2018 opening ceremony did, it still had some cool visual effects of its own that were generated through the use of holograms.
Alongside the opening ceremony, the official music video for Giants dropped on the official League of Legends YouTube channel.
True Damage was labeled as the “sequel” to the wildly popular K/DA in press releases by Riot Games.
The real-life band includes SOYEON of (G)I-DLE, who provided the vocals for Akali in K/DA and reprised the character with True Damage. Also included are DUCKWRTH, Thutmose, Becky G, and Keke Palmer. They play the parts of Ekko, Yasuo, Qiyana, and Senna.
Despite bringing over a familiar face, True Damage features a very different sound from that of K/DA. While K/DA has its roots in K-pop girl groups, True Damage is predominantly hip hop-oriented. That said, the band still has the same roots and inspirations as K/DA.
K/DA was initially imagined as the League of Legends equivalent of Gorillaz, a British virtual band that drew inspiration from almost every genre of music. Though the group has a memorable sound, it is arguably best known for its animated band members and over-the-top music videos.
Though League of Legends’ musical acts have generally done very well over the years, K/DA was the most popular by a considerable margin. The song has over 279 million views on YouTube as of this writing, far more than almost anything else on the official League of Legends channel. Riot Games is undoubtedly hoping that this approach will lead to similarly huge success.
In addition to the reveal of the band, all five champions will receive in-game skins inspired by True Damage. Qiyana will also receive a Prestige skin on the same day, while Senna will receive hers in early 2020.
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