How music has amplified League of Legends esports, featuring an interview with Chrissy Costanza
By Cecilia Ciocchetti || Esports Insider
For over a decade, the League of Legends World Championship Grand Final has featured an elaborate Opening Ceremony, complete with musical renditions and a performance of its yearly anthem.
Although its purpose is to hype up audiences for League of Legendsâ final international match of the season, the ceremony has become one of the gameâs most anticipated moments of the esports calendar.
American artist and lead singer of Against the Current, Chrissy Costanza, has played an integral part in League of Legendsâ relationship between esports and music. Notably, Costanza has stepped onto the Worlds stage more than any other singer across League of Legendsâ esports history, first in 2017 (Legends Never Die), 2019 (Phoenix), and recently in 2025.
âI think music has really brought League of Legends and LoL Esports to a global stage,â the singer said in an interview with Esports Insider just a few hours before her third appearance on the Worlds 2025 stage.
Since 2022, Esports Charts data shows that peak viewership for Worlds opening ceremonies has steadily grown roughly 20% per year. In 2025, it reached nearly half the total audience of the finals.
Artist choices, host regions, and the finalist teams influence these numbers, but the ceremony has clearly extended beyond the core competitive crowd.
Music as a Connecting Medium
Fans in the audience at the Worlds 2025 Finals. Photo by Yicun Liu/Riot Games
Every year, Worlds arrives in new hosting cities, and the entire event reshapes itself around that region. Costanza too pointed out that the show reflects the identity of the place it lands in, making every year and every Opening Ceremony feel âunique.â
However, extending this localisation to the artist selection for Worlds is a relatively recent pathway that Riot decided to pursue. Starting in 2022, Riot Games increasingly sought performers who would embody songs âfor the region, by the regionâ.
Costanza recalled how thrilled she felt to see NewJeans appear in Korea in 2023, and to work alongside G.E.M. this year in China reinforced that sentiment. Noting that League of Legendsâ global influence draws talent that sell out arenas on their own, Costanza said that working with local icons for the ceremony gives fans something familiar while introducing global audiences to performers they might not have encountered otherwise.
âI have friends in my life that knew Legends Never Die, but that didnât know anything about League of Legends, that found League of Legends because of the song,â she said.
This effect traces all the way back to the beginning of Riot Gamesâ push into music. For the 2014 World Championship, Imagine Dragons launched the now iconic song âWarriorsâ. Fans who loved the band likely followed the music back to League of Legends, and this pattern has since repeated year after year as Riot continues to work with well-known artists.
That strategy has grown more intentional recently. By choosing regional yet globally recognisable performers, Riot Games has made it easier for audiences to understand the purpose of each anthem and, in turn, discover League of Legends esports. Stories told through songs like âSTARWALKIN,â âGODSâ and âHeavy is the Crownâ create entry points for people who had no previous connection to the game.
âA lot of people just think of [Heavy is the Crown] as a massive Linkin Park song, but then they kind of dig deeper and are like âoh, this was a part of something. What was this a part of?â And now all of a sudden youâre in this bigger ecosystem. So itâs cool. I love how music can just be the soundtrack to literally any experience of life,â said Costanza.
The Opening Ceremony heightens that impact by tying each song to competition, history, and the lore that players already carry with them. Through local artists, strong emotional storytelling, and performances that can rival international sports events, the Worlds Opening Ceremony has become one of the most powerful tools for new fans to step into LoL Esports.
Sacrifices for Worlds
Chrissy Costanza at League of Legends Worlds 2025 Finals Opening Ceremony . Photo by Yicun Liu/Riot Games
This yearâs anthem, âSacrifice,â set the tone for Worlds by honouring the fifteenth anniversary of League of Legends esports. The song highlights what pro players are willing to renounce for their passion â but theyâre not the only ones who have given up something.
The industry has grown on the backs of people who loved esports enough to work for it through long hours, constant travel, and an ever-changing schedule â a sacrifice that music artists also endure.
âIâve struggled a lot, but I think sacrifices are important,â highlighted Costanza.
âAnd I think the players, [âŚ] all the rioters here who work on these events on the ground have similar experiences. And musicians⌠we give up time at home. We give up time with our loved ones. Iâve missed more birthdays, [âŚ] big moments, more than I could count, to be at events like this.
âTo go on tour. To be recording. So I think one of the biggest sacrifices you give up is that when youâre here you canât be anywhere else. And often we donât want to be anywhere else, but weâre away from our pets and our loved ones and our families and our friends. And so I think that is tough.â
She shared that the travel takes its own mental toll, and she often catches herself longing for a quiet night at home in her own bed. Yet she always reaches the same conclusion. The experience is worth it, and that feeling is why she keeps returning, fully aware of what it costs.
Legends Never Die
Chrissy Costanza with Alex Seaver of Mako, writer and producer of âLegends Never Die,â at the 2017 World Championship Finals. Image via Riot Games.
Those sacrifices also frame how much Legends Never Die transformed her life. For Costanza, that collaboration in 2017 marked a turning point she never saw coming. âI could not have thought of something that good,â she said.
Costanza then explained that she still feels âstunnedâ by how far the song reached and how deeply it changed her career.
What made the success even more meaningful was that it came through a game she had loved for years. She had already built friendships through late-night matches and had connected with the community long before stepping into the recording booth. Sharing such a moment with something she cared about so personally created the kind of joy she said she could not have imagined before.
With previous anthems featuring industry giants like Imagine Dragons and Zedd, Costanza assumed âLegends Never Dieâ would be âlimitedâ by them being Against the Current, still a rising band at the time. She had no idea the song would become one of the most enduring anthems in Worlds history. The performance shifted everything for her, blending professional achievement with personal love for the game in a way that still shapes her career today.
âThat moment shaped everything for me,â she said.
Just a few hours after this interview, Costanza stepped onto the Worlds stage singing a medley of âWarriors,â âPhoenix,â and âLegends Never Die,â to open the 2025 Worlds Finals.
T1 stood behind her once again as the reigning champion, but unlike her first time in 2017, this year the organisation claimed the trophy and a historic three-peat.
As League of Legends and its esports scene continue to grow, more artists approach the Riot Games Music department to initiate collaborations.
In many ways, the current popularity of LoL Esportsâ opening ceremonies feels like the natural conclusion to a journey that began before the Worldsâ anthems. Riotâs earliest musical projects â champion themes and in-game tracks â were part of making League of Legends. However, Riotâs first musical gamble came in 2013 with âGet Jinxed,â a fully animated music video created to introduce Jinx as a new champion.
The songâs success pushed Riot to take an even bolder step the following year by producing an original anthem made specifically for its esport. That risk â the 2014 Worlds song âWarriorsâ â reshaped expectations of what esport music could be, and it set the foundation for Riot Games Music to expand across virtual bands and even productions like âArcaneâ.
Yet despite todayâs broad musical universe, the Worldsâ Opening Ceremony remains Riot Gamesâ flagship musical project. Itâs the moment where its musical ambitions, esports legacy, and emotional storytelling converge, celebrating everything League of Legends represents right before a new World Champion is crowned.
Source: league-of-legends-esports-music-chrissy-costanza-interview
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