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Rank the Worlds Songs

Yordle Xayah·9/28/2018, 3:12:05 AM·5 votes·15,170 views

This is just my personal ranking and opinions:

1.- Legends Never Die https://youtu.be/4Q46xYqUwZQ This is a track that understands the flow of music really well. It's varied in its use of dynamics and arrangement. It prioritizes melody above everything else. Chrissy's voice is both soft and powerful. It creates amazing tension leading up to the chorus, and the release is really powerful. The arrangement itself understands very well when to use each element, from the synth sounds to the orchestral portions, everything is composed in a really beautiful way. It also for some reason has the power to take me right back to 2017 and that particular moment in time. Not many songs/pieces can do that for me. Really an amazing track.

2.- Warriors https://youtu.be/fmI_Ndrxy14 The first real Worlds track will probably be the favorite for many people, and to me it's really close. I love how the song plays with its harmony, changing the chord progression used in both the verse and chorus, giving each repetition a completely new feel despite them using very simple yet effective melodies. It also has a guitar solo, a quality that not many rock songs consider these days. This is an example of how much you can do with very simple yet effective composition. It's a shame that Imagine Dragons don't perform it Live more often.

3.- Worlds Collide https://youtu.be/4Twd965VzX4 This is a very grand track. It mostly uses orchestral and electronic sounds, more than your traditional rock band sounds. It works really well, and I was always sad that unlike every other Worlds song so far, this one has never been performed in its original form Live. It uses long heavy notes for its chorus that just work wonders to convey a sense of grandness. It's the most "Riot" song of the bunch, and I think this single identity is great for the composition. It just feels really close and similar to the amazing Worlds theme and the 2016 login screen (which should be turned into the official MSI theme if you asked me) but thanks to Nicki's vocals, it stands on its own.

4.- Rise https://youtu.be/fB8TyLTD7EE This track doesn't really do much for me. I appreciate that it uses a traditional structure as far as verse and chorus is concerned, but I don't enjoy the arrangement or instrumentation very much. Reminds me so much of 90's boy bands such as NSYNC, and it isn't necessarily a bad thing, but at times it feels way too overloaded with electronic sounds, and the voices themselves sound heavily processed, and I don't enjoy that too much usually. There's no instrumental or solo section to let the song breath, so it just feels extremely basic and on top of that, the chorus is really flat and not very exciting. I watched the video and while the animation was beyond amazing, the track itself I don't really care too much for it. You'll never get a track like this to shine Live as much as LND or Warriors would, simply because how they're composed and arranged.

5.- Ignite https://youtu.be/Zasx9hjo4WY I have a problem with this track. It has a clear identity and I know what it's trying to do. It even has some really nice moments, but I don't think it handles its tension/release aspects very well. It improves with the FInals Remix Riot did, and it actually drove it closer to Worlds Collide, but even though the song creates nice tension with the "Win or die" buildup, the resolution of that tension is really bad, making the song feel extremely flat. I feel it's a half-composed song, which is weird to say, but I feel it needed a bit more time in the oven to really be something amazing.

Closing thoughts: For this kind of thing, I fell I'll always prefer songs more in the vain of LND and Warriors which accentuate the qualities of the guest bands. Worlds Collide is another style I'll take any day, because it's a very League-Riot esque track with a lovely flair provided by the guest singer. Rise and Ignite for me (It's just my opinion, you're allowed to have your own) just feel rather generic and don't really elevate Worlds as much as the other tracks. I'll take Pentakill's DFG and Tear of the Goddess any day over Rise or Ignite.

What is your list? [slayer-jinx-wink]

12 Comments

Camille Ferrøs9/28/2018, 12:06:17 PM3 votes

We both have the same opinion

Squiidy3/20/2019, 4:33:20 AM2 votes

I have 2 rankings: Based on Audio ONLY - 1. Legends Never Die 2. Ignite 3.Warrior 4. Rise 5. Worlds Collide

Based on Combo (more based on animation/cinematography) - 1. Rise 2. Ignite 3. Warrior 4. Legends Never Die 5. Worlds Collide

as you can tell i hate world collide and I may be the only one who really liked ignite.

Edit: I think the music really matches the feeling of using nostalgia to inspire excitement by how a lot of the "sounds" used are reminiscent of retro, old-skool video games.

Sonasaurous9/28/2018, 5:32:16 PM2 votes

I don't think it's fair to do a numerical ranking, because that suggests that one is objectively better than the other(s). Instead, I prefer an onomatopoeia-with-visuals ranking:

YEAH! [slayer-pantheon-thumbs] Tied between Legends Never Die and Warriors. Warriors is objectively the better hype/fight song, but Legends Never Die (which boasts the BEST Worlds music video) is just SO GOOD (I also love the Alan Walker remix). Both of these are just generally good songs.

Mmmkay [sg-ahri-2] RISE. It has a nice composition, I'll give it that. It's not top tier, but it's not bad either (just new, and like all new songs, everyone compares it to the previous best of the best). That said, it's like a B- version of Warriors.

Meh...[slayer-jinx-unamused] Worlds Collide. It's obvious they tried to out hype Warriors...and it sounds like a tryhard wreck. There's also no real video for this song, which is disappointing. However, Nicki Taylor has nice vocals (and it was nice to see Riot reach out to work with a fan creator for this). Unfortunately, the lyrical composition is just bad. It's bland, monotonous, repetitive...you know, boring.

Ugh. [sg-janna] [sg-lux-2] [sg-zephyr] Ignite. I was SO HYPED when I saw Riot was collabing with Zedd, because I LOVE Zedd. And then they made this garbage. [sg-ahri-1] Definitely not his best work. The animation is good, though. Too bad the video and the song seem mostly separate from each other.

TBH, I'm waiting for Riot to make use of Pentakill and have THEM sing the Worlds anthem one year.

Gόld11/3/2018, 5:11:30 PM1 votes

Warriors then a million space then the others

Jarring9/28/2018, 5:36:17 AM1 votes

actually just watching the Rise video just now made me want to come here and ask if that was really a whip i just saw the guy use in the video??

I remember awhile back i was kind of underwhelmed with the lack of diversity of unique weapons in LoL.. and one of the obvious ones i mentioned was a whip..

also a cat-o-nine tails/holy water sprinkler cuz they are awesome

the holy water sprinkler just got its name because it would cause people to bleed out from holes. so really it just means any mace with spikes the cat just distinguishes itself from the sprinkler cuz it has claws where the sprinkler has spikes ..cool af imo.

i'm just happy to see a whip though.

ThatWindyBoy7/2/2019, 12:54:09 PM1 votes
  1. Warriors
  2. Rise
  3. Legends Never Die
  4. Worlds Collide
  5. ignite
ApollyonBainer9/28/2018, 7:23:12 PM1 votes

Id put ignite 3rd. Idk you may not have liked the buildup or the tension or whatever, but I think the thing about an edm artist liek Zedd (or any other edm artist) is that theres a lot of background sounds that are supposed to accompany the melody that a lot of people dont notice. Let me put it this way, they dont notice it but they know it sounds better when they do it right. I first noticed all the background sounds listening to Deadmau5. He does that quite a bit with his music.

Idk Im probably biased tho cuz this was the first worlds that happened after I started playing so I remember it pretty fondly.

Vishlaa10/1/2018, 9:10:37 PM1 votes

My personal ranking is: 1- Warriors 2- Rise ( hard as its really close between this and Worlds Collide) 3- Worlds Collide 4- Legends Never Die 5- Ignite

I think they all good songs for being "just" lol world songs, but i think this is the way id rank them.