Riot says it was never in contact with musician who claims to have created an alternative League Worlds anthem for 2021

Musical artist Simon Rosenfeld published “Heroes,” a song claimed to be an alternative League of Legends World Championship anthem for the 2021 competition, earlier today. But in an official statement given to Dot Esports, Riot Games denied having any contact with the artist.

“We love community creations and fan tributes and wish him the best of luck, but Riot Games Music has never had any contact with Rosenfeld,” the Riot spokesperson told Dot Esports.

In an article on PCGamesN, the artist unveiled what he claimed to be a collaboration with Riot and explained how the song was even taken down once he tried to publish it. Furthermore, this week, Rosenfeld posted a thread on his Twitter account on how his song “Heroes” was “canceled” by Riot.

The artist gave a detailed timeline of events, saying that in late 2020, he and his team “got in touch with Riot Games to submit a song” for the 2021 World Championship. According to Rosenfeld, Riot “approved the song” and he and his team “signed” with the publisher. But ultimately, it was “Burn it all Down” that became that year’s Worlds anthem, and Rosenfeld claims he was told the song he worked on was “probably” going to be used in 2022. But when it became evident that this wasn’t going to be the case, the artist took matters into his own hands. 

“I’ve explored my options, Riot has paid us for our work and they are 100% in their legal right to not release the song,” Rosenfeld said. “But it’s not about the law, it’s about morals. I feel played and I feel like I have let down my own team. So I’ve decided to release the song by myself.”

Despite the risk of having the song taken down once more, Rosenfeld has published “Heroes” on a new YouTube account.