MTV‘s 34th annual Video Music Awards took place on Sunday night, and if we’re being honest it was mostly not on our radar in real time: There was another highly-awaited TV event going on that night which commandeered our collective attention. And from the response the once-influential awards show received from the Internet, it seems like we made the right choice watching the Game of Thrones season finale instead. Reviews of the Katy Perry-hosted awards special have been decidedly and emphatically negative. Although many artists used their onscreen time to shed light on some important social issues, ans, artists, and industry insiders alike have taken shots at everything from the show’s poorly-written and even-more-poorly-executed sketches, to deserving performers being cut off early, to Lorde “performing” her entire song without actually singing anything at all.

Perhaps the state of the music world has passed the VMAs by in 2017: MTV no longer has their fingers on the pulse of what’s hip, artists continue to “shake up” the conventional release process with “visual albums,” “virtual reality experiences,” and the like. The very concept of a televised awards show about the year’s best music videos feels a bit archaic in the modern media landscape, as live broadcast TV viewing is being overtaken by Internet-based streaming platforms and the success and popularity of a video is easily quantified by prominently displayed view counts. Maroon 5’s Adam Levine was among the many artists to take shots at Sunday’s VMAs. You can see some of his Twitter comments below:

However, while the night was something of a disappointment (or, you know, just as bad as you expected, depending on how high your expectations were to begin with), there’s at least one artist who can mark the 2017 VMAs firmly in the “Win” column: hip hop superstar Kendrick Lamar. The Compton rapper took home six “Moon Men” for his visually bold “HUMBLE.” video, including the award “Video of the Year.” He also put on easily the evening’s hottest performance, a medley of two track off his acclaimed 2017 album, DAMN.: “DNA.” and “HUMBLE.” Lamar clearly went all-out for the performance, recalling the “HUMBLE.” video with the help of a complex laser light show, sword-wielding dancers fully engulfed in flames, warriors climbing a fiery trellis, and more. While it may not fully redeem a full evening of high-budget, low-quality TV schlock, the performance certainly is worth the five minutes it takes to watch it.

You can watch Kendrick Lamar’s 2017 VMA spectacle in all its fiery glory below (via MTV):