Game developer Riot Games has launched an anthem for VALORANT Champions 2024, with the track featuring K-pop artists KISS OF LIFE and Mark Tuan (Got7).
The song, called SUPERPOWER, aims to hype up VALORANT’s biggest esports event of the year. Meanwhile, the music video also integrates esports players and moments that have occurred throughout the VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT).
Some of the players highlighted in the video include Fnatic’s Boaster, Team Heretics’ Benjyfishy and Leviatán’s aspas, among others. The song itself features two members of KISS OF LIFE, Julie and Natty. Formed in 2023, KISS OF LIFE is a relatively new K-pop group that is under the record label S2 Entertainment.
SUPERPOWER’s other artist, Mark Tuan, is an American-born rapper who is a soloist and member of popular K-pop group Got7. At the time of writing, VALORANT’s latest anthem has already recorded over 1m views on YouTube.
The song is the latest in a long line of musical collaborations that Riot Games has done for its major international events. Last year Riot Games teamed up with South Korean-based Japanese girl group XG for VCT Pacific. Meanwhile, the game developer has teamed up with musical artists such as New Jeans, Imagine Dragons and Lil Nas X for its other title, League of Legends.
Perhaps one of Riot Games’ biggest K-pop-focused collaborations occurred in 2018 through the creation of virtual girl group K/DA for its League of Legends World Championships. The group, formed of (G)I-DLE members Miyeon and Soyeon as well as Madison Beer and Jaira Burns, returned in 2020 with an EP. In 2023, Riot Games unveiled a virtual boy group called HEARTSTEEL which featured Baekhyun, ØZI, Tobi Lou and Cal Scruby.
Occurring August 1st–25th, VALORANT Champions 2024 will take place in South Korea and is the first edition to be hosted in Asia. Previous VALORANT Champions have been held in Germany, the United States and Turkey (Istanbul). Some of the teams that have qualified for the event include G2 Esports, EDward Gaming and Gen.G.
