Video game developer Riot Games has announced a series of musical collaborations for their upcoming North American events, VALORANT Champions and LoL LCS Championship. Beginning with the final international event of the 2023 VALORANT season, Riot Games has revealed that this year’s anthem will feature musicians Grabbitz and bbno$.
The song, titled ‘Ticking Away’ will be released on July 31.. The new track will be performed live during the opening ceremony of the VALORANT Champions finals. In addition, artists ericdoa, Emei and Jazz Alonso will also perform during the ceremony.
This is not the first time that Grabbitz participates in a VALORANT song. The musician also participated in the inaugural VALORANT Champions anthem, “Die for You”.. Canadian rapper bbno$ has also participated in esports activations in the past. In 2020, his song “Bad to the bone” was integrated into the 13th season of the ESL Pro League CS:GO.
Riot Games has also revealed that the opening ceremony of the North American league top-tier League of Legends league, the LCS Championshipwill be headed by Afrofusion artist Thutmose. Once again, the Brooklyn artist is no stranger to musical collaborations with Riot Games. Thurmose performed as part of True Damage.a virtual hip-hop group featuring League of Legends characters, at the 2019 World Finals in Paris. Specifically, he performed as the Ekko character.
In recent years Riot Games has fully sought to integrate itself within the music industry, mostly through various collaborations with artists for its esports event. Last year, Lil Nas X performed at the League of Legends 2022 World Championship.. In addition, the company previously created a virtual K-pop group featuring League of Legends characters, K/DA, and has collaborated with the likes of Imagine Dragons, Against the Current, Ashnikko and Jackson Wang.