Linkin Park singer Mike Shinoda reveals his love of Valorant

By Steven Rondina

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Nov 16, 2021

Reading time: 2 min

Riot Games rolled out the red carpet for the premier of its hit new show Arcane, and a number of celebrities answered the call. Among them was Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda.

The singer and songwriter was caught by interviewer Ovilee May at the Arcane premier for an interview discussing his relationship with Riot Games and to share in the excitement around the show’s debut. During the interview, Shinoda touches upon his enjoyment of Valorant and how he isn’t actually a League of Legends fan, but was still excited for the show based on the League of Legends universe. The trouble was that Ovilee didn’t actually recognize Shinoda, leading to a silly moment of realization about who she was talking with.

The interview, which was streamed live on official channels, started in awkward fashion with Ovilee inventing a dance move and discussing Tahm Kench with Shinoda, who isn’t actually a fan of League of Legends. Unfortunately this meant Shinoda didn’t really have the chance to discuss his Valorant fandom, such as his favorite agent or map.

When Ovilee eventually asks him for his name, she’s visibly surprised when he says his name. When he says he’s from Linkin Park, her jaw essentially hits the floor.

Shinoda takes it all in stride and banters with Ovilee from there, circling back to her dance moves, and eventually joining in. Once it wrapped, remote host Indiana “Froskurinn” Juniper Black playfully barbed Ovilee for referring to him as a “random” at the start of the interview.

Ovilee didn’t have much of a chance to recover from the awkward interview. After composing herself, she went right back into action by interviewing Toks Olagundoye, who plays the role of Mel in Arcane.

Is Mike Shinoda on Twitch?

Mike Shinoda does stream on Twitch, broadcasting both his musical and artistic endeavors to fans and playing some video games. His recent streams have seen him playing adventure game Detroit: Become Human, and he frequently hops into games of Valorant, showing off his skill in the first-person shooter.

Since the death of bandmate Chester Bennington in 2017, Shinoda has pursued various solo music projects. Some of those have been put together on Twitch, with Shinoda saying that his “Dropped Frames” line of albums were composed with the help of his viewers.

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