Riot Games releases VCT Champions song "Die For You"

Nicholas James Published 22/11/2021

Riot Games is continuing its tradition of creating custom musical anthems and animated music videos ahead of their biggest competitive esports events with a new track, “Die For You” featuring Grabbitz. The video focuses on three agents, Sage, Brimstone, and Phoenix, as they try to defuse a spike. The gorgeous animated track takes clear inspiration from previous songs and videos for League of Legends’ World Championships.

What happens in the Die For You video?

In the video, Brimstone and Sage breach through the garage on B site in Split, reenacting a site retake by a defending team who has lost control of the spike site. Brief gunfire lights up the far wall before a smoke grenade fills the entry hallway, presumably from Brimstone.

Sage and Brimstone rush through the smoke, taking cover in B Rack from a sniper in the rafters. Brimstone has been hit by a bullet in the garage, clutching a gunshot wound in his stomach. Phoenix appears, briefly channeling his ultimate in a rush of flame before sprinting at a planted spike in B’s default plant position.

From here, the video breaks the in-world presentation to bring in the esports aspect, giving each of the three champs a solo scene where they have a moment of connection with the person playing that agent.

https://youtu.be/h7MYJghRWt0

This takes clear inspiration from the style of esports anthem Riot has started to produce, highlighting the players alongside signature characters from the game. First, Brimstone has an abstract scene in which he becomes an analogy for Atlas, the titan from Greek mythology who is sentenced to bear the world upon his shoulders.

In the video, Brimstone catches an enormous dark sphere, reminiscent of the energy that the spike uses, and holding it above an enormous pyramid before shattering under its weight.

Phoenix gets the second scene, standing opposite a dark barrier with a young man presumed to be the player piloting Phoenix in this imagined circumstance. Phoenix and the player let a ball of light, similar to Phoenix’s Curveball, fall between the two of them. Sage wraps this abstract sequence up, trying to revive a withering garden with her healing magic before being imprisoned in a crystal and looking her player in the eye. From here, the video jumps back to the events on Split’s B site.

Phoenix is killed by the mysterious sniper, revealed to be the latest agent, Chamber. Sage heals Brimstone and rushes for the spike. Just before she arrives, as Chamber’s crosshairs move towards her, Phoenix’s wall of fire rushes in between Sage and the spike. Chamber’s shot misses and Phoenix throws the defuser to Sage, as all three agents rush the arming spike. The agents’ figures flicker and are briefly replaced by their players as the video fades to black.

Die For You takes everything Riot Games have learned over years of esports content production and wraps it up into another fantastic promotional product for its esports events.

Nicholas James

About Nicholas James

Nicholas James is a gaming writer with a passion for all things geekdom, as well as live theater. Nicholas is best known for covering League of Legends and other top MOBA titles, but his expertise covers numerous games across multiple genres. When not watching the LCS or playing the latest new release, Nicholas can be found doing some tabletop gaming and painting his favorite miniatures. Nicholas has also published with Hotspawn, TheGamer, Dexerto, Esports.gg and other industry outlets.

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