Valorant Champions theme “Ticking Away” released

The new Valorant Champions theme “Ticking Away” has been released, featuring musical artists Grabbitz and bbno$.

Riot Games loves dropping major musical releases with prominent artists ahead of its international esports events. This began with League of Legends and has continued into Valorant’s largest international tournament, Champions.

For Valorant Champions 2023, Riot Games has released a music video for the new anthem Ticking Away.

New Valorant song released

The new song takes inspiration from previous themes like Imagine Dragons’ Warriors. That is to say, it looks to directly tie the esports inspiration with depictions of in-game events.

In this video, we follow a young protagonist on his journey through childhood and introduction to competition. Beginning with a basketball court and transitioning to a garage PC setup where he is introduced to Valorant. This leads to an explosive entrance into the in-game world as new agent Gekko.

Swapping between the high-octane Radiant-fueled action of the Valorant universe and the high-stakes competition of esports, it sets a dynamic pace and keeps it up throughout. This doesn’t appear to have any implications for Valorant’s lore or canon, and follows in the path of similar anthems that toe the line between the game and the esport.

The video follows a fictional Valorant pro named Handfall who makes it all the way to the Champions stage. It’s an aspirational story of the struggle that esports players go through to see the lights of pro play.

In the end of the video, it’s unclear whether or not our protagonist wins or loses the match, with a high-leaping attempt at a knife kill on an enemy KAY/O cutting to black. Champions 2023 is nearly here, with the tournament beginning on August 6 and running to August 26.

Fans can tune in on Twitch, YouTube, and other platforms to see the best Valorant teams in the world face off.