Fire Again ft. Ashnikko
VALORANT Champions ’22 Anthem
Music Video
“Fire Again,” featuring Ashnikko, was Riot’s anthem for VALORANT Champions 2022, a follow-up to the success of “Die For You.” This time, we teamed up with CRCR to make an animated music video packed with action and explosions.
Art Direction
The visual direction was heavily influenced by the expressive, hyperreal animation style of Akira. We pictured a world somewhere between Blade Runner, Inception, and Interstellar—films that explore duality—where VAL agents and pro players coexist in the same reality.
I co-developed the visual concept with my CD and created the vendor brief. I oversaw art development, including character designs, environments, and color scripts. Together, we led development and reviewed previs and animatics to deliver the final film.
ENVIRONMENTS →
Character Design
We featured over 40 pro player cameos along with VAL agents Chamber, Raze, Jett, and Astra. Once we finalized the art style, we coordinated with regions and the game team over several weeks to nail their likenesses.
AGENTS →
PROS →
Motion + VFX
We took inspiration from anime classics to show off VAL agent abilities and capture the intensity of VCT pro play.
Key Art
To promo the anthem release, we created a series of artworks including agent posters and key visuals with the pro players featured in the film.
@ Riot Games
Team
Brand Manager
Joe Elliott
Creative Director
Eric Margusity
Art Director
Tracy Fu
Producer
Sloane DeLancer
Partner
Wizz / CRCR