2022 was the Year of Fearless Individuality
2022 was year 2 of VALORANT esports and many of the pros were still relatively unknown globally. Our content was meant to paint a more complete picture of these individuals to the world— to get personal, amplify personalities, and create celebrity in the process.
Our platform for doing so was Fearless Individuality. This concept refers to the growth you undergo by conquering your fears: when you overcome your greatest fears, you become the one to be feared. This was the creative core for VCT 2022, manifesting itself in a 3-part narrative across M1, M2 and CHAMPIONS.
First stop— Reykjavík, Iceland!
M1: Become The Nightmare
[Promo film + key art provided by Riot Games]
The tagline for MASTERS 1, was “Become the Nightmare.” The Riot Games creative team provided us with incredible key art, and an animated promotional film to build our live-action campaign off of. The campaign was rooted in modern-horror tropes— shadow-y oil-slicked monsters, the VALORANT ‘Spike’ transformed into a creepy spider, and so-on.
PART I. [February 1st - March 2nd]
Thinking about the live-action component of ‘Become The Nightmare’, we landed on the concept of a ‘haunted house.’ We knew we could use practical effects and in-camera techniques to achieve a similar horror-feel to the rest of the campaign, without relying on complicated VFX sequences (which would be impossible given our 1-day post production window).
AESTHETICS
We created 2 promotional films.
We delivered opening teases everyday.
We created a 30-minute documentary.
THE FEARLESS: A YEAR-LONG JOURNEY
Partnered with Riot Games, we created a long-form documentary series capturing the story behind the scenes of each VCT global tournament, all part of the Fearless Individuality platform.
Runtime: 31 minutes | [Episode 1 of 3]
We designed custom interview
sets in the M1 brand aesthetic.
We conducted ~100 interviews across the event.
We created 5 post-match interview player profile videos daily for broadcast.
We created 5
OPEN MIC episodes.
This series uses player comms, custom in-game camera observation and animation to tell the story behind pivotal plays of the day.
We cinematically captured every match of the tournament.
We created a viral video.
When the broadcast team came to us with their original remix of ZETA DIVISION’s in-game comms, within two hours we produced a visualizer to air on broadcast and social.
Next stop— Copenhagen, Denmark!
M2: False Gods, True Idols
[Promo film + key art provided by Riot Games]
The tagline for MASTERS 2 was “False Gods, True Idols.” It was a very cerebral concept. In VALORANT esports, there had never been a single team to win multiple global events. We had seen ‘Gods’ proven false, and upcoming ‘Idols’ prove true. We wanted to tell this story in our content in a way that felt true to the location of the tournament: Copenhagen, DK.
PART II. [April 1st - May 2nd]
Leaning into the neoclassical European aesthetics of Copenhagen, we decided to tell a story of the VALORANT ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’. The current kings sitting on their thrones, juxtaposed against the newcomers, fighting to survive.
AESTHETICS
We created a promotional film.
We delivered a daily tease everyday.
THE FEARLESS: Part II
Runtime: 38 Minutes
THE FEARLESS: PART II
The second chapter in the year-long VCT narrative. In this episode we see Optic’s dreams of back-to-back wins shatter while underdogs PRX and FPX battle it out for victory.
Runtime: 38 minutes | [Episode 2 of 3]
We conducted ~100 interviews across the event.
We created 5 post-match interview player profile videos daily for broadcast.
We cinematically captured every match of the tournament.
We created 3
OPEN MIC episodes.
Final destination— Istanbul, Türkiye!
CHAMPS: FEAR/NONE
[Promo film + key art provided by Riot Games]
Riot’s ‘FEAR/NONE’ campaign was the spiritual end to their year-long Fearless Individuality narrative. As a send off to the incredible year, we knew we wanted to do something truly epic.
Riot provided us with their incredible 3D promotional film for inspiration. We saw an opportunity for our video to exist in the same cinematic universe. Pulling inspiration from classic alien invasion films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, we wrote a short film that showed Istanbul being taken over by the unexplained phenoma of the VCT world.
PART III. [August 1st - September 2nd]
Given our incredibly tight post-production windows at these tournaments, we knew what we were attempting would be near-impossible to pull off. Through careful scripting, storyboarding, and planning we created an 8-minute short film from production to delivery in 5 days.
SHORT FILM
We created a promotional short film
Runtime: 8 minutes
We delivered a daily tease everyday.
THE FEARLESS: Part III
Runtime: 49 Minutes
THE FEARLESS: PART III
Epic conclusion to the year-long narrative.
Runtime: 49 minutes | [Episode 3 of 3]
We designed custom interview
sets in the gold CHAMPIONS aesthetic.
We conducted ~100 interviews across the event.
We created 5 post-match interview player profile videos daily for broadcast.
