With the latest release of Pentakill, Riot Games’ heavy metal band, it is time to take a good look at how the publisher utilizes music to enhance the League of Legends (LoL) experience.
Growling on the way to the nexus
Established by Riot Games back in 2014, Pentakill is a virtual band whose members consist of LoL champions, albeit with unique skins (their “alter-egos”, so to speak). The line-up is Mordekaiser on guitar, Karthus and Kayle on vocals, Yorick on bass, Sona on keyboards, and Olaf handling the drumming.
Drawing power from real-life titans of the metal scene like Jorn Lande of Masterplan and Derek Sherinian of ex-Dream Theater fame, the band’s first album titled “Smite and Ignite” was digitally released in 2014. The band would not remain virtual for long – they performed live in Sao Paulo, Brazil for the League of Legends Brazilian Championship grand final in 2015.
The group’s next album, “II: Grasp of the Undying” was released in 2017, and they once again performed live, this time at the 2017 League of Legends World Championship. Their highly praised performance helped the event get 60 million unique viewers worldwide.
Coming to this year, Riot Games announced the band’s new album “III: Lost Chapter” with an interactive experience going live around the world named Battle of Pentakill. Working in collaboration with Wave, co-streamers viewed the experience live on their channels. Alongside Battle of Pentakill, new skins for the band members as well as the addition of The Ruined King, Viego.
With III: Lost Chapter taking over Spotify, it will be an exciting wait for the band’s next live performance.
Sometimes a softer touch is needed
Riot Games’ other featured band is as different from Pentakill as possible: K/DA is a virtual, K-pop-inspired girl group.
The band was unveiled at the 2018 League of Legends World Championship with an augmented reality live performance of their first song, Pop/Stars. Created to promote the World Championship and sell in-game skins, K/DA quickly proved incredibly popular (Pop/Stars music video reached a total of 400 million views on YouTube) and their EP, All Out, was released in 2020.
Like Pentakill, K/DA consist of thematic versions of LoL champions: Ahri, Akali, Evelynn, and Kai’sa. The characters are voiced by both American and Korean artists and their band skins are available for in-game purchase.K/DA are blurring the lines between games, art and virtual reality with Akali giving out interviews and their recordings receiving Gold Records.
In addition to these bands, Riot Games have used single-standing songs for promotion. Warriors by Imagine Dragons was used for the 2014 World Championship, Legends Never Die by Against the Current was released as an exclusive for 2017 and Basshunter featured Sona and Brand in his 2018 song “Masterpiece” to draw attention to the importance of gamers in his early career.
With so many offerings, it is clear that Riot Games see League of Legends as more than just a game, and are trying to incorporate different forms of art to create all-encompassing experiences for their fans. As the lines between gaming, entertainment, and art blur further every day, it will be interesting to see the development of esports as a sensory experience as well as a competitive one.
