VALORANT recently collaborated with Webtoon to celebrate Fade and the VCT Champions tournament in Istanbul, Turkey. You can check all 10 winners’ artwork linked below alongside their socials.
Webtoon is a company specializing in creator-owned digital comics that are shared with the world. Webtoon is owned by South Korea’s internet conglomerate Naver. Originating in Korea, the word “Webtoon” is relatively new in the comics industry. It’s a combination of “world wide web” and “cartoon.”
Although Gamelevate didn’t vote, we did get a chance to review all these great winners. Our team had different opinions based on personal preferences. This writer’s favorite is the “Shadow of Istanbul” by Esteban & Gabriel Tuninett from Argentina. All the artists below provided excellent submissions. Fortunately, they are being rewarded by gaining recognition from the VALORANT community.
Keep reading for a Q&A with the People’s Choice and Grand Prize winners as well. Riot Games’ announcement of the winners is as follows:
Thank you to everyone who entered, and congratulations to the winners!
A reminder that even though we love the lore interpretations from our winners, unconfirmed references to lore below are unofficial.
PEOPLE’S CHOICE WINNER
Artist: Jason Randolph
Twitter: GhostSync_
Instagram: GhostSync_
Country: United States (NC)
1. Tell us about your VALORANT webtoon!
KAY/O: Not Again brings readers into the perspective of KAY/O piloting the Vulture during the Sting Operation. While his comrades are facing battle against an unknown enemy, their screams and shouts force an unpleasant memory of his late friend Liam Byrne (AKA Brimstone) to resurface. The memory of his friend reminds him of the promise he made to himself—that he would never lose another teammate. KAY/O then leaves his position from the Vulture, leaps into battle and saves his team.
2. What’s your approach to creating a new piece of art?
Specifically when drawing a webtoon or comic: start off with an idea or concept, put yourself in the character’s shoes and go from there. It’ll be easier for readers to feel as if they’re right there with the character and feel more connected to them.
3. What was your process for this work?
I remember when the in-game audio files of the Sting operation came out and I said to my friends, “I want to draw KAY/O jumping out of the plane and ulting.” I found it fascinating how even just audio put us right in with the action, and thought that seeing a visual would be pretty cool. A few weeks later and here we are with the VALORANT x WEBTOON Contest.
4. Where do you hope your art will take you?
I hope that my art will take me to the path of becoming a WEBTOON comic artist. I have plenty of ideas for stories and characters that I would like to see come to light, so I even started my own. One is a webtoon titled Gifted Return that is currently in the works. The other is a web novel titled Reign of Paradise (also in the works). Later, I hope to become a character concept artist for game studios such as Riot Games and work on games I love such as VALORANT.
GRAND PRIZE WINNERS
Artists: Daniel Patino (Author/Writer), Justin Stockenstroom (Artist/Illustrator), Ahmad Yahya Wiranto A (Colorist), Paul Byrd (Letterer)
Twitter Handle: @nightslibrary
Instagram Handle: @_TheNightLibrary_
Country: United States
1. Tell us about your VALORANT webtoon!
This project was a lot of fun! I figured many entrants would focus on the actual action sequence of Fade’s interaction with the team, and while there is nothing wrong with that at all, and indeed many of the comics who did so were absolutely fantastic; I felt the inevitable interrogation scene would be a great place to focus because it is the main reason Fade wound up joining the team and becoming a member of the VALORANT Protocol!
Think about it, to go from sworn enemies to sworn partners on the field of battle…there’s drama there and plenty of room for a great story! I did add a few things to the lore, so in many ways, this comic is pure fanfiction. For example, I wanted tension in the interrogation so I added the sick bay scene to show that Fade was still in control despite her status as a “prisoner”. I figured that since the cinematic never really showed off Fade’s “Decay” ability, we could use that as her incapacitating “ace in the hole.” Additionally, Fade being a mother is not actually confirmed lore, however again, I added that because it felt like a unique twist for her character…to think, this whole time we’ve all been playing Fade, she’s actually been a mother in a desperate search for her precious lost son—it just felt like a great subversion as she is not the traditional depiction of a mother, with her haunting abilities and intimidating demeanor. And yet, who’s to say what a mother should look like, so long as they love and defend their family to the best of their ability?
There were a couple of other little tidbits I added to characterize and world building. For instance, Chamber has flowers near his bedside because of course he does! He’s the kind of guy who probably keeps a florist on speed dial JUST to make sure that when he is incapacitated, a fresh delivery of flowers is placed by his bedside so he can wake up to the smell of fresh flowers! Killjoy is the woman behind the screen so to speak, we never see her in the comic but her semi-awkward/laid-back attitude can be seen when she helps Brimstone break down the language barrier. And Yoru as the “enforcer” felt like a perfect fit. He is a tough and crude guy…with a heart of gold. Threaten or hurt his friends and he’s liable to lose it. Oh, and the Prime Vandal? C’mon, it’s pay-to-win. How could I NOT include it? 😉
2. What’s your approach to creating a new piece of art?
Well…it’s a little unorthodox. See, I was born with and have struggled with dyslexia and dysgraphia for my whole life. Basically, I’m a writer who has incredible difficulty reading and writing, and that difficulty extends to my artistic abilities as well. As a result, I surround myself with talented and ambitious artists who see the value in networking and dedicated collaboration. Justin Stockenstroom is my go-to guy for any and all art/comic/graphic novel projects! We’ve worked together for about a year now on a separate graphic novel called Red Hunt and I consider his hard work and jaw-dropping artistic abilities to be of incredible value to all of the projects that we work on!
3. What was your process for this work?
So, funny story, I actually didn’t know about the contest until September 6, at which point I discovered it on WEBTOON while looking into publishing some of my own original comics on the platform. This meant that we only had about 12 days to get started on, and finish, the actual comic. I wrote the script in a day, then handed it off to Justin, who worked around the clock to illustrate the full comic. He blew me away with his inks and the rapid pace in which he was able to get them to me, however admittedly, I had complete and total faith in his abilities and I just knew that he would be able to knock this assignment out of the park! From there, I took his finished inks and got them colored and lettered, just barely being able to turn it in before the end of the submission period!
4. Where do you hope your art will take you?
I hope my stories, and the art I help to create, affect the people who read them in the same way some of the amazing stories I’ve had the privilege of enjoying have helped me in life. Stories are, in my opinion, one of the most primal and innately human aspects of this existence we all share, and I would ask for nothing more of this life than the privilege of being able to craft stories for you all to read and enjoy! 🙂
Artist: Keiko Nishijima (Pronounced: Cake-oh, Knee-she-gee-mah)
Twitter: @CAK3O
Instagram: @cak3o
Country: United States (GA)
1. Tell us about your VALORANT webtoon!
The idea behind my comic was to focus on the aftermath of The Sting, and how it affected the members of the team. I thought it would be fun to focus on Neon and KAY/O as they contrast nicely in their experiences with war and combat. Neon being new to it while KAY/O has an extensive past with it. A storytelling goal I had with the comic was to tell KAY/O’s side of the story through Neon’s dialogue. I hope that came through in the end!
2. What’s your approach to creating a new piece of art?
A lot of my art is character-driven, so it usually starts with an emotion or experience I want that character to go through. Either that or I just find something particularly interesting or fun that I want to draw. I’m usually drawing 24/7, so oftentimes small doodles just end up becoming something much bigger.
3. What was your process for this work?
When I work on a comic, I always like to script it out first—just so I can check back and make sure that I don’t forget any details while drawing. After that, for this comic, I decided that I would spend a lot more time on the penciling phase than any other part, just so that the inking and coloring portion would be a bit easier. I did all that on Procreate and then assembled and lettered the comic CSP!
4. Where do you hope your art will take you?
I’d honestly love to just keep drawing for as long as I can. I’d love to make a comic like this one about my own characters one day.
Artist: Armel Munyaneza
Twitter: @Polluxery
Instagram: @Polluxery
Country: Philippines
1. Tell us about your VALORANT webtoon!
My VALORANT webtoon showcases the events of The Sting operation in a sort of chronological order: it starts with Sova’s initiation and ends with Fade’s capture. I added a whole fight sequence between Neon and Fade because Neon uses electricity powers and that’s pretty cool to draw. In my version Neon shoots Fade in the hand, which I’m sure Sage takes care of later.
2. What’s your approach to creating a new piece of art?
I usually have a vague image or scene in my head before I start drawing and I always look for some references to enhance this image in my head as I start drawing. The end result is a product of my imagination plus good references.
3. What was your process for this work?
As an aspiring webcomic artist, I wanted to try my hand at making a webtoon and the VALORANT competition came in just in time. Besides VALORANT being one of my favorite competitive games, their art style is also one of my main inspirations. I always enjoy Riot’s cinematics so after hearing the audio from The Sting, I already started to visualize how the whole thing would go down and so I decided to go ahead and get to drawing. I quite enjoyed the challenge of limited panels because it made me prioritize what I wanted to see from the webtoon. The whole process took about a week and a half.
4. Where do you hope your art will take you?
I hope my art will get me to work on some cool games and shows. I’d love to someday work on VALORANT since their style is really cool. My own personal goal is to make my own webtoon. I want to use my art to tell great engaging stories.
Artist: nano
Twitter: @nanoswatch
Instagram: @nanoswatch
Country: United States
1. Tell us about your VALORANT webtoon!
When it comes to Fade’s story, two things really stuck out to me: the raw imagery of the fear scenes from İYİ GECELER, and the disparate bits and pieces we got for her personal arc from the dossier leaks to her recruitment. The former wasn’t really focused on in The Sting’s narrative, and while the latter did give little peeks into her head, it left a lot of room for interpretation of how she was fully convinced to join the Protocol. Putting the two together just felt like a perfect premise.
2. What’s your approach to creating a new piece of art?
Sometimes I start by noodling out a sketch, other times I have to write things down; either way, I want to hit on a definite theme or core idea as soon as possible. Not that I’m an authority at all, but art’s a process from top to bottom; even single strokes or errant pixels can alter the entire message, so I want to have my understanding down as best I can beforehand, even for one-off doodles.
3. What was your process for this work?
Once I knew how I wanted to frame the story, everything else basically fell into place: I wrote a script, storyboarded it out, and drew it in. Going into this, though, I knew for sure I wouldn’t have the raw technical skill of most of the other entrants (holy cow, the submissions were insane), so I was trying to figure out if there was a stylistic solution I could go for that could still make an impact. My answer was pixel art! It’s great for relatively simple forms, or at least conveying form through a pretty simplified or abstract representation; it’s also a great way to deliver color as blocks. This let me construct my whole webtoon around these two things, opting for dynamic (but still pretty simple to render) figures and paneling that could lean into how all-encompassing fear can be. It was also really fun to apply some of the paneling effects I’ve seen in other webtoons and comics in a more “real” setting.
4. Where do you hope your art will take you?
To be totally honest, I don’t know. This is mainly just my hobby, but how this competition turned out really made me excited for the future. I really love drawing and getting my hands dirty with narrative and composition, and it was so cool to do it with the Agents themselves. Thank you for the opportunity and support!
RUNNERS-UP
Artists: Esteban & Gabriel Tuninetti
Twitter: @tunnitoo
Instagram: @tunittoo @lean.tuninetti
Country: Argentina
Artist: Sharon Strauss
Twitter: @Sablemink
Instagram: @sharon_strauss13
Country: Canada (BC)
Artist: Daniela Gómez Restrepo
Twitter: @DanyStuffs
Instagram: @draagore
Country: Columbia (Medellin)
Artist: reikkai
Twitter: @reikkai
Instagram: @reikkai
Country: Australia (Melbourne)
Artist: Magz
Twitter: @DuckheyzDrawz
Instagram: @duckheyz.drawz
Country: United States
So which ones are your favorites? Let us know in the comments below.
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