Valorant ChampionsCup
The Valorant Champions Cup visual identity project focused on creating a cohesive and energetic illustration series for a major esports tournament.
The project featured the Sentinels team and their top players, covering everything from big cinematic posters to detailed fantasy worlds and plane cockpits. We used bright colors and strong contrasts to make sure all the art looked exciting and fit together perfectly.
Our goal was to capture the hype of the Valorant Champions Cup by telling a story through art. We created images showing the team’s journey, from landing in a futuristic jet to working in a command center and battling in a fantasy arena. We made sure to draw real players like TenZ and Zellsis accurately while keeping a consistent "Red and White" team look for use on big screens and billboards.
PROBLEM
Fragmented esports graphics lack narrative punch
Most esports promotional visuals feel disconnected, dropping random player cutouts onto generic backgrounds instead of building an immersive world. For a tournament as massive as the Valorant Champions Cup, a fragmented approach fails to generate real community hype.
- Disconnected Storylines: Traditional tournament assets rarely tell a cohesive story, leaving disparate scenes like high-tech aircraft and fantasy battlegrounds feeling completely unrelated.
- Lost Player Identities: Blending famous real-world player faces (like TenZ and Zellsis) into a stylized cartoon-anime aesthetic often results in generic characters that fans can't easily recognize.
- Cluttered Backgrounds: Intricate technical environments like aircraft cockpits and futuristic control rooms frequently overwhelm the frame, pulling attention away from the players.
- Inconsistent Branding: Without a strict visual anchor, team color palettes get muddy across stadium venue screens, digital media, and outdoor advertising prints.
SOLUTION
Narrative world-building built on team identity
We developed a high-contrast illustration system themed around "Rise in Style," embedding the Sentinels roster into a single, cohesive visual journey.
Unified Arc: A seamless visual storyline moving from real-world high-tech transit straight into the competitive game arena.
True Likeness: Anime-inspired portraits that retain accurate, recognizable hairstyles, gestures, and player gear.
Depth & Layering: A hybrid style pairing crisp 2D character linework with deep, 3D-shaded environments.
Branded Palette: Dominant Red and White team colors balanced exclusively by deep atmospheric background blues.
PROCESS
Structured creative pipeline from sketch to stadium screens
To execute a large-scale esports campaign, we deployed a swift, 4-phase production workflow ensuring perfect narrative alignment and asset scalability.
01
Storyboarding
- Framing core storytelling beats
- Designing custom aircraft layouts
- Placing environmental focal points
02
Art Direction
- Setting the Red and White color dominance
- Building perspective planes
- Creating ambient lighting rules
03
Character Illustration
- Refining authentic facial structures
- Illustrating official team gear
- Balancing individual presence in group layouts
04
Formatting & Integration
- Rendering final natural and tech layouts
- Adjusting contrast for massive outdoor prints
- Delivering versatile marketing assets
RESEARCH
Connecting continuous worlds through layout design
To keep esports audiences engaged across fast-paced digital and physical touchpoints, every transition must feel intentional.
Our initial layout blueprints show how we carefully mapped the transition from geometric technical vehicles to the crystal spires of the tournament grounds. Pre-planning this geometry ensures that whether a player is sitting in an office or standing on a floating island, the visual balance remains clean and focused.
Services
Environmental Concept Art
We built immersive, multi-layered digital spaces that serve as storytelling environments, providing context and cinematic scale for the competitive roster.
- The Airborne Operations Room: The upper panel details a stylized custom aircraft towing a team banner, while the lower panel reveals a sprawling interior bridge control room.
- The Pre-Match Cabin Environment: The multi-panel sequence tracks the team relaxing inside their transit lounge, looking out the panoramic bay window toward floating terrain.
- The Gateway Structure: The low-angle framing focuses on the massive scale of the crystal fortress entrance as players look up at the impending challenge.
Services
Character Design
We reimagined competitive esports athletes as dynamic, stylized heroic figures without losing the real-world traits that fans immediately connect with.
- The Main Event Canvas: The official key graphic showcases high-impact player portraits juxtaposed alongside a towering crystal monument.
- The Vanguards Lineup: The close-up presentation highlights the team running toward an apex trophy room on the left, alongside a premium team lineup panel on the right.
- The Roster Campaign: The expansive city display pairs stylized player portraits with crisp, high-contrast tournament typography reading "THE SQUAD IN FULL FORCE".
RESULTS & OUTCOMES
A unified tournament look that thrilled the community
Our structured storytelling approach successfully translated competitive tension into a premium, world-class esports campaign.
- Perfect Brand Dominance: The strict Red and White color scheme provided immediate team recognition across all digital and print platforms.
- Resonant Fan Connection: Stylized player representations captured accurate facial nuances, receiving high engagement and praise from the community.
- Absolute Asset Adaptability: Creative assets shifted perfectly from thin vertical street boards to ultra-wide stadium screen formats without losing resolution or visual balance.
- Flawless Production Workflow: Using a clear storyboard-to-render design pipeline guaranteed complete visual unity across all environmental backdrops.
