RiotDigital

VCT Masters Tokyo 2023

As VALORANT’s largest Esports tournament took over Tokyo, we helped launch Riot’s digital love-letter to manga culture to the thrill of fans across the globe.

The Ask & Brief

VALORANT is the hyper-successful first-person shooter from Riot Games, the biggest name in gaming worldwide. For VCT: Masters 2023, set in Tokyo, Riot planned to launch an Esports-centered manga, Rank Up!-- created by design studio Shotopop, to stoke excitement with players and fans alike. Riot wanted a simple landing page for visitors to download the manga—but with all eyes from the global Esports community trained on Tokyo, we knew we needed to go for gold.

A simple landing page created so that fans could download the manga. This part of the page features some of the art from the manga as well as UI in the game Valorant's style.

A Manga Experience Like No Other

Following initial research and thorough exploration of existing digital comic reading experiences, we worked with Riot to identify KPIs and experience priorities. Armed with this information we created an interactive manga viewer with all the fit and finish VALORANT players come to expect.  True to the manga experience, the viewer reads from right to left, with considered UI features to help less familiar visitors navigate the story. And during the tournament, a special alert notified readers when competitions were live so that they could join a stream in real-time.

Mobile version of the VCT Manga webpage. Rank up! A VCT Manga Experience. This message is a story of fans for fans. We welcome you as VCT manga 2023 touches down in Tokyo Japan. In this manga, follow a group of 5 friends determined to become the best professional VALORANT players and team in the world. Dig this merge? Watch and learn as the pros put themselves to the best of Masters Tokyo.

Fluid status bars reduce user uncertainty.

Customizable, grouped UI for user comfort and accessibility.

VCT Schedule button. Live VCT Schedule button. Global UI Notifies users of the live events.

A Global Phenomenon?

We knew the Esports community the world-over would be tuning in to Masters, and this global event demanded a globally available manga viewer.  The VCT Manga Experience was built for all of VALORANT's available regions—18 global locales across North America, LATAM, Europe, Asia Pacific and Africa. The site is available in 19 different languages for maximum accessibility and worldwide buzz.

Snapshots of VCT Manga in multiple languages.

Some Clutch Moves

We incorporated simple, elegant animations to elevate the manga's cover, back cover, and spreads. Across the whole site, there are over 60 full-art pages, plus animations, localized for 18 global audiences, with 2-3x the standard accessibility built in—and still, the viewer runs smoothly and enhances Riot and Shotopop's beautiful manga.

How’d We Rank?

Immersive, elevated, and driven by the story, our viewer enhanced Riot’s VALORANT manga experience to increase buzz and discoverability in the lead-up to the tournament. (In other words: Sheeeeesh. GG team.)

Credits

Riot