League of Legends, one of the most popular PC games, is a creation of Riot Games. Riot uses many ways to promote and earn money from this free-to-play game. The game itself is free, but to ‘accessorize’ your character/ champion (characters you can chose to play in the game) and other items in the game, you will have to buy skins or items. There are skins for champions, wards, emotes, and other items you can buy in the game. League of legend players, however, tend to mostly buy skins for their champions, and nothing else. The prices can range from five dollars to twenty-five-dollar skins. LHS Senior Zach Yelich, avid player of the game, weighed in on the skins, saying, “Although the skin is pretty, I don’t think it’s worth like $10 dollars to buy one.” He added, “Even though I won’t buy it, I can see others buying it due to how good the skins look.”

The most recent advertising technique Riot implicated was to create a virtual Kpop group, called K/DA, consisting of 4 female champions in their game- Akali, Ahri, Evelynn, and Kai’sa. Riot created a skin for each of the members of K/DA and is currently selling them for about ten-dollars a piece. Riot created a song and a music video of this group to promote their game and the new skins. The music video hit a remarkable number of views on YouTube, forty-seven million, in just ten days of its release. The song was done by actual celebrities: Madison Beer, (G)I-DLE, Jaira Burns Written by Riot Music Team and Harloe.

“K/DA exploded into the music scene with their hit song “POP/STARS.” Fans of K/DA can’t get enough of their unconventional flair, from the trademark tails (which fans suspect are real) to otherworldly décor in their studio. “Our songs are for you to remember – always be true to yourself,” says lead singer Ahri. K/DA hopes to take their music around the world in a global tour.”

– Riot Games

Riot went as far as to create bios of each member of the group and make a story them as well. Ahri’s story, for example, is said that “after rising to fame as a teenage pop star, Ahri tossed aside her girly and young look to reveal her new self: a high fashion, elegant, and stunning celebrity. Ahri’s sleek new look attracts top fashion designers. During fashion week, Ahri graces runways around the world in finale gowns. She is the face of FOXY cosmetics and launched her own fragrance, Charmed last year. When she isn’t with K/DA or training, Ahri is shopping, drinking tea with designers, and testing out new beauty products.”- Riot Games. The members are Korean(Ahri), American (Evelynn), Japanese / Korean(Akali), and Chinese (Kai’sa) and the singers that represent them also have the same ethnicities.

Riot’s promotional tactics started as a way of building hype to get players to buy the in-game cosmetics for the four champions at first, but it transformed into a viral hit and a gateway for new and ex-players to get into the game. The internet’s interest in Kpop due to groups such as BTS and Blackpink, was a major factor of its viral hit as well. Fans of Kpop started to be aware of the game and started playing it.

The newly made “Kpop” group also has many Easter eggs hidden for the players of League of Legends to understand. An example of this comes directly from the group’s name, K/DA, which stands for Kills, Deaths, and Assists in the game. The dance moved displayed by the group was also from famous Kpop groups such as 2NE1 and some dances from previous promotional videos. Ahri also had a skin of her being a Pop star from 2013 displayed as being ‘washed’ to go along with her story line of being a teenage pop star.

This song, POP/STARS, was played in the finals of the 2018 world championships of League of Legends along with another song released this year, RISE. As they played the song, the real singers and the K/DA skined champions were displayed together using augmented reality to create holograms to seem as if the fictional characters were there.

LHS Senior Lola Holmes  said, “It’s amazing that there are Kpop aspects to a concept I always thought would be American.” Weighing in on whether she is more interested in playing the game, she replied, “I’m not a huge fan of Kpop or games so I’m still not going to play the game.” Regardless of what she says, the promotion has been a huge success with many gamers being more endorsed in the game to these new skins.