Welcome to Critical Hit, where I (or someone else on the PC Gamer team) celebrate and lament all things videogame music, audio design, and the ways our favourite games make our ears tingle.

Despite my experience with League of Legends (the videogame) being incredibly minimal, I've spent years in admiration and awe at League of Legends (the music). Riot has found a real knack for taking its champs and turning them into bona fide popstars, rockstars, and hip-hop stars—bringing in talented and well-established artists across the globe and carving out a space in the mainstream music world with certified bangers fronted by fictional characters.

Some might argue (it's me, I'm some) that Riot Music found the height of its success towards the end of the 2010s with the likes of K-pop girl group K/DA's Pop/Stars and hip-hop group True Damage and their song Giants. The former, in particular, made waves when it released—it topped charts and led to K/DA becoming the first K-pop girl group to be certified platinum. That's not to say it hasn't done anything good since, mind, as 2023 saw Riot convert six of its champs into the boyband Heartsteel, with a distinctly cheeky vibe.

It makes it even more surprising, then, that Riot Music has barely done a thing with any group in the years since. K/DA returned in 2020 with a new look and new EP—which was a banger, by the way—but True Damage and Heartsteel were one-hit wonders, and K/DA has lain dormant for the last six years.

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