Angelina Altobano - RSAA College Championship

The Next Chapter: RSAA College Championship Brand Makeover

The Riot Scholastic Association of America (RSAA) is the governing body of College and High School League of Legends and VALORANT in North America. Since 2015, Riot Games has watched college League of Legends (CLoL) grow from 32 schools to over 400 schools and 16 partner conferences. In 2023, college VALORANT (CVAL) joined the RSAA roster and the 2023 season culminated in a joint event for both CLoL and CVAL, the RSAA College Championship.

With the addition of VALORANT as well as new games being developed by Riot Games, it became apparent that there was a need for a cohesive visual identity for the RSAA College Championship. The proposal included the creation of a new event logo and unified transitional elements to seamlessly connect the distinctive brand kits of both CLoL and CVAL for broadcast. The overarching objective of this rebranding endeavor was not just to enhance the visual appeal of the 2023 season but to lay a foundation for the future. As the RSAA College Championship expands into a multi-product tournament series, the rebranding will serve as a timeless and adaptable representation of the championship's essence. This project encapsulates not only the spirit of the current season but also sets the stage for the RSAA College Championship's enduring legacy in the realm of scholastic esports.

The Challenge

The initial design of the College Championship logo heavily leaned towards a League of Legends focus, featuring the CLoL trophy in its composition. Additionally, the broadcast interstitials employed straightforward geometric patterns that remained neutral and detached from any specific game. It was imperative for the new College Championship logo to integrate the RSAA logo, affirming the association's sponsorship of the event. Furthermore, the inclusion of League of Legends and VALORANT logos was essential, ensuring the representation of the respective games. In order to future-proof the logo, there needed to be space for additional logos as the championship expands to encompass more games in Riot's evolving game development. Additionally, a nice-to-have, was a way to try to include key art from the respective games.

The Solution - A New Logo

Inspired by college varsity sports apparel, my initial sketches leaned heavily into collegiate sports aesthetics. I opted for a more streamlined approach, maintaining the collegiate varsity formatting for the typography and creating a simplified logo lockup capable of housing multiple logos. To ensure a seamless integration of Riot's IPs, I used fonts from the League of Legends and VALORANT esports brand kits, with Riot's red as a primary color. The design also subtly reflects a college pendant by tapering the ends of the border, resulting in a cohesive and visually engaging piece that resonates with both collegiate sports and the gaming community. The use of this border also allows us to customize this logo when more games are added.

Style Guide

In addition to the logo, I created a 21 page brand style guide which covers logo usage, placement, typography, brand elements and textures. Inspired by the textures used for the previous College Championship, I decided to make use of simple shapes and use skewed rectangles at various sizes and colors. I also felt the use of these shapes would be a great way to frame key art from the games. However, to maintain a cohesive look for the RSAA College Championship, especially when working with imagery from different games, all brand elements must stay within the red, black, and white pallet. Key art used must be desaturated and to differentiate the IPs, a red overlay can be added to individual images. These color blocks can be used in multiple ways to create unique backgrounds and transitions for broadcast, social media, print, and merchandise. Additionally, because the logo visually looks better on white, compositions should make use of white space when displaying the logo.

A quick look at the brand guidelines

Broadcast Graphics

Using After Effects, I animated an interstitial to demonstrate how we would reveal the logo while using key art from the games and brand textures. Reminiscent of ticker tape at parades or sporting events, the color blocks swipe in and out at different speeds to reveal the logo. This animation dictated how on-stage broadcast graphics would look and I templatized this After Effects file so other motion graphic artists could easily change key art depending on broadcast needs.

A quick look at the animations on stage and on broadcast.

Push by Alex-Productions | https://onsound.eu/
Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/
Creative Commons CC BY 3.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Swag

Using the style guide as a north star and under my creative direction, our graphic designer crafted a merchandise line tailored for the participants and champions of CLOL and CVAL.

Event tshirt with the names of the participating colleges on the back

Joggers

Mousepad

Pendant

Enamel Pin with custom cardboard backer

Track Jacket (CLoL version) includes player screen name and school name

Custom Jersey for College Championship Finals in CLoL. Jersey colors are custom printed for the schools that make it into the finals

Custom Jersey for College Championship Finals in CVAL. Jersey colors are custom printed for the schools that make it into the finals

Snapback hats for the participants that make it into the RSSA College Championship

Some love from the community.

Client: Riot Games
Creative Director: Martie Flores
Art Director/Senior Designer: Angelina Altobano
Motion Graphic Artist: George Ahlmeyer
Graphic Designer: David Bettencourt