VALORANT Champions 2025 anthem wows with fiery visuals—but it fails to match predecessors

Riot Games may put out plenty of music celebrating milestones throughout the year, but nothing builds more hype than the annual VALORANT Champions anthem. So, like every year, I had the 2025 anthem’s release circled on my calendar—yet the long wait ended in a letdown for me and countless fans.

Composed by the templuv duo in collaboration with 347aidan, the latest VCT Champions track, “Last Shot,” went live on Sept. 9. I was there seconds after its release, hoping the song would set the stage for Paris and give me that one last nudge to pick up the Champions 2025 Vandal skin. Unfortunately, things didn’t turn out to be as expected.

Don’t get me wrong; I love every bit of the video. The animation is excellent, and it makes me want a longer version of it, maybe even a full VALORANT animated movie someday. Despite being a Champions song, it perfectly captures the spirit of esports and ranked play, highlighting those high-pressure 1vX clutch moments that define both. Like this one standout scene, which shows Phoenix stuck in a 1v1 clutch situation against Jett—after winning a 1v4—while his teammates bombard him with chaotic advice in his ear. Too relatable? Yeah, that’s your sign to set up a Clutch Mute keybind in VALORANT. 

Set the impressive video design and somewhat emotional lyrics aside, and the problem with Last Shot becomes clearer: It just doesn’t sound like a track that represents a tournament of VALORANT Champions’ stature. The weight is missing, as are the powerful music and driving beats that have defined every year’s anthem so far.

From Die For You (2021) to Superpower (2024), every Champions anthem before this portrayed the surreal feeling of building a professional profile from the ground up and standing firm against every challenge on the path to becoming a winner. Their videos were packed with major esports references, from top-performing and dark horse players to iconic moments from the competition. All of that embodies the spirit of VCT, which is almost completely missing in Last Shot. 

Riot is known for being experimental with its music, and many of its tracks have taken time to grow on the audience. Last Shot might follow the same path, so I plan to give it a few days of regular listening. It’s a pretty decent track on its own—but only if we were to ignore the fact that it’s supposed to be a Champions song. It feels more fitting for a cinematic video marking a new season in VALORANT, or at best, a tournament of smaller scale.

With four older yet better Champions anthems to listen to, it’s hard to stay focused on the 2025 track. After all, it’s a song; we’d want to primarily listen to it, not have to watch the video every time just to be reminded of its best feature.