Why VALORANT’s New Anthem “If The Sun Burns Out Tonight” Hits Different

If you spend any time scrolling through gaming Twitter, checking Reddit threads, or grinding ranked queues late into the night, you already know the drill. When Riot Games drops a new competitive anthem, they don’t just release a track—they drop an entire cultural moment for the community.

As the competitive scene zeroes in on the massive global stakes of the VALORANT Champions Tour, Riot has pulled out all the stops for their latest musical masterpiece: “If The Sun Burns Out Tonight”.

And honestly? This might just be their heaviest, most emotionally charged track yet.

A Heavyweight Lineup: Grabbitz, Oli Sykes, and Courtney LaPlante

Let’s talk about the talent behind this track, because the lineup reads like a dream wishlist for alternative and heavy music fans.

At the center of it all is Grabbitz, who is practically family to the tactical shooter community at this point. Having previously engineered iconic soundscapes for the game, Grabbitz handled the writing and production, weaving his signature electronic textures with soaring melodic structures.

But what takes “If The Sun Burns Out Tonight” into the stratosphere is the vocal powerhouse collaboration between two titans of modern heavy music:

• Oli Sykes of Bring Me The Horizon

• Courtney LaPlante of Spiritbox

Bringing these specific artists together creates a stark, beautiful contrast. Sykes and LaPlante trade haunting clean vocals before leaning into explosive, cathartic choruses that feel tailor-made for massive stadium speakers and live arena crowds. It sits right at the intersection of electronic production, alt-rock, and heavy metalcore—capturing that raw, do-or-die energy of a 13-11 map score in overtime.

Capturing the DNA of a 5v5 Tactical Shooter

VALORANT is a game built entirely on tension. Whether you’re holding an angle with a Vandal, trying to clutch a 1v3 post-plant situation, or coordinating utility with your team on a tight execute, every single round demands absolute focus.

An anthem meant to represent the peak of competition has to mirror that pressure. When you listen to lines like, “I wonder if the sun burnt out tonight / Would you let me go or hold me tight?”, it’s hard not to think about the players on stage at VCT Champions. They’ve poured thousands of hours into practice, grinding through regional stages just to make it to the international spotlight. For them, playing on that stage is the pressure cooker. One missed shot or mistimed flash can mean elimination.

The song captures that desperate, beautiful drive to outsmart and outplay the opposition against all odds. It embodies what it means to DEFY THE LIMITS—pushing past your personal rank plateau, mastering a new agent, and stepping up when your team needs you the most.

Lore, Visuals, and the Community Reaction

Riot never just drops a song in a vacuum; the music video and visual companion pieces are half the fun. Fans are already picking apart every second of the accompanying visuals, hunting for hidden agent lore, teasers about the Alpha and Omega Earth split, and subtle map-design nods.

Ever since the game launched as a 5v5 character-based tactical shooter, Riot has treated its universe with cinematic depth. The visual storytelling paired with “If The Sun Burns Out Tonight” leans heavily into themes of isolation, resilience, and finding light in the dark. It matches the visual identity of the game—slick, sharp, moody, and deeply atmospheric.

Community reactions across Reddit and YouTube have been overwhelmingly positive, with many players already ranking it alongside past community favorites. It proves that Riot’s music division understands the pulse of its player base, treating the soundtrack not as mere marketing, but as a genuine gift to the people who play and watch the game every day.

Track Overview At-a-Glance

Time to Queue Up

Whether you’re grinding your way out of Gold, practicing lineups in custom games, or just kicking back to watch the best teams in the world battle for the trophy, “If The Sun Burns Out Tonight” is the ultimate companion piece. It reminds us why we fell in love with tactical shooters in the first place: the rush of competition, the depth of strategy, and the shared community experience.

Crank up the volume, grab your duo, and go show the lobby what you’re made of.