Rally: an identity experience connecting fans to esports
Role
Product Designer & Graphic Designer
Team
1 PM, 1 Developer, 1 Designer
Timeline
Sept 2025 – Dec 2025
Skills
UI/UX Design, Pitch Decks, Visual Storytelling
Background & Context
Riot Games challenged our team to deepen gamers’ emotional connection to esports players.
Riot Games excels at worldbuilding, from its characters to events. When challenged to create a product that would deepen emotional connections from esports fans to teams and players, I wondered what formula could connect players to esports, in the same way players connected to the champions of the game.
I was a product designer for ProductSC’s client services, working in a team of 3 (one PM and one dev).
Solution Preview
Rally: an in-client identity experience
Rally matches players with esports teams and pros based on playstyle, personality, and values, then builds engagement through a progression system and community-driven cosmetics that reinforce team identity over time.
Research
Fans show up for Worlds and championship games, but disappear in the middle of the split.
I conducted a comparative analysis of viewership data, revealing that steep drop.
Viewership Dropoff
I conducted 12 user interviews between casual League players, lapsed esports viewers, and traditional sports fans and discovered there’s no onboarding into esports…
Esports Lacks Jersey Markers
Traditional sports fans told us teams "stand for something," but esports teams felt mechanical and interchangeable.
No Onboarding Into Fandom
Users are expected to research teams, learn rosters, and self-select, creating high friction and decision paralysis.
Mid-Season Narrative Collapse
Championship moments create temporary attention spikes, but between tournaments, there's no story scaffolding.
Players > Orgs
TenZ (Valorant pro) has 4.5M+ followers; the Valorant Esports account has 4.8M. Fans attach to individuals, but most pros have no presence.
Solution
01. The Match Quiz
An 8-question personality and playstyle assessment. Instead of telling players to just “pick a team,” we ask “who are you inside the game?” in order to connect players to esports pro players.
02. The Rally Pass
A lightweight, individual progression loop that rewards core behaviors—playing matches, watching live games, and team wins—without introducing grind-heavy tasks. Milestones unlock team-specific cosmetics, anchoring rewards to identity rather than performance.
Community Leaderboard
At the community level, the Community Leaderboard Pass aggregates individual participation into a shared progression bar, visually represented as an evolving team jersey (a banner). Each tier enhances cosmetics visually for all supporters.
Ideation
Understanding the funnel
Through our conversations with fans who understood what made the game so sticky, we concluded how Riot already builds emotional attachment with in-game characters through event ecosystems:
This funnel works because it transforms choice into an identity. The gap exists between curiosity and attachment. Riot’s fandom funnel solves this through designed identity moments; esports has none.
How might we transform the esports experience from passive viewing to identity-driven fandom by adapting Riot’s proven storytelling systems for real players and teams?
Takeaways
My takeaways
01.
Empathy and transparency is key
Creative solutions can be fun, but must also be feasible. Practicing empathy with your devs is key.
02.
Fans don’t just become fans
Properly designing and scaffolding a fandom pipeline is necessary for any product built in entertainment.
03.
Highlight monetization
A product’s greatest justification is its ability to generate profit: clarify that pipeline.
Thank you!
Wrapping up a busy semester at ProductSC
Shout out to my amazing team, Sky and Sania, ProductSC, and Riot Games, for such a busy semester, filled with learning and laughs! Go team Riot Red!
