Press Start publication: Riot Games' Content Marketing Approach for VALORANT Champions 2022

On July 15, 2025, my university research on Riot Games' Content Marketing Approach for VALORANT Champions 2022 was published in the peer-reviewed scholarly journal, Press Start. The work went through multiple iterations from its original version, improving in content, formatting, and structure.

Getting a scholarly article published takes a considerable amount of time, with multiple rounds of feedback and edits. I want to highlight the key changes that perfected this article throughout the process, making it fit for the journal.

For any citations or references:

Strazd, E. (2025). Riot Games’ content marketing approach for VALORANT Champions 2022. Press Start, 11(1), 47-73. Retrieved from: https://press-start.gla.ac.uk/press-start/article/view/306

Strazd_DF_July+13,+2025+[PROD+READY].pdf

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From a University Research to a Scholarly Article

The article had undergone more than five rounds of edits, including peer reviews and editorial feedback, with each offering multiple major suggestions for improvement. I implemented that feedback alongside my own proposed improvements.

Industry developments

Throughout the months I was working on the article, the industry has been rapidly moving forward. While I never intended to keep the paper up to date with the current day to avoid falling into the never-ending rabbit hole of updates, certain clarifications and updated sources were worth adding to add context and introduce more in-depth sources.

Here are a few examples of improved information:

• One of the games I used in the comparison was Overwatch, and it got its main esports league (OWL) shut down in 2023.

• In 2023, a paper by Yin, C., Huang, Y., Kim, D., and Kim, K about the effects of esports content on viewing flow was published, which mentioned how players who are less involved in the game's esports are important potential viewers, reinforcing the discussion in my article about content marketing.

Key findings

The published version has more emphasis on key findings throughout the body. It now features sections for each key finding, including the peak of user interactions with Twitter content, sets of regional VALORANT accounts, fear of missing out on in-game content and rewards, and more.

Style

The article had to follow the journal's style. This included using the provided template for fonts, sizes, sections, headings, and references. Updated format introduced dedicated sections for methodology, providing a summary of analytical methods used for each content medium (social media, website, in-game), and the author's positionality, explaining my background and how it may introduce a certain level of bias, as well as how it will be mitigated.

Esports (and games in general) never stop, and some things have certainly changed since 2022 for both VALORANT and other titles. For example, the VCT structure has been adjusted, and the Valorant Esports website also had a makeover.

Still, I hope this breakdown serves as a useful insight for anyone interested in content delivery for esports events. VALORANT Champions 2022 left an everlasting impression on me, even as I followed it from the comfort of my home.