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K/DA

K/DA is a virtual K-pop girl group consisting of five themed versions of League of Legends characters Ahri, Akali, Evelynn, Kai'Sa and Seraphine. I-dle members Miyeon and Soyeon provide the voices of Ahri and Akali, respectively, Madison Beer voices Evelynn, and Jaira Burns voices Kai'Sa. The characters have also been voiced by other artists.

Appearances
K/DA was unveiled in the 2018 League of Legends World Championship Opening Ceremony in Incheon on November 3, 2018, with the release of their debut single "Pop/Stars". It is a bilingual song with both K-pop and American pop influences, with vocals in English by Beer and Burns, and in both English and Korean by Soyeon and Miyeon. The Prestige skins were available by completing special missions in-game, but can now only be acquired through skin rerolls or purchased with mythic essence when they are "unvaulted". The popularity of K/DA in 2018 led Riot to release an EP consisting of five songs, new skins inspired on its artwork, and music videos in 2020. Other appearances Similar to League of Legends, K/DA appear in the spin-off game Wild Rift as skins. It is also notable that the game received the champions the same day that the All Out skins released in October 2020. In Legends of Runeterra, K/DA All Out was released as special board that can play 3 of their songs. Also, each member and Seraphine also appear as unique cards in the card game. In Teamfight Tactics, for the game's 10th set Remix Rumble the roster of champions were primarily drawn from the League of Legends music-based skins, including all of the main members of K/DA as well as Seraphine. Furthermore, to supplement the group of champions with existing music skins, Riot created several new music-themed unit skins exclusively for the set. These included skins for League of Legends champions Lillia and Neeko, recasting them as "Superfans" of K/DA. Three K/DA songs are featured on Ubisoft's Just Dance series. "Drum Go Dum" is featured in Just Dance 2021 as a free limited-time gift, and was later released to the Unlimited subscription service. The in-game routine uses some moves from the official choreography by Bailey Sok, performed by the K/DA members in their All Out outfits. For Just Dance 2022, "Pop/Stars" is featured in the main tracklist, with the coaches bearing the outfits from the original music video. "More" is featured in Just Dance 2023 Edition with two different routines, one with the coaches in their All Out outfits and the other with Seraphine in her bedroom backdrop from the original music video. == Conception and creation ==
Conception and creation
The name "K/DA" is an in-game term in League of Legends that refers to a player's kills, deaths, and assists. According to Tantula, "We believe there's a huge overlap between League of Legends, esports overall and the music industry", and as a result, they invested "in building [their] internal music team with both an artist focused creative studio full of composers, songwriters and producers, as well as people who can perform all the services that you would see at a standard music label, such as distribution, A&R and promo." The dances were choreographed by Ellen Kim, Bailey Sok, Stevie Doré and Eileen Harman. According to Patrick Morales, Ahri was the first character to be chosen for K/DA, due to her previous appearances in League of Legends-related music as "Pop Star Ahri" back in 2013. Subsequently, with Ahri being a "beautiful, charming leader"-type character, Evelynn was chosen to contrast to that, by "being the wild and provocative diva of the group". As Akali's character was being reworked at the time, Morales included her into the band as he liked the "rebellious spirit" of the character. Kai'Sa was included due to a recommendation from skins lead Janelle Jimenez, as she wanted a "strong but silent loner who expressed herself on stage through her movements". The team also wanted diversity in the characters chosen, where each character has a well-defined archetype that allows viewers to easily identify their favourite K/DA member. According to Jimenez, "Pop groups tend to have a formula where each member has their own unique personality and style. I approached this like looking at classic anime team where you have the leader, the shy one, the feisty one, etc." Furthermore, they also wanted to ensure that the characters chosen had differing roles in the game. "Pop/Stars" was written with these archetypes in mind. For example, a rap section was included in the song as Akali was envisioned to be the rapper, and the pre-chorus was designed to be sung by Ahri. == Members ==
Members
The members of K/DA consist of four characters from the League of Legends video game: • Ahri (voiced by Laura Post, singing voices provided by Miyeon, Nayeon, Sana and Jihyo) is a nine-tailed fox mage in League of Legends, and one of the most popular characters in League of Legends. In lore she is a Vastaya, a chimeric race of humanoid beast creatures, in Ahri's case a fox-type of Vastaya known as Vesani. In-game, she is a mage-assassin hybrid usually played in the mid lane. Her main weapon is her orb of deception, which she can command to damage enemies and then return to her. She can also heal herself by hurting others, launch 'foxfire' missiles towards her enemies, charm enemies to immobilize them and use her ultimate ability 'Spirit Rush'; to rapidly dash up to three times. Miyeon was invited to visit Riot Headquarters in 2020 along with Soyeon to play League of Legends as their represented characters and skins (Soyeon as K/DA Akali, Miyeon as K/DA Ahri). Ahri also appears as a playable character in Ruined King: A League of Legends Story. • Akali (voiced by Laura Bailey and Krizia Bajos in League of Legends, voiced in K/DA interviews and promotional videos by Shannon Williams, singing voice provided by Soyeon and Chaeyoung) is a Ninja assassin character usually played in either the mid lane or top lane. In lore, Akali hails from Ionia formerly as a part of the Kinkou Order under its grandmaster Shen. After witnessing the atrocities committed by Noxus and the Kinkou's restrained response to the invasion of Ionia led to her abandoning the Order to defend her homeland in a direct fashion, becoming a rogue ninja. In game, her abilities involve creating clouds of smoke to become invisible, as well as throwing shurikens at opponents while hitting them with a kama and kunai. She is very mobile with abilities that allow her to dash rapidly and execute enemies with her ultimate. Her All Out solo song is "The Baddest". In K/DA, Akali is the main rapper of the group. Soyeon said she tried to "feel like Akali and move as if I were Akali" during the motion capture for "Pop/Stars". Akali is also a member of True Damage, another virtual group formed by League of Legends characters. Soyeon also played the game on two separate occasions; first alone on a livestream, and then a few months later with Miyeon at Riot Headquarters in 2020 as their represented characters and skins (Soyeon as K/DA Akali, Miyeon as K/DA Ahri). • Evelynn (voiced by Mara Junot, singing voices provided by Madison Beer, Kim Petras, Annika Wells, and Bea Miller) is a sadistic Demon assassin usually played in the jungle. In lore, she is a primordial demon who takes on forms that attracts her victims. At the height of her target's pleasure, she unleashes her true form and preys on their suffering as a result. In game, her noteworthy ability involves her being permanently invisible to enemies (shadow form) when outside of combat or outside of a vision range. This allows her to sneak up on enemies and appear from her shadow-form, using her charm spell to immobilize them, followed by quickly eliminating them with her combo and execution-like ultimate spell. In K/DA, Evelynn serves as one of the main vocalists along with Ahri. Her All Out solo song is "Villain". Some facts about Evelynn in the K/DA universe: She is known for her uncompromising vision, rich vocals, and "bad girl" attitude. Before K/DA, she had disagreements in other musical groups before working alone to write her own music before reconnecting with Ahri to create K/DA. Evelynn is very mysterious about her diet and workouts and usually declines to comment on her routine. She has a collection of very fast cars. She is close to few people and very protective of them. She has been romantically linked with several missing male celebrities but never confirmed a relationship. Evelynn has stated she takes inspiration from Karthus (another playable character in League of Legends who stars in the music group Pentakill). • '''Kai'Sa''' (voiced by Natasha Loring, singing voices provided by Jaira Burns, Wolftyla, Aluna Francis and Bekuh Boom) is a burst marksman and usually played in the bottom lane. In lore, Kai'Sa is the daughter of another champion, Kassadin, who was lost to the Void, an alternate plane of existence connected to Runeterra filled with many unspeakable horrors amidst the utter nothingness and darkness. To survive, she merged with a Voidborn, a creature of the Void, becoming an apex predator herself and has since returned to Runeterra not fully Voidborn, but remarkably less human. In game, Kai'sa can either snipe enemies from afar or dash close to them and fire missiles from magical cannons floating above her shoulders. She also has an ability to dodge attacks, which can also grant her invisibility once she is powerful enough. In K/DA, Kai'Sa is the main dancer of the group. She also rapped in "The Baddest" and sang in "Pop/Stars", "More", and her All Out solo song, "Drum Go Dum". Guest feature Seraphine (voiced by Michele Panu, singing voices provided by Lexie Liu and Jasmine Clarke) is a champion in League of Legends who can either be played in the mid lane as a burst mage or in the bottom lane as an enchantress support (alongside a marksman, such as Kai'sa). Her entire character and abilities are based around music. In the League of Legends universe, she is a singing superstar in the city of Piltover, with her floating stage that is powered by a crystal. In the K/DA universe, she is a Chinese-American living in Los Angeles, and sings in both English and Chinese. After her singing on social media gained the attention of the K/DA members, she had a collaboration on K/DA's 2020 title track "More", and helped produce K/DA's first extended play, All Out. Seraphine is not a permanent member of K/DA, and it is unknown if she will appear again in the K/DA universe. In the real world, she has an Instagram and a Twitter account that details her start as an indie artist to becoming a pop star. She also has a SoundCloud containing several covers posted in late 2020, consisting of "Childhood Dreams" by ARY, "Pop/Stars" by K/DA, and "All the Things She Said" by Russian duo T.A.T.u. Along with her covers, she has also released her own song "Made Me This Way". == Reception ==
Reception
(Akali pictured). "Pop/Stars" reached number 1 on Billboards World Digital Song Sales chart in November 2018, making K/DA the fourth K-pop girl group to do so, and only the fifth female act overall, leading Jeff Benjamin of Billboard to write that "all signs point to Esports very possibly shaping what can make a hit song in the future." The song sold 9,000 copies in its opening week, according to Nielsen Music. as well as charting first on Apple Music's K-Pop charts and fifth for pop music overall. The video continued to garner views, receiving over 13 million views within 48 hours, when the video trended on the site. On April 2, 2019, the music video reached 200 million views. Benjamin Pu of NBC News wrote that "The song's popularity highlights just how much of a cultural force video games have become in South Korea and around the world." K/DA's popularity has resulted in a large amount of fanart being created of the group. This includes a large amount of art featuring Akali and Evelynn, as the two were paired up in the "Pop/Stars" music video, with Akali being the most popular. Professional League player Sneaky also cosplayed as K/DA Kai'Sa, and after he posted images of the cosplay on Twitter, the tweets received over 4,500 retweets and 23,700 likes within two days. Shannon Liao of The Verge wrote that through K/DA, "Riot Games has tapped into an audience bigger than the typical League fan base", with ex-players and new players joining the game "because the [Pop/Stars] video looks so cool." Riot's Patrick Morales agreed, noting K/DA's impact goes beyond just that of League fandom, with "one recurring comment that I tend to see on YouTube and social media about the music video is that they're "normally not into League/K-pop/gaming, but K/DA is the exception". Lucas Lockyer of Dazed called K/DA a mix of "Girls' Generation meets Little Mix and Hatsune Miku" and asked if the band was "leading the virtual pop future", where "what was essentially some creative promotional marketing could be the forefront of an interesting new branch of pop [...] Perhaps with developed AR technology, the characters could tour in hologram form without the physical appearance of the singers behind them." "Pop/Stars" was also added as a song to the virtual reality rhythm game Beat Saber as a free download. == Discography ==
Discography
Extended plays Singles Other charted songs == Awards and nominations ==
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