New mural installed in Edinburgh to celebrate Clove, first-ever Scottish Valorant character

Riot Games, the developers behind popular free-to-play title Valorant, commissioned a local artist to create the piece at Quality Yard in Leith.

Since its release in 2020, the demanding first-person shooter has established a player base of more than 14 million people monthly with a recent Valorant esports tournament boasting a prize pool of $2.25 million.

Unlike other shooters, such as Counter-Strike or even Call of Duty, Valorant has built up a colourful cast of characters – or Agents as they’re known – for players to choose from. Each has their own unique sense of style, personality and powers, which Riot makes sure reflects the diverse range of people who play the game.

Which is where Clove comes in.

Voiced by Scottish actor Isla Campbell, Clove is a non-binary character from Edinburgh who is both loyal and rebellious. Developers leaned into Scotland’s bold and independent spirit to build their personality, as well as the capital’s penchant for ghost stories.

As Clove, players possess the ability to return from the dead after defeat, something which is depicted in the new mural.

Created by local street artist Brian McFeely, who works under the name Elph, the work stretches across four panels, each representing Clove’s journey from death to rebirth.

McFeely’s work can be found in various spots around the city and while he is no stranger to creating unique characters, this mural presented a slightly different challenge.

“I had to do some research on the game because I'm quite old and I didn't know about it,” McFeely joked.

“Ross, who I work with, his kids actually have played it so we got a little bit of information from them.”

McFeely had “almost a big pack of references” to work from, alongside videos of gameplay which he used to help design the mural – though not all of his inspiration leapt from the screen.

“The part that's in this sort of wider design is loosely based on the top of Cockburn Street,” he pointed out. “In the game, often the areas look a bit like the place where the characters are from but they have sort of futuristic bits added in, so I've kind of added that to the street.”

Keen-eyed visitors will also be able to spot references to Clove’s voice lines such as “yer toast” hidden among the panels.

For two weeks, McFeely worked through poor weather conditions in order to complete the project ahead of its grand reveal on Tuesday, April 2.

Students from Eclipse, Edinburgh University’s esports society, were among those in attendance with cinematic projections helping bring some of the magic from the game to life.

Describing the project’s debut, McFeely said: “They're really so into [Valorant], you know, and they seem to quite like it, which was a bonus.”

And while pleasing those who play the game was a priority, the artwork seems to have touched those without knowledge of the game too. One woman stopped by after seeing images of the mural on social media.

“She said that her sister had recently passed away and her sister really loved butterflies. So just as we were closing down she was filming it. We were packing [the projections away] but she said 'I'm glad I got to see it'.”

Elph’s mural of Clove from Valorant will be available at Quality Yard in Leith until Tuesday, April 30.