Kia made League of Legends gamers ride the EV6 GT without tilting to win it

As main partner of the League of Legends EMEA Championship, Kia wanted an activation that fused its esports partnership with the EV6 GT's key performance feature: 0-100km/h in 3.5 seconds.

Gamers ride the 2023 World Performance Car with a stunt driver: stay calm and keep it, tilt and walk away empty-handed — measured by biometrics.

A facial analysis app tracking six emotional parameters, plus a heart rate monitor and pulse oximeter, judged gamers from Spain, Switzerland and Germany driven by Uwe Mansshardt, the stunt driver from John Wick and Mission Impossible, with LEC caster Medic commentating; the stunt launched on Instagram, TikTok and Twitch.

Every single participant tilted, proving the EV6 GT's exhilaration; the car went on show at the Kia booth during the LEC Finals in Montpellier, and the stunt gave Kia's esports platform a provable link to the car's performance.

In September 2023, having won the 2023 World Performance Car award, Kia's EV6 GT 'changed the game once again' by putting League of Legends gamers in the passenger seat. As main partner of the League of Legends EMEA Championship, Kia ran the Tilt-Proof Challenge from INNOCEAN Berlin: if the gamers stayed calm as the car sped across a racetrack, they kept the car; if they lost their cool — or tilted, as gamers call it — they left with nothing.

The challenge was engineered from the car's headline spec, acceleration from 0 to 100km/h in 3.5 seconds, which made staying tilt-proof a nearly impossible task. Rather than judging by eye, Kia developed a facial analysis app with six parameters tracking minor emotional reactions, backed by a heart rate monitor and pulse oximeter.

Gamers from Spain, Germany, Switzerland and France were driven by Uwe Mansshardt, a stunt expert from John Wick and Mission Impossible films, whose driving made staying calm an undeniable challenge. Streamers including @werlyb, @carmensandwich, @romainjacques and @broeki took the test with commentary from LEC caster Medic, launched on Instagram, TikTok and Twitch across European markets. Every single one of them tilted.

Kia Europe's marketing director David Hilbert said the campaign brought two concepts together — tilt-proof from the LEC partnership and the EV6 GT as World Performance Car — and that the universal tilting proved what the car is capable of. The EV6 GT was then displayed at the Kia booth during the LEC Finals in Montpellier, France.

A spec sheet does not travel between communities; 'tilt' is the emotional state every gamer knows, so the car's acceleration became a challenge in their language.

Biometric measurement turned a subjective dare into an observable verdict — six facial parameters, heart rate and pulse oximeter left no room to bluff.

A stunt driver from the John Wick and Mission Impossible school guaranteed the ride was genuinely extreme, so the content had real stakes.

The activation served two masters at once: content for the esports partnership and a demonstration of the EV6 GT's performance credentials.

Translate a product spec into the audience's own emotional vocabulary: 'tilt-proof' made 3.5 seconds of acceleration something gamers had to personally survive.

All participants tilted, which Kia framed as proof of the EV6 GT's exhilarating, dynamic driving performance. The challenge ran across Instagram, TikTok and Twitch in Spain, Germany, France and Switzerland, and the car itself was put on public view at the Kia booth during the LEC Finals in Montpellier — inviting fans to ask themselves, as executive creative director Ricardo Wolff put it, 'Would I remain tilt-proof?'