Riot chose for a big music video over a live performance at Worlds 2021
With massive sets and glimpses about the impending Arcane animated series, this trailer is a must-see.
The opening ceremonies are always a highlight of the League of Legends World Championship. It’s become a common occurrence for Riot Games to stage a real-world extravaganza in advance of the big game. In the past, this has included everything from holographic musical performances to an appearance by a K-pop group using augmented reality. However, in 2021, things took a turn for the worst.
Riot used a pre-produced series of music videos that included massive real-world settings mixed with sequences from the upcoming Arcane animated series instead of a live audience owing to COVID-19 constraints. Even though it wasn’t a live performance, it was nonetheless stunning. “This is really what feature films do, what Marvel does,” says Matt Kauth, head of production at London Alley Entertainment, which collaborated with Riot on the project.
It was essentially a 13-minute short film that mixed animation, music videos, and physical sets that premiered before Worlds’ title match. Imagine Dragons and Bea Miller performed a few songs, which were interwoven with animated vignettes from Arcane, which premiered on Netflix this evening. The idea of merging live-action and CG isn’t exactly novel, but the enormous real-world sets intended to appear like Zaun and Piltover, two legendary cities from League of Legends, are a big part of what makes the Worlds event work so effectively (which are featured prominently in the Netflix show).
“These are the biggest sets that we’ve ever done, and it’s probably not even close,” adds Kauth, whose studio has worked on music videos for artists such as Lil Nas X and The Weeknd. “We shot this whole piece over three days in Los Angeles and three days in Birmingham, UK. It is also the busiest it has ever been in the production landscape right now. Both because we’re coming out of the other side of covid, but also because all of the streaming that’s happening. It’s never been busier, and crews are very hard to come by. The LA shoot, we were literally taking construction members rolling off of TV shows. And adding new crew members every single day in order to meet this time frame.”
Music videos were always planned to be a component of the project. However, Riot had wanted to include a live component as well. Due to covid issues, the company was forced to relocate the event from Shenzhen, China to Reykjavik, Iceland. “We actually always intended for there to be this integration of music videos and more cinematic performances,” says Nick Troop, executive producer of the event for Riot. “Even when Worlds was still situated in Shenzhen, we were going to shoot these videos this way. This was the general plan. And part of the magic of the stadium show was going to be to build this interplay between the live show and the stuff that was pre-recorded, and use that to elevate what was happening in-stadium.”
The emphasis on physical sets contrasts with previous Worlds, where new technologies such as mixed reality were prominently used. Part of the decision was based on practical considerations. With a tight deadline to complete the project, the physical sets would be less taxing on the many VFX teams involved. If the videos had been shot with a green screen, for example, it would have taken far longer to complete because the backdrops would have had to be designed from scratch. “Our goal was to make sure that we were capturing as much in-camera as possible, so that when we handed the baton off to the VFX departments, they had enough to work with,” Kauth adds. (Even yet, the post-production effects were wrapped by five distinct studios and 230 individuals.)
However, Riot picked the IRL sets to help distinguish the opening ceremonies from the many other virtual performances that have been taking place recently, particularly during the pandemic. Plus, it was just plain cool. “You can feel when it’s real,” says Troop. “You live in a rendered world for the most part when you interact with League of Legends. Here is one of a handful of opportunities to bring it to life.”
Vast-scale movie productions, like as those from Marvel, are known for utilising large sets as well as several effects studio partners. However, Kauth claims that it’s uncommon for short-form initiatives like this. He claims that having so many people working on it not only helped make the opening ceremonies appear stunning, but it also helped make it a more sustainable production where teams were able to avoid crunch. “It’s a film and TV approach to hit the deadline and not burn a single company into the ground,” he explains.
While the 2021 ceremony was stunning, there was something missing in the absence of an in-person crowd. It’s difficult for the crew to tell if viewers are engaged without the roar of a stadium crowd. This year, they’ll have to turn elsewhere for that early flurry of input. “I’ll be curious for sure,” says Troop. “I’ll be keeping an eye on Twitter and Twitch chat.”