“The code allows game data to pass back and forth between the Lux MC-modified Unreal Engine. Moments like Champion Select, player deaths and Baron trigger the stage to begin our special effects, making the digital world flow into the real world dynamically,” he explains. “I don’t think any team has done as deep an integration between technologies as the Riot production team did at Worlds 2020.” DECENTRALISED COLLABORATION According to Adametz, Riot usually has more than 1300 staff producing events as big as Worlds. “The same number were working this year – the majority safely in their homes, like me,” he says.
The Worlds has been broadcast remotely with, it maintains, no loss of quality, since 2017 – eschewing broadcast production trucks in favour of a remote model to produce and distribute the Worlds. “We were running into limitations of what an OB van can provide, especially factoring in next-gen tech like real-time rendering and the 32K resolution backdrops used for the stages – it’s a lot of kit and prep,” explains Adametz. The remote model distributes a cleaned-up feed to regional production teams that use the backbone of Riot’s network to produce the show. “A world feed comes from the host country, which is improved and localized. We add different graphics, languages, roll outs and features,” he explains. Riot has 11 regional teams as well as another five or six third-party production partners. Usually, regional studios require a level of on-site access to the feeds from a video village near the venue, which is usually connected via a local SDI. The pandemic meant that local partners worked remotely and received these feeds via IP.
WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS The word ‘limitations’ didn’t apply to the competition, with South Korea’s Damwon Gaming triumphant
WEWERE RUNNING INTO LIMITATIONS OF WHAT AN OB VANCANPROVIDE
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