A sports documentary parody about League of Legends players is in the works

A new mockumentary series called Players will follow the travails of a fictional League of Legends team as it struggles to claim its first world championship after years of failure. There isn't much in the way of detail at this point, but a Variety report says the series will focus on an unlikely pair of players—a 17-year-old phenom and a 27-year-old veteran—who must put aside their differences, and egos, and work together to bring home the gold.

Mockumentaries are like documentaries, except that their subject material is mostly or entirely fictional. One popular recent example is the American Vandal series on Netflix, a parody of true-crime documentaries about a guy who draws dicks on cars. In fact, the creators of that series—Tony Yacenda and Dan Perrault—are also behind Players, and will serve as executive producers.

Riot Games is involved in the production of the series as well—the Variety report lists the studio, although not any individuals, as an executive producer—which might give Players a sheen of authenticity it might otherwise lack, and possibly even pave the way for real LoL teams to appear in background roles.

The built-in audience for Players is impressive too: According to Reuters, the total combined viewership of the 2020 League of Legends World Championship was just shy of 50 million. And who knows? It might even be good: I didn't have great expectations for Mythic Quest, Rob McElhenney's comedy series about a game studio making the most popular MMO in the world, but it ended up being quite good and was brought back for a second season that aired in May.

Players is being developed for Paramount+ and doesn't have a debut date set at this point. I've reached out to Riot for more information and will update if I receive a reply.

TOPICS

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.