The League of Legends World Championship Finals Opening Ceremony presented by Mastercard, which took place recently and was one of the most widely viewed events in the world, included a special performance this year.
The Future Group (TFG), world leaders in interactive mixed reality integration, and Riot Games, developer and publisher of League of Legends and organizer for affiliated esports, utilized the Unreal Engine to bring a unique performance by supergroup K/DA to Incheon, South Korea’s Munhak Stadium for the 2018 World Championship Finals Opening Ceremony presented by Mastercard.
Real world artists Madison Beer, Jaira Burns, and Soyeon and Miyeon of K-Pop group (G)I-dle, united seamlessly on stage for a live performance together with their League of Legends digital counterparts Evelyn, Kai’Sa, Akali and Ahri, respectively.
"We imagined bringing our characters to life for the World Championship opening ceremony in 2013, but the technology didn't exist at the time,” said Viranda Tantula, Creative Lead at Riot Games. “Flash forward five years later and we’re finally able to make our vision a reality, thanks to our great creative partners at TFG and Digital Domain."
The in-house broadcast and creative teams at Riot Games collaborated with TFG throughout the production. Riot Games provided art direction and a base consumer-generated imagery model for K/DA’s lead member Ahri, and TFG transformed Ahri into her popstar counterpart and originated models for her three group mates, based on concept art designs from Riot Games.
“Riot Games’ creative vision came to life with the help of our multi-disciplined team of film VFX, real-time character, and broadcast engineering specialists,” said Oystein Larsen, Chief Creative Officer of TFG. “We are truly honored to have helped realize that dream."
Working with the Digital Domain team, who supplied the motion capture data for the characters, TFG brought the characters to life in real-time based on Riot concepts, complete with facial expressions, hair, FX, clothing, and realistic texturing and lighting.
“We are thrilled to have collaborated with Riot Games on the 2018 League of Legends World Championship Finals Opening Ceremony presented by Mastercard,” said Lawrence Jones, Executive Creative Director at TFG. “Collaborating with them on this stunning augmented reality experience to create hype and excitement from both esports and music loving audiences has been a tremendous success for both companies.
About The Future Group
The Future Group is the pioneer in Interactive Mixed Reality™ (IMR) technology, providing a next-generation platform for broadcast, industrial and entertainment customers to create IMR and AR content. TFG is revolutionizing TV production, mobile gaming and commercial solutions using real-time visual effects technology and creative services with their Frontier powered by Unreal Engine solution. TFG is based in Oslo, Norway and has offices in Rocky Hill, CT.
About Riot Games
Riot Games was founded in 2006 by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill, who had an objective to change the way video games are made and supported for players. In 2009, Riot released its debut title League of Legends to worldwide acclaim. The game has since gone on to become the most played PC game in the world and a key driver of the explosive growth of esports. Players are the foundation of the Riot Games community and Riot Games continues to evolve and improve the League of Legends experience on their behalf. Riot Games is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA and has 23 offices worldwide.
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