Riot teamed Lil Nas X up with a holographic mech for 2022’s Worlds opening ceremony

The closing moments of 2022’s opening ceremonies League of LegendsWorld Championship saw Lil Nas X, a star performer, seemingly being lifted in the air by a giant mech as a championship trophy floated above him. It was an impressive display of artistic vision and technical expertise — and it’s also the reason Carrie Dunn, creative director for Riot esports, has been a little stressed of late. “Any time you hoist a cultural superstar in the air for your finale,” she says, “there’s anxiety in that.”

Worlds is the highlight League’s competitive calendar, with the finals pitting two teams against each other who have worked all year for a chance at the trophy. This year’s edition featured the return of the legendary Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok — known by the incredible nickname the “unkillable demon king” — and his team T1 facing off against fellow Korean side DRX. As appealing as the actual games may be, the opening ceremony often steals the show.

The past was League developer Riot has employed Holograms Augmented RealityLive events. With covid-related restrictions, the team had to get creative in the past few years. 2020 featured To make crowd-free competition feel even more exciting, you can use a mixed reality stageWhile Last year, we opted for a massive music video over a live show. Associated with the release ArcaneNetflix.

With the promise of a full arena at San Francisco’s Chase Center, the team set out to create an experience that would appeal to both the spectators and the fans at home. That ruled out AR, which is only really cool when you’re staring at a screen. They instead used multiple technologies including a huge jumbotron-style display on ground level and a stage with thousands of LED tiles. But the most impressive feature is undoubtedly the holograms.

Riot used a technology called a 3D Holonet. It’s basically a high tech gauze that images can project onto to create a Holographic effect. That’s how the members of the fictional hip-hop group True Damage were able to perform on stage in Paris. The team will be using the same tools, but on a larger scale this year. They have three Holonet panels that measure 48 feet high. This is how they managed to achieve the huge mech moment.

However, it was also used to create smaller and more complicated moments. During the opening ceremony, League character Pyke showed up and appeared to use his trademark move, the “bone skewer,” to pull a real person toward him. This effect required many elements. A hologram to bring Pyke alive, precise lighting cues that create movement and multiple performers who could hit those cues flawlessly. “The technical complexity and ambition this year is, in my experience, a new peak,” executive producer Nick Troop explains.

In addition to all of the holographic mesh and LED stage, pulling off this year’s ceremony required 55 cameras, a nine-story-tall lighting truss, 24 30K projectors, and a media center setup “capable of driving up to 600 million pixels,” according to Troop. The event required more than 470,000 lbs of equipment. “That is more than double our last Worlds final in an arena,” explains Troop.

The right people were also necessary. Dunn claims that they knew exactly what they wanted even before they had secured Lil Nas X. “Lil Nas X was the mood board,” she says. “He was the vision. We had to wait a while before we could actually land him. But we knew we wanted him for a while. So we built the vision around the hope that he would fill it.” She adds that she “definitely cried a little bit” when he finally signed on. “It was both relief and excitement and also the realization that we have to get to work because he’s actually on board.” Fans got a taste of what to expect when Lil Nas X released the single “Star Walkin’” in SeptemberHe performed the following onstage at Worlds: This video featured a mech-version of the LeagueAzir, character Azir was the one who lifted Lil Nas X up on stage during this performance.

The Worlds opening ceremony was split into three “acts” this year, each with its own song. It started with “The Call,” the 2022 season anthem sung by Edda Hayes, which led into “Fuse the Fire,” performed by Jackson Wang, with Lil Nas X closing things out. Because of the complexity of this section, it was crucial to find a performer. Dunn says she happened to see Wang performing at a festival and realized right away that he’d be a perfect fit.

“His charisma and presence on stage is so undeniable,” she explains. “His choreography ability is unmatched, and this section of ‘Fire to the Fuse’ is very nuanced and very technical, and we needed somebody who… it’s not just that they can dance, it’s that they can dance no-holds-barred at a fast pace while hitting very precise and technical cues. His section is so tightly linked to the technology and the Holonet that there is zero room for error.”

The other star of the show wasn’t a person or in-game character: it was a brand-new trophy. In the lead-up to the Worlds finals, Riot revealed a newly designed version of the iconic Summoner’s Cup, created by Tiffany & Co. It was a prominent feature during the ceremony, and, as Dunn points out, the team lucked out in that mech Azir’s eye happened to be a very Tiffany shade of blue, making the reveal fit well visually. She says it’s a moment that required a lot of thought and care.

“It doesn’t feel like it’s the Summoner’s Cup until it has that moment on stage at finals and then being lifted by our pro players,” Dunn says. “We took this moment very seriously as our chance to induct it into the sport.”