League — A League of Legends Mini Documentary
2018
"The community is a bit different... You meet people around the world—people I would have never met before!"
— Matthew D'Angelo, Interviewee, Student
This documentary based around the niche culture of eSports, specifically League of Legends (LoL), and how a game such as this can create a community. LoL is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game by Riot Games for Windows and MacOS. It has garnered an ever-growing community that continues to thrive. As a result, an active competitive scene emerged, where many high ranking players are well-known both locally and on a global scale. Because of this, many of these reputable players have been able to receive sponsorships and pay, much like a sports player.
The Process
I wanted to create a story about the LoL community itself and the unity within the community. It starts with the interviewee introducing himself, and his background in the LoL community. He remembers the good times within the community, but at the climax of the video he also recalls the bad. The story picks up again by him looking over the negatives in the community with his personal positive experience. The denouement is him encouraging others to join him, because he was also in a similar position where he had difficulty with LoL. Leaving this open ending allows others to “join in on the story”.
The locations most of the footage was filmed were at the Square One Microsoft Store during their monthly LoL Event, and the University of Toronto-Mississauga League of Legends Club. Each B-Roll captured is meant to articulate with the emotions of the interviewee, following the rule “show don’t tell”. The interviewees themselves are acting as narrators for the entire documentary. The main interview was taken place in Sheridan College.
