Paramount+ announced in the middle of 2021 its plans to work on a new series called Players, a documentary-style esports comedy centered around the hit MOBA League of Legends. Now, we’ve gotten a first look at some of the players who’ll be involved with the show, players who double as professional League of Legends competitors themselves. The first image released this week shows off a couple of keyboard-wielding players with a 2022 timeframe attached to the show.
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That image can be seen below, and as League of Legends players and viewers may notice, it features a couple of familiar faces. From left to right, the players featured in the image are Noh “Arrow” Dong-hyeon of IMT Academy, Michael “Miko” Ahn who coaches at St. Louis University, actor Misha Brooks, actor Da’Jour Jones, and UCI Esports player Youngbin Chung. It’s again been described as a “comedic docu-style series exploring the world of Esports” through the lens of a fictional League of Legends team.
Aside from the first look at the actual players in Players and a confirmation of the 2022 release window, not much else is said about the new show in the tweet from Paramount+. We know from the previous announcement that it’s being headed up by Tony Yacenda and Dan Perrault, the creators of American Vandal. Both Joe Farrell and Mike Farah from Funny Or Die are serving as executive producers alongside Tim McAuliffe, 3Arts’ Ari Lubet, Brillstein Entertainment Partners’ Todd Sellers, and League of Legends developer Riot Games itself. Yacenda will be directing the series.
The team in Players will be composed of a number of different roles spanning the ages during which esports competitors sometimes compete including a 27-year-old veteran and a rookie, according to the synopsis of the show shared when it was first announced.
“Players is a comedic documentary-style series that follows a fictional pro League of Legends esports team, as they pursue their first championship after years of close calls and heartache,” the synopsis read. “To win it all, they will need their prodigy, a 17-year-old rookie, and their 27-year-old veteran to put their egos aside and work together.”
This is not the first time League of Legends has waded into TV either. The game was featured on HBO’s Ballers, and, more notably, it was adapted into an animated TV show called Arcane which was met with rave reviews and has
already been confirmed for a second season.
Players is scheduled to release at some point in 2022, though precise release plans have not yet been shared.
