Cabal Esports and Lastlap lead the production of the European grand final of 'League of Legends' in Madrid with technology from Riedel

The Caja Mágica in Madrid hosted the European final of the 'League of Legends' EMEA Championship (LEC), the highest European league of the popular video game organized by Riot Games that I trust Cabal Esports Productions y Lastlap for the production of this great international event in which the reliability of communications with Riedel was key.

League of Legends is a competitive team video game in which two teams of five players face off on a map with the goal of destroying the rival's base. Each player controls a different character with unique abilities, which turns the games into duels of strategy, coordination and reflexes. On this occasion, in the final that took place from September 26 to 28 in Madrid, G2 Esports beat Movistar KOI in the final of a powerful economic event that combines sponsorships, ticket sales, broadcasts and merchandising. Clubs invest in squads, coaches and, of course, international audiovisual production at the highest level whose epicenter is a monumental stage with players elevated to 10 meters high with 460 square meters of LED screens from which the public present could follow every detail.

For the final that brought together more than 27,000 attendees and millions of online viewers around the world, Riot Games, which usually works with North American production companies, trusted the Spanish talent of the Lastlap agency and the Cabal Esports production company. While the agency was in charge of the planning, set design and execution of the show, Cabal Esports Productions was in charge of the international audiovisual production.

Andres Mirandes, Head of Engineering at Riot Games EMEA, highlights in this video interview that “Riot has always been a company that seeks to innovate, even with proposals that seem extreme.” “Events like this show not only the competitive spirit, but also the passion for technology and what we can offer fans, not only here in Madrid, but around the world,” he says.

Juan José Boronat, CEO of Cabal Esports, emphasizes that "eight years ago we founded Cabal with the idea of ​​producing and broadcasting the largest eSports event in Europe. Today we are here, at the LEC. We started with in-person events, then the pandemic forced us to work remotely and hybrid with televisions. Then we resumed the in-person part and now we combine broadcast and video games." “I think what has been most valued about us is that we are natives of video games and eSports,” he acknowledges.

For its part, Luis Fernandez, Director of Broadcast Operations at Cabal Esports, states that for this production they opted for a hybrid workflow. Part of the team is in Madrid (production, direction, microphones...) while video control, sound, replays and automation are located in Riot's production center in Dublin. It was a huge challenge, because communication at so many levels is very complex.”

For this production, around 90 professionals were connected to a intercom Bolero by Riedel, con plus 70 flasks and 20 panels distributed throughout the arena, even covering the backstage and auxiliary areas. "With the help of Riedel we designed total coverage, linked to Dublin. We opted for Bolero because we believe that the success of any event depends on communication," highlights Fernández.

Regarding the video network, the production relied on MediorNet Micron of Riedel deploying a total of 12 nodes with redundant systems and great flexibility to work with thirty signals ranging from subjective mini-cameras to capture the smallest detail of each player to wireless systems with stabilizers, cablecam, railcam...

Global impact

Fernández points out that "Riot trusted us because they knew that we would provide quality, reliability and knowledge of the industry. Furthermore, the impact of the event is global: not only is it broadcast locally, but it reaches millions of people. Several productions are produced in parallel: the main one in English, another in Spanish while several co-streamers transmit from their channels."

Finally, according to Boronat, "the big difference between a traditional broadcast and an eSports event is the complexity. In video games, many more signals are handled, leading to an event like this, for example, managing more than 180 audio signals and 130 video signals."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quJmg2mrTkE