Making League of Legends? stunning holographic Worlds opening ceremony

During the annual League of Legends World Championships at the 80,000-seat Beijing National Stadium — better known as the Bird’s Nest — Mackasek and the rest of Riot Games’ e-sports events team created an augmented reality spectacle when a virtual dragon modeled after an in-game monster flew around the stadium. Mackasek wasn’t able to enjoy the moment for long: just a few minutes after the event ended, his boss came up to him and asked “‘How are you going to do that bigger next year?”“It was a tongue-in-cheek question, but we got together soon after that ceremony and we talked really seriously about that,” Mackasek says. (It’s the same technology that allowed deceased artists like Michael Jackson and Tupac to posthumously “perform” at events.) “The Holonet allows us to do different types of effects that weren’t necessarily possible with augmented reality,” explains Mackasek.In between the first two songs, for instance, a giant holographic bubble appeared, masking the performers going on and offstage. Mackasek says that Riot’s e-sports events team works on the Worlds opening ceremony all year round. There are the actual performers and choreographers designing the performance, the art teams creating new versions of League characters both for the ceremony and in-game, and Riot’s music group putting together the songs.