by Mike Hilty, Contributing Writer
One of my favorite hosts of Saturday Night Live recently is Chance the Rapper. He has great comedic timing, is a great musical guest, and can keep a straight face to the best of his abilities. One of my favorite skits is when Chance plays NBA reporter Lazlo Holmes. Since he’s hosted twice, he’s had the chance to play the reporter twice. He knows basketball really well, but when it comes to covering other sports, he doesn’t know anything. During the first sketch, Lazlo covers a hockey game where he couldn’t pronounce anyone’s name, complains how cold it is, and gives generic hockey commentary. It’s still one of the funniest skits I’ve seen in a long time for Saturday Night Live. So when the second hosting stint came, Chance the Rapper got the opportunity to play Lazlo once again. He covered the League Of Legends World Championship. Lazlo, knowing nothing about Esports, is completely out of his element because he thought League Of Legends would be a basketball tournament. He calls it League Of Legos, doesn’t know anything about attack strategy, and when he was asked to comment, he says, “this game looks like how a seizure feels.”
Esports popularity is skyrocketing and it was only a matter of time before TV got a hold of it.
Players,created by Dan Perrault and Tony Yacenda, follows Fugitive Gaming through the 2021 League Of Legends championship series. The team has never won a national championship, but are gearing up for another round. They are led by Creamcheese (Misha Brooks), a cocky and talented player who has checkered history in big tournaments. Their coach and former teammate Kyle (Ely Henry), along with his wife April (Holly Chou), have a lot of history with the team. After sensation Organizm (Da’Jour Jones) is recruited to the team, Fugitive Gaming has to find a way to integrate him into the team while preparing for the national championship. Players season one is 10 episodes and is currently streaming on Paramount +. No decision has been made regarding season two.
Esports is a huge blind spot for me. I don’t have a lot of experience with computer games, as I’m a Playstation kid, and as of late, a Nintendo parent. Other than watching some friends play, I never found interest in playing. I knew in order to be great, a lot of time had to be spent playing. In high school and college, I didn’t have the bandwidth to play something so time consuming, nor did I have a computer setup good enough to play. So apologies in advance for not being knowledgeable about Esports.
Players is a mockumentary, giving me the same vibes as the documentary about the 1990s Chicago Bulls, The Last Dance. Had this been a regular sitcom, this wouldn’t have worked. The mockumentary style of the show helps guide the audience through areas that are less familiar to anyone who has never played Esports before. The interviews are excellent, and it’s a great blend between comedy and genuine emotion and introspectiveness.
Esports is a fascinating topic to focus on. What’s great about Players is that there is an attempt to humanize the athletes, as well as showcase the sacrifices they make to get to the level they need to be at for competitiveness. The amount of time it takes to be truly great is mind boggling. I don’t think there’s enough credit given to the amount of work they put into being great. There’s sometimes a stigma around Esports (and all sports’ athletes, if we’re being honest) that is tackled head on in the series that the players get paid an overwhelming amount of money to play a game. From a story perspective, the early episodes talk about the work that Creamcheese and his teammates put into becoming good. There are also story points where they talk about how parents don’t understand how someone can make a career of playing video games because it’s not a conventional career. The players who talk about it, particularly Creamcheese and Organizm, all struggle with how their parents aren’t supportive. It’s moving to see how they continue to push forward and follow their dream no matter what.
I was rather surprised at the range of emotions that were presented to the audience throughout the course of the show. Yes, I did find the show funny the vast majority of the time. Some of the characters talk about the struggles they face being in Esports, from balancing their personal life to taking defeat with grace. There’s also a lot to be said about how the characters need to adjust their role and be okay with sharing the spotlight. The final episode of this season I found to be very moving at times.
From a performance standpoint, Henry is the best part of the series. He’s seen as a father figure to Creamcheese, in addition to his coach, but he’s also a guide to the audience for Esports and League Of Legends.Brooks and Jones do great work together, while also showing the struggle they have to come together. The other two characters I thought were great are Foresite (Peter Thurnwald) and Guru (Moses Storm). They’re former Fugitive Gaming teammates, and the story behind why they left the team is fascinating.
The gameplay itself is fascinating to watch. The tension during the game is really strong and how much strategy goes into gameplay is immense. These moments were a nice complement to the backstory and practice that the majority of the season shows. It helps the audience see the end results when they’re actually playing the game. The way the gameplay is integrated into the show is really cool, as well as getting a sense of what it’s like to watch games in a stadium.
10 episodes felt very long at times for the season. There could have been some story points cut out for time and it would have felt a little more tight. There are a lot of moments where there’s a lull in playing the game and it can be a little dull if you’re not invested in the story. This is something small, but Paramount+ as an interface to watching TV shows isn’t great either. It doesn’t always save where you were watching if you need to switch to a different TV or device, and it doesn’t always go to the following episode. Had this been on a different service, the experience may have been a little better.
Through and through, Players is a story about underdogs and who doesn’t love a story about underdogs. Players is a pleasant surprise. I enjoyed this show quite a bit. This won’t get me to play League Of Legends, but it just offered a glimpse into a world, and its competitiveness, that I know nothing about. For any fan of video games, this is one to watch. I’m hoping for season two because based on how season one ends, it sets up a very interesting second season.
Score: 8/10
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