This weekend is important for valuing esports, with the launch of a new professional league for teams in North America, Latin America and Brazil. The debut of the VCT Americas league, as it is known, will also mark the first time valuing The games have been held live and in person in North America. That meant Riot had to redesign its Los Angeles studio to be much more technological and flexible to accommodate the league, which shares space with League of Legends — the new esports arena can even transform.
The space was formerly known as LCS Arena, and for years it has been home to the best League of Legends league in North America (LCS). As part of the redesign, the studio space has been dubbed the Riot Games Arena. In fact, it is already in use; the most technically impressive space, with its giant LED screens and extensive lighting, is being used for the current LCS season, which began in January. But the space was also designed to be modular so that it could support the needs of each game. and make them look different from each other.
“We were thinking about updating the studio for a while, because it had been several years since the LCS studio was updated,” explains Bear Jemison, a director at Riot. valuing esports for the Americas region. “I think with the launch of VCT Americas, there was an opportunity to almost future-proof our production and also figure out how to best utilize the space for both esports and intramural events and university events.”
Planning for the redesign began last September. And for the most part, the difference between the valuing and League of Legends Transmissions will be visual. The giant LED screens will feature different graphics, and the layout of the players is slightly different; in League teams line up side by side, while valuing the squads face each other head-on. You can get an idea of the two designs in the following images:
But there are also a few more technical differences between the two. In particular, the valuing A version of the studio had to be designed so that three different sets of broadcast talent could call the games simultaneously in three different languages. “We didn’t want it to feel like the Latin American and Brazilian teams were visiting a studio in Los Angeles,” says Jemison. “We really wanted to design the space to feel like a broadcast from the Americas and a celebration of all regions.”
There are some other technical details: valuing it requires clearer audio, for example, so fans can hear things like footsteps, but the biggest feature of the arena is its modular design. It’s like when Madison Square Garden trades in the hardwood of a basketball court for the ice rink necessary for hockey, only with a lot more screens and countless reels of wire. According to Dawn Persson, who led the technology and production side of the redesign, it currently takes about two hours and between 12 and 16 people to transform the space from League to valuing and vice versa. The goal is to reduce it to one hour. That speed may not be necessary right now, as both games currently have matches on different days of the week, but it could be important in the future.
“We don’t have a crystal ball as to what the future of Riot esports will look like,” says Persson. But with the success of valuing and VCT, we wanted to create space for… who knows, in five, 10 years we might be doing esports 24 hours a day. So being able to go from one look to another and make efficient use of our time was something we had in mind.”
The modular nature should allow production teams to adapt more quickly in the future. He valuing The league is brand new and the LCS is constantly changing, so it’s likely that there will be changes to the setup in future seasons. But the space is also important to Riot’s esports ambitions as a whole; After a few years of toggling between online and in-person events, the renovated studio is a permanent home that both leagues need.
“Playing in a crowd, at a local stadium, adds a special kind of energy that has been missing in recent years,” says Jemison.
You can check out the new space when VCT Americas kicks off at 3 pm ET on April 1.
