Nexus Arabia Opening Ceremony

Just like on the screen, yet a bit more real

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

LoL is no laughing matter

Each month, more than 80 million people log in to League of Legends — one of the most played online video games in the world. When some of them don't, they probably go out and visit one of the many LoL-themed events and festivals.

Saudi Arabia recently hosted one of them for the first time — thousands of game fans gathered for The Nexus Arabia, a festival featuring several game tournaments, themed entertainment, experiential zones, music events, and multiple shows. Speaking of the latter, the very first one the visitors witnessed was the opening ceremony produced by Avocado Toast.

The world of League of Legends itself is a great source of inspiration — so first off, we logged in (hoping no one blames meddling in statistics on us). Our game mission was peaceful though, aiming to find something to be brought live on stage. We ended up in a remote forest between Freljord and Ironspike Mountains on the most played map of the game — Summoner's Rift.

Having chosen the real map as the show locale, we made some of the LoL champions real too, yet in a different — actual — way. Intricate costumes, props and make-up made it a hard task for our performing team (or should we rather blame it on the stunts?), yet they pulled off their parts greatly. Even though we pulled the strings (note how literal we are here) and suspended them in the least comfortable positions ever — to the benefit of the 12,000-strong audience, of course.

A study in materializing