''All Work All Play'' is a 2015

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

directed by

Patrick Creadon Patrick Creadon (born May 4, 1967) is an American filmmaker primarily known for his work in documentaries. His first film, ''Wordplay'', profiled ''New York Times'' crossword editor Will Shortz and premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. ...

. It explores the growing

esports Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although orga ...

industry and follows professional gamers as they compete in the

Electronic Sports League The ESL Gaming GmbH, doing business as ESL (formerly known as Electronic Sports League), is a German esports organizer and production company that produces video game competitions worldwide. ESL was the world's largest esports company in 2015, ...

's 2014 Intel Extreme Masters World Championship. The documentary was screened as a "work in progress" at the 2015

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...

. To commemorate its official release,

Fathom Events Fathom Events is an entertainment content provider that broadcasts entertainment events in movie theaters throughout the United States including Metropolitan Opera Live in HD, the performing arts, major sporting events, and music concerts. The ...

and By Experience broadcast two special screenings of the film, each of which was followed by a panel discussion with the creators and cast. For ''All Work All Play'''s international theatrical release, Fathom Events and By Experience released the film in 1,200 theaters worldwide.

Synopsis

The documentary primarily focuses on professional ''

League of Legends ''League of Legends'' (''LoL''), commonly referred to as ''League'', is a 2009 multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by ''Defense of the Ancients'', a Mod (video games), custom map for War ...

'' players as they vie for spots at the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship, an annual esports competition held in

Katowice Katowice ( , , ; szl, Katowicy; german: Kattowitz, yi, קאַטעוויץ, Kattevitz) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area. It is the 11th most popul ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. The film also follows Michal "Carmac" Blicharz, the managing director of

ESL English as a second or foreign language is the use of English by speakers with different native languages. Language education for people learning English may be known as English as a second language (ESL), English as a foreign language (EF ...

, and details his ascension from gaming enthusiast to organizer of the IEM Championship.

Cast

Creadon interviewed several professional gaming teams for the film, including American teams

Cloud9 Cloud9 Esports, Inc., or simply Cloud9 (C9), is an American professional esports company based in Santa Monica, California. The company was originally founded as a professional ''League of Legends'' team by Jack and Paullie Etienne in May 2013 ...

and

Team SoloMid Team SoloMid (TSM) is a professional esports organization based in the United States. It was founded in September 2009 by Andy "Reginald" Dinh. TSM currently fields players in ''League of Legends'', ''Dota 2'', ''Apex Legends'', ''Valorant'', ' ...

and

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

n team

GE Tigers Hanwha Life Esports (HLE) is a South Korean esports organization based in Seoul, owned by Hanwha Life Insurance. It has teams competing in ''League of Legends'' and ''Kart Rider'', with the former competing in the LCK, South Korea's top level p ...

References

{{Reflist Esports films 2015 documentary films 2015 films Films directed by Patrick Creadon