''Players'' is an American

mockumentary A mockumentary (a blend of ''mock'' and ''documentary''), fake documentary or docu-comedy is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events but presented as a documentary. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on c ...

television series created by Dan Perrault and Tony Yacenda, that premiered on June 16, 2022, on

Paramount+ Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...

. The series is a parody of sports documentaries, and follows Fugitive Gaming, a fictional pro ''

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 ...

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 ...

team.

Cast and characters

Main

* Misha Brooks as Creamcheese, Fugitive's 27-year-old veteran player * Da’Jour Jones as Organizm, Fugitive's 17-year old gaming prodigy *

Ely Henry Ely Henry (born October 18, 1991) is a Canadian-American actor and comedian. He is best known for his roles in ''Smallfoot'', '' Some Freaks'' and ''Mean Girls''. Career Henry's first role was in the critical and box-office success ''Mean Girls' ...

as Kyle Braxton, Fugitive's coach, and Creamcheese's closest friend

Recurring

* Holly Chou as April Braxton * Youngbin Chung as Nightfall * Noh Dong-Hyeon as BAP * Micheal Ahn as Bucket *

Moses Storm Moses Jacob Storm (born May 6, 1990 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States) is an American writer, actor, and comedian, who has appeared in film, television and radio. Early life Moses Storm was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, as one of five child ...

as Guru * Alexa Mansour as Emma 'Emmanence' Resnick * Luke Tennie as Rudy Elmore Jr. *

Matt Shively Matthew James Shively Jr. (born September 15, 1990)
PopTower.com. No date. Acces ...

as Frugger * Stephen Schneider as Nathan Resnick * Peter Thurnwald as Foresight *

Miles Mussenden Miles Mussenden is an American actor and music producer. He is best known for portraying Otis Johnson in '' Marvel's Cloak & Dagger''. Career Born in London to Guyanese parents, Mussenden and his family moved to Brooklyn where at the age of nin ...

as Rudy Elmore Sr. *

Arischa Conner Arischa Conner (born October 18, 1971) is an American actress. Early life Conner was born in Kingstree, South Carolina, and raised in Florence, South Carolina. Career Arischa is best known for her recurring role as Leah Turner in the Hulu ...

as Simone Elmore * Dan Perrault as Paul 'Bignpaul' Gilberstadt * Ryan O'Flanagan as Chris McManus * Christopher Gilstrap as PuttPutt

Episodes

Production

In August 2021, it was announced that

had picked up a new comedic docu-style series that will explore the world of esports, titled ''Players.'' The show is created by ''

American Vandal ''American Vandal'' is an American mockumentary television series created by Dan Perrault and Tony Yacenda that premiered on September 15, 2017, on Netflix. The series is a parody of true crime documentaries such as ''Making a Murderer'' and ''Se ...

'' co-creators, Tony Yacenda and Dan Perrault, both of whom serve as executive producers, with the former directing.

CBS Studios CBS Studios, Inc. is an American television production company which is a subsidiary of CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. It was formed on January 17, 2006, by CBS Corporation as CBS Paramount Television, as a renaming of the o ...

produces the series, in association with,

Funny or Die Funny or Die is a comedy video website and film/television production company owned by Henry R. Muñoz III that was founded by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Mark Kvamme, and Chris Henchy in 2007. The website contained exclusive material from a reg ...

Riot Games Riot Games, Inc. is an American video game developer, publisher and esports tournament organizer based in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in September 2006 by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill to develop ''League of Legends'' and went on t ...

3 Arts Entertainment 3 Arts Entertainment is an American talent management and television/film production company founded by Erwin Stoff, Michael Rotenberg and Howard Klein in 1991. The company has gone on to produce TV shows such as ''King of the Hill'', ''The Off ...

and

Brillstein Entertainment Partners Brillstein Entertainment Partners (formerly known as Brillstein/Grey Entertainment and Brillstein/Grey Communications) is a talent management firm and television production company formed by the 1986 addition of Brad Grey to The Brillstein Compan ...

. After coming off from ''American Vandal'', Yacenda and Perrault sought to do another mockumentary style show. They got the idea for ''Players'' after doing research on the world of

. Sport docuseries like '' The Last Dance'', ''

Cheer Cheering involves the uttering or making of sounds and may be used to encourage, excite to action, indicate approval or welcome. The word cheer originally meant face, countenance, or expression, and came through Old French into Middle English ...

'' and '' Formula 1: Drive to Survive'' were inspirations for the show. The creators also looked at the narrative drama '' The Queen's Gambit'' as an example of how to depict a complicated game like chess for viewers who may not know the rules. In addition to having people from the ''

League League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

'' community in the writers room, producers at Riot Games would fact-check the scripts, in order to keep the show authentic to real life esports.

Release

The first four episodes were released on June 16, 2022, with subsequent episodes releasing weekly until July 28, 2022. The first season consisted of ten episodes.

Reception

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the series has a weighted average score of 80 out of 100, based on reviews from 10 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

References

External links

''Players''
on

* {{Paramount+, state=collapsed 2020s American mockumentary television series 2022 American television series debuts English-language television shows Riot Games Television series by 3 Arts Entertainment Television series by Funny or Die Television series by CBS Studios Esports television series Paramount+ original programming