During yesterday's 2019 LCS Summer Split finals, a brief trailer revealed information that is certain to get many League of Legends fans excited. Specifically, Riot Games' immensely popular MOBA will be part of a storyline contained within the fifth and final season of HBO's Ballers. This comedy drama series focuses around a retired NFL player, played by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and featuring League of Legends in Ballers will undoubtedly bring a myriad of new fans to the show.
With respect to how League of Legends will find its way into Ballers' final season, the entry point is that one of the show's characters, Vernon Littelfield, has chosen to explore an interest in esports. This is not just a brief diversion to be concluded in a single episode, however, as it is intended to be a storyline that continues throughout Ballers season five. This was confirmed by Riot's own Anton Ferraro who indicated on Reddit that "League esports will be featured in a season long arc, not just one episode."
As such, fans may indeed be seeing quite a significant amount of LoL in Ballers' final season, and the trailer that was released yesterday gives a glimpse of exactly how it will be depicted. Not only does this Ballers trailer feature League of Legends gameplay, it also includes notable figures from the community like Yiliang "Peter" Peng of Team Liquid and Echo Fox's Rick Fox. It seems then that Leagues presence in Ballers will be more than cursory.
To note, this is not the first time that Riot has found a presence in a TV show, as an episode of The Simpsons from March focused around esports and a game called Conflict of Enemies. While this was not exactly League of Legends, Riot did offer consultation on the episode, and Conflict of Enemies certainly has a close resemblance to LoL.
The first episode of Ballers season five premiered on HBO just last night, and it will conclude on October 13. Thus, fans of League of Legends may be able to look forward to seeing the game depicted on television as the fall TV schedule gets into full swing.
League of Legends is out now for PC.
Source: Dot Esports, Eurogamer, Reddit