League pros weigh in on disappointing The Brink of Infinity cinematic

Instead of a cinematic, League fans got an Unreal Engine replica of Summoner’s Rift.
Screengrab via Riot Games

Riot Games has delivered various banger cinematics for its main events over the past few years. Whether it was the season announcement, in-game events, or the League of Legends World Championship, fans were showered with mesmerizing cinematic videos and songs. But lately, it seems Riot has forgotten what fans really want, which can be seen from the backlash the company has received from its latest cinematic reveal.

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The Season 2023 cinematic, The Brink of Infinity—which was released on Jan. 10—may well be Riot’s biggest oversight in this regard. Within hours of its upload, many League pros and content creators expressed their disappointment with the cinematic on social media.

The 2022 LEC Summer winner, Odoamne tweeted, “Uhhhhhhhhh this ain’t it chief.” Meanwhile, Fnatic’s ex-head coach YamatoCannon compared this cinematic to World of Warcraft’s infamous Mists of Pandaria expansion. 

Related: League’s Season 2023 cinematic is built off its champions’ voices, while featuring Powder from Arcane

“I’m not sure what I watched. I don’t wanna be mean, but it doesn’t seem like they tried?” Nicki Taylor said, who has given her voice to popular League songs like Here comes Vi and Worlds Collide. “It really does feel like they’re trying to kill League of Legends. Vibes do not check out. Do we think they’re gonna say “jklol” and upload… the real cinematic?” she added.

Other popular League personalities like Laure Valée and scarra also tweeted how this cinematic did not stand up to their expectations. Some like Fabian Mallant even went on to say that this year’s cinematic was an “Unreal Engine 4 demo + voice over.”

Notable League lore enthusiasts like Necrit and T B Skyen talked about how the Season 2023 cinematic fails miserably when compared to 2022’s The Call cinematic trailer. It comes off as a “lazy, cheap, and stale” version that will make anyone want to “quit League of Legends.”

It was a similar story back on Sept. 22 last year when Lil Nas X’s Star Walkin Worlds 2022 anthem was released. Although it was decent, the anthem had failed to appease League players and fans. There was a common consensus the track was not able to showcase the grandiose and importance of the largest esports event in the game. 

It is fair to say Riot will not earn any favorable points from this cinematic. The company was already under everyone’s crosshairs after it changed the LCS streaming schedule to weekdays. Fans are now skeptical about the coming months as there are no plans for Riot to release any new in-game content.


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Author
Ashish Mahato
Freelance Writer at Dot Esports. Ashish grew up playing RPGs and MMOs, and has been writing about them since 2021. He covers League of Legends, its esports scene, along with MMORPGs and other general gaming topics occasionally. You will find him either engrossed in reading fanfictions, or playing Honkai: Star Rail in his free time.