So, hold on for another roller coaster, because Esports World Cup is stirring some deadly behind-the-scenes drama. “Esports World Cup: Level Up,” between five gripping drama-infused episodes bursting with every emotion imaginable, nail-biting competition, and enough esports lore to send a controller in vibrating crazily through your palm, is slated to premiere on Prime Video on June 6.
The EWC’s official tweet served as a brute-force adrenaline rush, ending with that hypnotic caption: “Tears or Trophy. The story begins here.” I tell you, given that torrent of responses, this is obviously not a light-hearted or even silly documentary; teams and fans consider this to be the Super Bowl of gaming documentaries. The region handles of Team Liquid have dubbed it “absolute cinema,” while FURIA declared, “Can’t wait,” accompanied by double flame emojis, because one was just not sufficient anymore.
This toxic dust spread across orgs, as many of them instantly used the hype to promote their squads: The S8UL fandom rolled in with rocket emojis waving “FTW”, Cloud9 classic praised it, while Team Secret dropped an icy “Everything is earned.” Even the Spanish TL account joined in with “me atrapaste, es cine,” which is roughly “you got me” or “this is cinema.” TL, same here.
Then, some mess were started in the replies (how fitting for the best that is esports), as some French players started beefing about mobile esports representation, with M8 LindiKoss lamenting, “0jeu sur mobile triste” (no mobile games, sad), and others returning fire that mobile titles simply do not fit into the scene. Meanwhile, some Russian-speaking fans went full keyboard warrior accusing EWC? of unfairly holding rules in Dota 2 matches, complete with ALL CAPS RAGING ABOUT TEAM DELAYS. Classic esports Twitter as usual.
That’s MVP material for real — whoever gave a green light to the idea of putting Drazah coolin’ in a whip now has half of the comments section memeing on why he’s just sitting there. Esports documentaries thrive on moments like that, and judging by the big trailer reactions, we’re getting an uncut version of the highest highs, and the most devastating Ls of competitive gaming.
Quite a fascinating timing, too-the show is coming out at a moment where the esports world debates sustainability, franchise models, and what competitive gaming even looks like post-pandemic. This docuseries might well be the industry’s victory lap or therapy session, and we’re honestly happy for either one. The really short length of only five episodes points to the possibility of really heavy content with no filler, which is probably why Shadow Dweller replied that they’ll need more episodes to cover all the stories.
Mark that calendar for June 6th, because this is probably the closest thing to The Last Dance we’ll ever see in esports: in equal cans of bottle artistry, behind-the-scene drama, and gamer tears (happy and sad). So grab your popcorn and tissues, and watch what really happens when fast fingers go against high stakes, as advised by Team Gullit. You may want to start blaming us soon when all the emotions get attached to players you’ve never heard of by halfway through episode three-that is how these things always turn out.
