“The Call” follows League of Legends champions through three storylines framed by the sight and sounds of Ornn, a demi-god, forging a weapon on his anvil. His handiwork is a metaphor for the characters’ stories: each faces a crucible of challenges but emerges hardened, with an unbreakable will to continue the fight.

In the frozen north, warmother Sejuani leads her starving tribe in search of new hunting grounds. When they’re ambushed, she rallies her people to the promise of a new tomorrow.

To the south, unlikely partners Taliyah and Kai’sa confront a Void incursion. Their newfound friendship is tested by a dire nemesis and moment of heroic self-sacrifice.

And in the west, fallen god Pantheon finds purpose in a graveyard of those who have failed where he has a chance to succeed. Drawing strength from their countless struggles, he flies back to the heavens to continue his eternal battle.

“The Call” is about more than the champions and their triumphs. Figuratively, it tells the story of the climb that 180M+ League of Legends players embark on after the reset of competitive rankings each year. In its writing, music, and animation, “The Call” casts its heroes against immense challenges to ask them—and players in turn—why do they go on? Why won’t they ever surrender?

The answer lies in the experience of playing League. Through their immense dedication, and over thousands of hours, players create deep bonds with individual characters, forming an indelible partnership built on wild moments they will never forget.

Players’ rankings may reset each year, but their emotional connection does not. If anything, it grows stronger, to the point that they see a new climb up the rankings as a new story to tell with the characters they care most about.

“The Call” uses hyper-realistic keyframe animation to bring the world of League to life. It’s a level of detail that stuns fans familiar with the game’s stylized look, imbuing a tangible reality to the characters and setting they have spent so long imagining.

Such fine detail turns each closeup into a devilish technical challenge. Animators layered techniques to accurately detail Pantheon’s hand as he climbs Mount Targon, requiring distinct workflows for sinews, muscles, skin sliding, blood flow, and flesh collision with the rock.

Another challenge involved realistic snowfall crucial to the believability of Sejuani’s mountain scene. The team developed a tool in Houdini to simulate snow withering and sticking to the characters, even on the elaborate geometries of groomed parts like the fur and mane of Sejuani’s boar mount.

All told, the detail, range of expression, and believability of the film’s animation connected players to its characters like never before.

League of Legends is a truly global game and experience. It also has a reputation for being a challenging game to play. Part of the difficulty we face is convincing players that it is worth the effort they put into it. Reminding them that “if it were easy, anyone would play it.“ Although the player base is in the hundreds of millions, they do appreciate a reminder like this at times.

The cultural headwind has only sharpened over the last decade: in a sea of easy forms of entertainment, League is difficult. But thanks to the connection League players develop with their favorite characters and fellow fans, it’s ultimately rewarding in a way that no other game is.