Players is a Mockumentary created by Dan Perrault and Tony Yacenda, who also created American Vandal, to parody sports documentaries like The Last Dance. The series streams on Paramount+.
Fugitive Gaming is a professional gaming team competing in the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS). Led by Creamcheese, the team's blustery Support, Fugitive is a perennial contender for the trophy but always comes short at the end of the season. Management seeks to change this by signing Organizm, a young prodigy making waves as a streamer, in the hopes that this will inject new energy into the team and finally get it over the top. What follows is conflict and drama as big personalities clash in the pressure cooker that is professional gaming.
Not to be confused with Players, a procedural starring Ice-T from the 1990s.
This series provides examples of:
- Always Someone Better:
- Fugitive and Creamcheese are overshadowed by TSM and Foresight. Whereas Creamcheese talks a big game and Fugitive hasn't won an LCS trophy, Foresight (previously a Fugitive member) has the gaming skills and leadership qualities to lead TSM to multiple LCS championship victories.
- It's repeatedly stated that North American League players are nowhere near as good as Asian League players, particularly those from China and Korea. (This is Truth in Television; South Korea, in particular, invented eSports as we know it today and have always had an edge in finding and developing talent.)
- Ascended Fanboy: Attempted by a young heiress and League fan who tries to buy Fugitive Gaming, apparently because she's attracted to gamers.
- Chromosome Casting: The main cast and most of the supporting cast is male. There are only two recurring female characters who appear outside of talking-head portions.
- Conspicuous Consumption: After quitting Fugitive in a huff, Creamcheese goes out and buys a Porsche to build back up his ego. He also frequently references his clothing being Gucci.
- Cringe Comedy: Some of Creamcheese's socially awkward antics are based on cringe comedy. Of particular note is his trip to his high school reunion, where he acts like he's reuniting with old friends, but they clearly barely even remember him.
- Department of Redundancy Department: There's constant talk of the "LCS Championship" despite the "C" in "LCS" already meaning "Championship". There's also the "LCS Challenger Series" despite the "S" in "LCS" already meaning "Series".
- Determinator:
- Fugitive's origin story revolves around how hungry the original lineup was to make it into the LCS and that the members spent years living in tight quarters and training at all hours to take their shot when it came.
- Organizm is driven to be the best at all costs. At the end of the season, he moves to Korea so that he can train against superior competition.
- Drink-Based Characterization: Creamcheese is repeatedly shown to be hung up on the past, particularly the happiness he felt during Fugitive's early days before the team went pro. This is reinforced by his insistence on holding onto old traditions like shots of Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce and Patrón tequila binges, despite his old teammates having moved on in favor of personal growth and professional success.
- Eskimos Aren't Real: Creamcheese has never heard of Mark Cuban and doesn't think he's real.
- His Own Worst Enemy: Creamcheese is prone to choking at the highest stages of competition. He bungles a match in the 2022 finals after being forced to sit with his own thoughts for several minutes in the middle of the match.
- I Have No Son!: Creamcheese was disowned by his family when he announced his intentions to become a professional gamer. They even tried to have him thrown in jail when he came back home to gather some belongings. He's made no attempt to contact them in years.
- Innocent Innuendo: Creamcheese claims that his former handle, Nutmilk, was simply a reference to the beverage, not semen, but he was forced to change his handle once he entered LCS competition.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: After going to dinner at Dave & Busters and heaping praise on the food, Creamcheese says that sponsorships are lame.
- Literal Metaphor: Creamcheese flippantly proclaims, "I've been building this team since I was Nutmilk!" He's not saying that he's been building it since he was a sperm; it's a reference to his former handle being Nutmilk, which isn't even a reference to sperm.
- My Greatest Failure: Creamcheese missing the Headbutt/Knockup combo onto Kog'Maw in the 2016 Spring grand final is his.
- My New Gift Is Lame: Creamcheese's former girlfriend recalls how she made a passing reference to liking Toblerones, which prompted him to gift her a new Toblerone every day for months on end. She wonders what he thought she was going to do with so many Toblerones. Even with the benefit of hindsight, Creamcheese still thinks that the gesture was impressive because it cost him $90 a month.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Nightfall was not even able to acquire a full-time paying position as a pro gamer in Korea, but after joining Fugitive, he quickly proved himself to be one of the best players in North America. Later, we're explicitly told that the level of competition in Asia is much higher there.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: For the most part, the players are only addressed by their handles. Their actual names are only used when family members talk about them.
- Product Placement: There are whole scenes dedicated to Fugitive players eating at and speaking glowingly of the food at Taco Bell Cantina and Dave & Busters. They all play with HyperX
peripherals. There's also an unfortunate appearance of an FTX sponsorship on TSM's jersey, presumably filmed before its exposure as a Ponzi scheme. - The Quiet One: Organizm doesn't speak much. This worked to his benefit when he was a streamer, as opponents would get angry and make mistakes because he wouldn't react to their taunting. As part of a pro team, however, this works to his detriment as he won't communicate what he's doing.
- Sad Clown: Creamcheese behaves outlandishly in public but, in private, he's depressed and lonely (being estranged from his family and having few friends) and ties his self-worth to winning an LCS championship that has eluded him for years.
- Serious Business: A lot of time is spent on confused parents and other middle-aged adults being brought up to speed on how serious professional League play is and how much money there is to be made.
- Shout-Out: When Fugitive's run in the LCS Challenger Series looks like it's going to fall apart, Kyle adapts Gene Hackman's famous pep talk from Hoosiers to get everyone calm and focused enough to make it to the end and win promotion to the LCS.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Subverted. While true, Guru built his brand around the fact that he's undefeated on the LCS circuit. The only reason why he's undefeated is because he played and won exactly one match with Fugitive before abruptly announcing his retirement. He's shown to have a HUGE brand. In his titled episode (episode 5) its shown he has the biggest streamer brand and even makes 5.6 million dollars a year. That's almost twice as much as his former teammate Foresight who's won 6 titles with TSM and is seen as one of the best players in NA.
- The Smurfette Principle: April is the only female member of Fugitive, having joined in its infancy. She got married at some point to Kyle Braxton.
- Xtreme Kool Letterz: Organizm uses a "z" rather than an "s" in his handle.
