Metagame (documentary)

Metagame is an award winning eight-part documentary series produced by Travis "" Beauchamp and is a follow up to his earlier work, The Smash Brothers. The series premiered on Twitch on December 11th-13th, 2020 and was released for purchase on Vimeo on January 29th, 2021. A bonus episode featuring was released June 6th, 2021.

The series focuses on the "Five Gods" of Super Smash Bros. Melee, in addition to, through their competitive history from 2008 through 2015.

Production
The documentary took over five years to produce following the release of the original documentary, The Smash Brothers. A kickstarter for a continuation of The Smash Brothers was launched on April 14th, 2014. Its goal of $26,000 was surpassed only two weeks after a launch and would total up to $34,583. This continuation of The Smash Brothers would eventually form into Metagame.

According to Beauchamp, the documentary had gone through many re-writes and the revisions that the original documentary hadn't gone through. Additionally, due to him seeking more than just a YouTube release, Beauchamp had to track down the owners of many Melee-related videos throughout many different countries.

In the summer of 2020, many prominent figures in the community had to be cut at the last minute due to allegations of sexual misconduct towards them.

On November 23rd, 2020, a trailer released, along with the announcement that the series would premiere on Twitch on December 11th-13th, 2020. Episodes 1-3 aired on December 11th at 2-5 p.m. PT, Episodes 4-6 aired on December 12th at 2-5 p.m. PT, and Episodes 7-8 aired on December 13th at 2-4 p.m. PT.

The documentary was uploaded for purchase via Vimeo on January 29th, 2021. This version of the documentary features edits in response to viewer feedback, particularly in regard to offensive language deemed appropriate at the time and the negative portrayal of Leffen.

On April 24th, 2021, it was announced there would be a three-day special event in June with a livestream of all eight episodes, new interviews with all five gods and Leffen, and a special feature and a new episode called "Metagame: Godslayer." On May 15th, 2021, it was announced the livestream to be a two-day event on June 5th-6th, 2021, starting at 10 a.m. PT each day. A new trailer was uploaded the same day. Day 1 of the stream had interviews with, , , and in between episodes. Day 2 of the stream had interviews with and  in between episodes. Day 1 had Episodes 1-4 and Day 2 had Episodes 5-8 and the premiere of the new episode, "Godslayer".

Reception
The release of the documentary's first three episodes resulted in the hashtag "metagame" rising to #2 on the United States trending page of Twitter. and the entire initial screening was viewed more than 1 million times.

The documentary received a mixed reception upon its initial premiere. The presentation received near-universal praise, frequently considered a massive improvement over The Smash Brothers on a technical level. The music was also regarded as high quality and heightened the emotions of the scene. However, some say the cinematographers and artist got too ambitious with the visuals, often over dramatizing events.

Some players prominently featured in the documentary such as and  publicly criticized it for not adequately providing the view the context of the time period and how old the players were during filming. Critics argued that their depictions in the documentary were biased with the editing and music choices that over villainized the players. Critics also argued that it did not focus equally on all of the featured players, depicting as the "protagonist" who received the most attention while only identifying  and  as "gods" and giving them comparatively little screen time.

Beauchamp responded to criticism of the initial screening by removing some scenes and giving a stronger censor pass for offensive language. These changes were reflected in final cuts released in 2021. Though Beauchamp could not change the narrative structure of the original 8 episodes, he also produced a special bonus episode called 'God Slayer' featuring Leffen and filmed one-on-one interviews with each god for a special 'gods respond' event which was also viewed more than 1 million times. 'Godslayer' was released in June 2021 and provided Leffen's view of the time period and events covered in Metagame.

Final cuts of the series are being reviewed favorably on IMDB with a rating 9.5. Metagame Documentary was a finalist for 3 esport awards in 2021 including esport content series of the year, esport content piece of the year, and esport video production team of the year. Metagame ultimately was named and won esport content series of the year for 2021.