Metagame (documentary)
| Metagame | |
|---|---|
| |
| Released | December 11th-13th, 2020 |
| Runtime | 6 hours, 45 minutes |
| Language(s) | English |
| Budget | $34,583 |
| Crew | |
| Director(s) | Travis Beauchamp |
| Producer(s) | Christopher Brown Peter N. Grant Sr. |
| Art Director(s) | Daniel Wyatt |
| Narrator(s) | Nick Papoutsakis |
| Music by | Garrett Williamson Lord Dinosaur |
Metagame is an eight-part documentary series produced by Travis "Samox" Beauchamp and is a follow up to his earlier work, The Smash Brothers. The series premiered on Twitch on December 11th-13th, 2020.
The series focuses on the "Five Gods" of Super Smash Bros. Melee, in addition to Leffen, 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.[1]
On November 23rd, 2020, a trailer released, along with the announcement that the series would premiere on Twitch on December 11th-13th, 2020.[2] 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.
Reception
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This article or section is incomplete. You can help SmashWiki by expanding or finishing it. The editor who added this tag elaborates: Now that the documentary has concluded, what was the general reception? Also the criticisms on Leffen/Mango's portrayals. |
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.[3]
The documentary received a mixed reception from the player base upon its initial premiere. Some players prominently featured in the documentary such as Mango and Leffen publicly criticized it, arguing that their depictions in the documentary were unfairly biased as a result of excessive focus on their past personal actions as well as editing and music choices surrounding their appearances in the documentary. Critics of the documentary also argued that it did not focus equally on all of the featured players, identifying Mew2King and Hungrybox as "gods" who received comparatively little screen time compared to the others.
