Energy, excitement and all the gaming action, thrills and spills you’d expect from the Counter-Strike community were in play at Budapest, Hungary’s MVM Dome, where 20,000 CS enthusiasts enjoyed an edge-of-your-seat final playoff between Vitality and FaZe Clan for a $1.25 million prize pool in the StarLadder CS2 Major.
The lighting designer for all this mayhem and suspense was Oleksandr Manzenko, who utilized nearly 190 Robe moving lights – 17 x iBOLTS, 116 x MegaPointes, 48 x Spikies and a 6-way RoboSpot system using BMFL WashBeams – on the design.
The approximately 1000 lighting fixtures on the project were all supplied by Alight Production Group, based in Warsaw, Poland, headed by Volodymyr Andrusyshyn.
Oleksandr’s background includes lighting the first StarLadder tournaments and other Major events for CS and Dota 2. When he came onboard the Budapest Major team, the initial stage and production lighting setup was already developed by Alight Production Group’s Kyrylo Lobasiev and Evgen Tsibinogin, together with the industrial cube structure above the stage, which came from the StarLadder creative team.
This was a large rectangular set piece in the roof, constructed from trussing, which also helped with facilitating technical positions. It was flown above a central stage, and while the MVM Dome is a fantastic venue with plenty of working headroom, with the set in place, the gaming space also became more intimate and focused.
The Alight team knew from the start that very versatile and adaptable lights were needed, which is why these Robe products were specified.
Most of the lights were rigged around all four sides of the set, which was draped and featured four large video screens, one hung on each of the four sides, giving the 360-degree audience great insights into the gameplay action.
Lighting esports needs a distinctive and multi-layered approach that is unique to this particular type of event.
There are big showy moments, like when the teams are entering or collecting the trophy. As the games are being played, wins, knockouts, explosions and other effects sometimes need to be accentuated visually, but among the most important tasks for lighting is to maintain a good level of atmosphere in the room. If that’s done correctly, audience reactions add enormously to all the razz, and all the time the whole space needs to look edgy, relevant and interesting.
Lighting the players and the stage is an art in itself. They must be perfectly key lit for cameras as they are on screen, so all the right angles have to be maximised in a way that’s not intrusive.
With low-hanging scenery common in esports production designs, the performance space is usually challenged for getting lights in exactly the right places.
The idea of having intense rays of lighting shooting along the lines of the scenic steel beams during the build-ups and big lighting crescendos came from Kyrylo and Evgen.
A full brief was received from the client about what they envisioned lighting-wise, to which the Alight team added their own touches of expertise and blended multidisciplinary techniques into a slick and contemporary looking presentation.
Kyrylo and Evgen added the iBOLT for accenting the structural lines, because it is an extremely powerful and impactful fixture, which significantly enhanced the edges of the cube with this effect, emphasising its striking appearance.
The Alight team had heard a lot about iBOLTS, and all agreed that they would be ideal for this job of strategically highlighting the scenic I-beams.
As an extra safety precaution, the audience areas where the iBOLT beams shone were intentionally left empty, so no-one would be in the beam path!
The BMFL WashBeams running on the RoboSpot system were rigged on the trussing in optimal positions to illuminate the players as they entered and exited the stage. The BaseStations were positioned on the top tier of the arena, looking down on all the action.
The MegaPointes were dotted all over the rig on the various trusses making up the overstage structure and were used extensively to blast the audience space with beams and effects throughout the event, as well as to light the set. They were picked for their “huge versatility and scope” as a general-purpose workhorse luminaire.
MegaPointe is another favorite moving light for the Alight crew!
A proportion of the Spikies were positioned around the main video screens to create additional depth, with others in positions at either end of the stage, again to increase the volume of this space. In these positions, they were great for filling back-of-camera shots for a percussionist and dancers who performed during the intros.
A single Spikie rigged on one of the long end vomitory entrances was positioned to illuminate the coveted trophy as it sat onstage and basked in its own illuminated glory! Arguably, this was the most important light in the whole arena!
Robe products are a frequent go-to for Alight, chosen for their reliability, continuity, outstanding colors and the wide range of creative options on offer.
For LD Oleksandr, who is based in Kyiv, Ukraine, one of the biggest challenges of this show was that he could not be there in-person to realize his design.
Instead, he collaborated closely with freelance programmer / operator Stanislav Rusakov who was the acting lighting director on site and with Kyrylo and Evgen. All the pre-vizzing was completed in Kyiv, and then once the Alight team were on site, the communication continued via phone and VC to ensure everything looked spot on.
Having flexible kit was again key, as several requirements changed between pre-viz and realization on site!
A major difference between a standard event and an esports environment is that the pace and rhythm of production is much faster. Formats and stage setups will frequently change, demanding modular, cleaner showfile structures, quick implementation, and close coordination with the video, content and games logic teams.
Kyrylo was also the lighting crew chief on site, working with a team of 12 and three trucks of lights.
The project was overseen for Alight Production Group by Volodymyr, who commented, “The MVM Dome is a great venue in which to work – excellent production facilities, nice and warm and the house crew are highly skilled and very professional! It was a great honor and experience for all of us to be a part of the large team delivering production for this high-profile event.”
The nail-biting Budapest Major final playoff saw plenty of CS gaming talent on both teams, with Vitality beating FaZe Clan 3–1 to be crowned champions, clinching the title for the third time.
Photos by Louise Stickland