Reimagined MoonPay X Games League Kicks Off With Three-Day Event in Sacramento

Produced by longtime partner Echo Entertainment, the action-sports property is now a team-based year-round league

The inaugural season of the MoonPay X Games League has finally arrived. The action sports and entertainment property has been reimagined into a year-round league of city-based teams competing across the globe.

Starting today at Cal Expo in Sacramento, CA, almost 100 athletes across Skateboard, BMX, and Moto X will compete in 18 medal events. Coverage of the three-day event begins at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN2, with additional coverage Saturday and Sunday across ABC, ESPN, and, for Unlimited plan subscribers, the ESPN App.

Dome Productions is providing two production trucks, Journey and Trillium, for MoonPay X Games League in Sacramento. (Photos: David Goryl, Echo Entertainment) Sacramento is on track to become our best-selling summer X Games since the pandemic, says X Games CEO Jeremy Bloom. Fans have shown up in a big way before a single point has been scored in the league, which gives us tremendous confidence that people are excited about this new chapter. We're excited to reward that support with an incredible opening weekend.

Adds Dave Gelineau, CEO, Echo Entertainment, which has been an X Games production partner for 10 years, The most amazing thing about producing the X Games League is the expansion of the scope. A tremendous amount of resources has historically gone into producing just one summer X event. Now X Games League is tripling that to three summer stops, with shows in the U.S. and Japan, all in just a five-week span of time.

It has been truly exhilarating, he continues, to see how both the Echo and X Games teams have responded to the increase in scale in production logistics and content preparation. We couldn't be more excited to show the viewership what we have been up to.

The biggest point of emphasis for the Echo production team, Gelineau notes, is to focus on season-long storytelling as the new city-based teams - representing New York, Los Angeles, S o Paulo, and Tokyo - compete in the revamped X Games League. The Echo group has specifically prioritized production resources for the host-desk unit and has redesigned a graphics package to educate viewers about the new X Games League.

At previous X Games, he says, the natural focus was on the individual competitions and the athletes battling for gold in their specific disciplines. Those stories are still at the heart of the event, but now there is the additional emphasis on the clubs and the points accumulated in pursuit of the championship. What excites us most about the new league format is finding the balance between the individual performances that define action sports and the team component, which is so familiar to sports fans yet so new to the world of action sports.

Inside the Production Compound, Camera Setup in California

In Sacramento, the onsite production compound comprises two mobile units provided by partner Dome Productions. Journey houses Echo's primary sports-production unit, which will cover all street, park, dirt, and moto competitions.

Behind the scenes of Echo Entertainment's productionThe other unit, Trillium, hosts the vert and host-deck production teams, with RF, communications, and the media-management infrastructure located in a nearby building. Most of the production is onsite, but a team of remote editors and a graphics artist located around the world also contribute to the overall production efforts.

More than 30 cameras will capture the inaugural X Games League event: 10 handhelds, eight POV cameras, five wireless cameras, four high-frame-rate super-slo-mo cameras, two jibs, a Steadicam, a first-person-view drone, and a scenic drone. Stretching across 1 mile, 468 strands of fiber will transport signals to five venues and the television compound.

The RF Steadicam will be deployed for athlete follow shots and maximum flexibility, with on-air talent hits across the five venues. For coverage, there's no better tool [than FPV drones] to capture the dynamic action of the skate, BMX, and particularly the moto events at X Games, says Gelineau.

Our audio philosophy has always been that we live and die by our on-course effects-mic placement, he adds. The nuanced textures of skate wheels, bike tires, trucks hitting rails, and moto engines revving form the soundscape that brings X to life, and all from properly embedding wireless mics in the courses to give us closest proximity without compromising athlete safety.

The X Games has partnered with Owl AI, Gelineau explains, to provide artificial-intelligence analysis of the vert skateboarding competitions. Using fixed mobile phones for data capture, Owl will process kinetic data from the runs in mere seconds, allowing replays to be augmented with specialized graphics effects. Owl will also provide the specific data to the competition judges to give them more insight on details the cameras might not capture.

Technology's Impact on the X Games League

According to Bloom, technology is helping the X Games League create a better overall experience for media partners, athletes, and fans. As the athletes redefine what's possible in their respective competition, the league should do the same, he says, noting that innovation has always been part of X Games' DNA. That includes advanced data and analytics, enhanced storytelling, and content creation driven by artificial intelligence.

Behind the scenes of Echo Entertainment's productionEcho Entertainment's production team comprises 106 crew members led by Gelineau; Head of Production/Truck A Director Spence Volla; Technical Producer Pierce Williams; Coordinating Producer Andrea Anderson; Staff Producer/Truck A Producer Riley Arian; Truck B Producer Jeremy Olson; Truck B Director Chris Taylor Shaut; and Tech Manager Andrew Buist.

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