Last year eSports made it into the White House, this year it’s going on prime-time television. CBS’ Crime Drama Elementary will have several well-known gaming stars in an all new eSports episode on February 16.
The episode will feature Smash Bros. Melee players Ryan “The Moon” Coker-Welch and Hendrick “DJ Nintendo” Pilar, veteran professional Call of Duty player Jordan “JKap” Kaplan, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player Tarik “tarik” Celik, and Arturo “TS Sabin” Sanchez, veteran of the fighting game community. They are all coming together for what the show’s writers call a “gaming-themed” episode.
More big eSports news! Professional Smash Brothers player @TheMoon112 will appear in Episode #514 of Elementary! pic.twitter.com/3cfo22b2l2
— Elementary Writers (@ELEMENTARYStaff) January 4, 2017
Robert Hewitt Wolfe, the executive producer and writer for Elementary, said that the eSports episode is going to be about the detective duo Sherlock and Watson getting to the bottom of a murder in the eSports scene.
The idea of a gaming crime was introduced by Jeffrey Paul King, one of the producers and writers for the show. King also worked on Red Bull’s “Cultivation: Leffen” documentary, which was a series that focused on Melee pro William “Leffen” Hjelte and his Smash Bros. adventures over the course of 2016.
The boys from Team Profine hard at work on the set of Elementary. #Elementary #WeEsports #fgc #callofduty #csgo #SmashBros #TeamProfine pic.twitter.com/hQmyAbfO9j
— Elementary Writers (@ELEMENTARYStaff) January 6, 2017
King had an interesting path into eSports which started with meeting Juan Manuel “HungryBox” Debiedma, the Evolution 2016 Smash Bros. Melee champion.
“Two years ago, I bought Hungrybox a beer while he was in LA and we became friends,” said King. “It was that relationship that, ultimately, grew into me working with Red Bull as the Creative Consultant for their Leffen documentary last spring…And thanks to some of my contacts in the Smash scene, I was able to reach out to some people in New York and make it happen.”
2017 is already shaping up to be a solid year for eSports! There are rumors of more television specials and movie deals coming up, so stay tuned and stay hyped.
Elementary airs Sundays at 10/9c on CBS.
