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    How Aryanna dealt with flu-like symptoms in cosplaying League of Legends' Zeri

    In the end, Zeri managed to spark Intramuros
    Mar 29, 2023
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    PHOTO: Welcome Studios, Oasis Gaming

    ZERI, THE SPARK OF ZAUN, is one of the recent entries in the League of Legends hero pool, and with Filipina Vanille Velasquez, conducting her voice over, Riot Games decided to hype her presence in the Philippines.

    It was in BGC, Taguig, where Riot Games Philippines had an "Ignite the Spark" event centered on League's electrifying hero, and notable personalities like Vanille Velasquez and Oasis Gaming's Aryanna Epperson attended the festivities.

    The latter was tasked by Riot Games to cosplay League's newest addition at the event.

    It was definitely a dream come true moment for Epperson, who revealed in an interview with Riot Games how ecstatic she was with the opportunity.

    "I was definitely so thrilled to be working again with Riot Games, but it was even a bigger honor to be contacted to be the official Zeri cosplayer for her launch in League of Legends: Wild Rift. I definitely had a happy cry about it as cosplay is something I really enjoy and am a fan personally of League of Legends, especially of Zeri," recounted Epperson.

    She added: "It’s not often you get to be the face to represent a Filipino-inspired character in an international game so this was definitely a big deal for me as I wanted to do the character justice by accurately recreating her cosplay."

    Though it wasn't always sunshine and roses as she encountered one major hurdle while dressing up as Zeri.

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    The Intramuros shoot

    Her costume was rented from Otaku Equipped, which meant she only had a few days left to create content on her apparel.

    Immediately after the BGC event, Epperson had to once again don the costume in Intramuros.

    While things should be smooth sailing for her, given that she has already worn the outfit in BGC, it went downhill in Manila as she suffered from flu-like symptoms during the shoot.

    "On the day of the shoot, I got sick! Like on my deathbed kind of sick, I wanted to throw up, I was just on the toilet, it was just a bad day, and I couldn’t cancel because that was the only day I could shoot, and I could not extend anymore," she revealed in an exclusive interview with Spin.ph.

    "I got to the site, and we were shooting in location, in Intramuros, by a bridge. It’s not like a clean place, it was like hot and cold at the same time, the costume is heavy, the wig, it’s just not a comfortable thing to do."

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    Given the circumstance, Epperson was pushed to her limits. At one point, she nearly passed out.

    "If you see some of the behind-the-scenes footage...you can see it on my face where I’m just like, ‘Oh god!’ To the point where we would shoot certain things and I have to tell them that, ‘I think I’m going to pass out!"

    And to add to the pressure was the time constraints. With the shoot beginning at around 7 to 8 pm, Aryanna and her crew only had a few hours left before the Walled City closes.

    "Like my vision was going black, my ears were ringing, I was getting cold sweats and I would sit down and drink water and we were like, ‘(We are) having to hustle!’ because we were shooting at the evening and there were guards going around like, 'Why do you have all these lights setup?"

    "They said it was ok to shoot, it’s a matter of we couldn’t stay there too long. It was a mental and physical battle for me to shoot everything that we did."

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    Yet despite all of this, Aryanna was able to succeed in completing her task, though she felt like she could've done more had the situation been different.

    "If it were up to me, I would want to shoot more but I was pushing myself too much physically that I would’ve gotten sicker if I continued and I am frustrated with myself because I know I could’ve performed so much, I could’ve done a lot better, I could’ve done more," she reflected.

    But nevertheless, she was proud with what her team has accomplished.

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    The best supporting cast

    With a team consisting of members from Welcome Studios and Oasis Gaming, their experience became a valuable asset in easing the burden from Aryanna.

    Had they not been involved, the two hour shoot may have extended and burned her out.

    "For me the best experience is I guess working with such a tight team. Like we know that they’re very experienced, they know what they’re doing because everytime we would shoot something, it would be shot fast," said the Oasis Gaming talent.

    She added: "If you didn’t shoot with a good team, that shoot would’ve taken much longer than it should’ve. I mean that’s why we were able to complete so much in an hour. We were in and out and everyone was on top of it. Everyone knew what they had to do, we were very organized, and everyone worked super-fast."

    "We got everything done over the course of four days in terms of editing, so I was able to gather a lot of friends and creatives who all did their job super-super well and it’s so nice that we all have this shared passion of bringing this project to life."

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    And given the quick results, Aryanna was able to rest well for the next day, however her task wasn't done yet.

    Instead of letting her team do the rest of the job by themselves, Aryanna provided her morale support.

    At one point a massive editing nightmare occured, where the VFX editor lost all of the files.

    "It's insane we were all just sitting on Discord, watching him do the VFX, like we were just there for emotional support and then when he was editing it, he pretty much had the whole project done and then his computer blue screened, and he lost all of the files," Epperson revealed.

    "So he was up until 3 am maybe working on it, and then he lost everything and then he stayed up until 8 am working on it, again."

    Yet despite all of these struggles, at the end of the day, Zeri managed to electrify Intramuros, all thanks to their collective efforts of the crew who grinded and hustled their hearts out, like the blue-collared citizens of Zaun.

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    PHOTO: Welcome Studios, Oasis Gaming
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