One year after the accident, Blu Radio, the radio station which would have broadcasted the finals, payed a deserving tribute to Chapecoense by recreating the full game live. It was created using over 800 audio fragments from their most memorable games, including their best goals, passes, saves and penalty kicks, which were edited together along with interactions from Nacional (the rival team) based on real performance statistics from the past 10 years to make the game feel as real as possible, and live up to the dream of the team and millions of fans.

The game aired nationwide at the exact time it was scheduled to be played one year before.

The Game That Never Was aired on Blu Radio and bluradio.com on a nationwide scale to over 2,900,000 listeners at the exact time and date (November 29 2017) the finals where scheduled to be played one year before. The game audio was sent to the top sports commentators, networks and soccer players in Colombia and Brazil, who covered the match reaching an additional 1.198.000 people through free press.

The game was broadcasted to 1.500.000 listeners on national radio.

An additional1.200.000 listeners were reached through the online broadcast.

Famous sports personalities and players including Alexis Henríquez (Captain of Atletico Nacional) Victor Hugo Aristizábal (Colombian National Team Player) Ricardo Urrego (South American Cup Commentator) Marina Granziera (Brazilian Sports Commentator) organically shared and commented on the game, reaching 449.000 football fans.

Other top news networks and radio stations organically shared and covered the game, reaching an additional 1.198.000 people through free press.

$1.700.000 dollars in earned media.

Total reach: 4.347.000 people.

The 2016 South American Cup Finals was going to be the biggest sports event of the year in Latin America. Regrettably never happened because all the players from Brazilian team Chapecoense lost their lives in the worst airplane accident in football history. One year later Blu Radio recreated this game, giving millions of fans a second chance to listen to their team play the most important game in 45 years.

In order to create a believable game, we interviewed various fans from both teams (Chapecoense and Nacional) to understand what they expected the game to be like before the tragedy took place. We also investigated their rise from second division since 2006 to 2016 including real performance statistics from the past 10 years.

We then used that background to handpick more than 800 audio fragments from their most memorable games. Those fragments were then integrated into a timeline with narrative sense to create one seamless match as close as possible to what the real game would have been. This game was broadcasted on the one year anniversary of the accident, covered by national media, and commented by the best known soccer personalities and players in the country.

Chapecoense is a local Brazilian team that went from playing in second division to qualifying to the South American Cup Finals. Sadly on their way to Colombia to play the most important game in their history their plane crashed. Everyone on the team died, and their most important game was never played. One year later Blu Radio, one of the most important sports broadcasters in Colombia which was scheduled to cover the game, decided to pay them a heartfelt tribute by reconstructing the game and helping them play the finals that never happened.