ESL has integrated its competitive gaming systems and technology into the new Tournaments feature Sony Interactive Entertainment has launched on PlayStation 4. This opens up competitive gaming across Sony’s 46 million PS4s worldwide. Any gamer around the world can compete in online game competitions organized by ESL through the PS4, as well as the ESL Play and PlayStation apps.
The first tournaments start today and will feature NBA 2K17. Mortal Kombat X, and Project Cars, with other games joining the ranks in the future.
After sitting on the sidelines during the early days of console eSports, Sony partnered with Activision for last year’s Call of Duty World League. All Activision Call of Duty pro gaming events are now played on PS4. This ESL deal further solidifies Sony’s commitment to eSports, which Newzoo’s CEO, Peter Warman believes has a huge growth opportunity in the console space.
Marcel Menge, managing director of ESL technology, explains how this latest offering will impact the console eSports space in this exclusive interview.
How are you applying your past tournament knowledge to this new PlayStation 4 business?
Over the last 15 years, we have constantly improved the competitive experience on PC games, but as the core part of tournament systems and user interaction was always PC focused, console players had to use a PC as their second device to be able to participate on a console. Starting today, the integration with PlayStation 4 gives users the same intense experience and the same opportunities to participate, as if they were doing it from their PCs.
What does PS4 open up for the average gamer?
Tournaments on the PS4 will allow the average gamer to test their skills in tournaments and compete with similar-minded players. For some, it will open up a career path into eSports; for others it will be just an additional layer to experience the games they love and spend time with friends and the online communities.
How are you working with Sony in this endeavor?
We are working closely with Sony on the development and business of the offering around tournaments. Features and strategy alike are discussed together to find the best solution for the community.
Who’s selecting the games to partner with?
Sony and we are talking to game publishers and developers to select games and decide together with them on how to approach competitive gaming. In the end, the decision is of course with the game publishers to decide if tournaments are the right step for their community.
What has been the initial reaction from game publishers for tournaments?
The feedback has been very positive and interestingly, a lot of game publishers were already active in competitive gaming and see the new tournaments feature as a way to improve the user experience for their community.
What types of prizes will gamers be vying for across the first tournaments?
Most of the tournaments will be community cups without prizes, as the focus should be on having fun and enjoying the games. But there will also be weekly tournaments with small amounts of prize money, and some regions will have tournaments with hardware prizes. We have just launched, and depending on the interest of the communities in different regions, this might change from time to time. Like PlayStation announcing the PlayStation Masters in Germany, and there are several PlayStation Leagues running in various countries with higher prizes.
How do you see prizing evolving, given what you’ve seen on other platforms?
Our goal is to build up a large community of players who are interested in competitive gaming and eSports. When we reach that goal, we are certain that bigger prize money tournaments will start existing around PlayStation 4. There are tons of titles with a lot of potential, and we are looking forward to seeing where and how the competitive communities will grow.
What type of structure will these initial tournaments have in terms of length, and how are you handling different regions?
The initial tournaments will be single elimination bracket tournaments that will be run in one day over a few hours. We already have tons of local tournaments that only players from that country (or small country groups like the US and Canada) can see, but also tournaments for the European and Asian regions. Local tournaments will be handled in the language of the country and will be supported by local referees, while Europe and Asia will be handled in English.
Is there any difference entering these tournaments using ESL Play versus the PlayStation App?
The same tournaments can be entered through the event system on the PlayStation 4, the ESL Play website, the ESL Play and PlayStation mobile apps. It’s possible that in the future there might be tournaments that are exclusively available on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation mobile apps.
How do you see this level of tournaments impacting the professional ranks, given games like NBA 2K and Mortal Kombat X have had eSports competitions?
It will be pushing the already established star players to new levels of play, but even more importantly: the amount of talent and level of play will increase consistently, as it brings fresh blood to the competitive communities when entering tournaments is now so much easier.
