Esports is a big segment of the videogame industry and a growing part of the virtual reality (VR) sector as well thanks to initiatives like ESL’s VR League – which held its finals at Oculus Connect 5 (OC5). Back in July, Virtual Athletics League (VAL), LIV and SpringboardVR ran a Beat Saber tournament across a number of global VR arcade locations, and thanks to further sponsorship a new global arcade league is being formed to provide further competitions.
VAL, LIV and SpringboardVR have acquired sponsorship from HP Inc. and HTC esports whilst collaborating with seven VR development studios including Survios, Vertigo Games, I-Illusions and CloudGate Studio to bring this new league to life.
With the success of the Beat Saber tournament, which was originally slated to take place at 50 locations but eventually took place at 168 locations globally, the companies aim to reproduce this achievement with several more during the course of 2018 and 2019.
This began last month with a global Space Pirate Trainer tournament taking place between 27th-30th September. Don’t worry if you missed that as there will be global tournaments held for Arizona Sunshine and Island 359 for Halloween, then archery multiplayer event QuiVR taking place in November.
Ryan Burningham of Virtual Athletics League also notes in a blog posting that: “The league is also placing a high priority on arcade vs. arcade gameplay, with a core group of elite VR arcades participating in more team-based titles that are VR esports ready. These official launch titles include the giant mech multiplayer shooter Archangel: Hellfire, a jet-propelled shooter Skyfront, and a tactical sci-fi shooter After-H.”
More titles will be added in time, as they are VRFocus will keep you updated on the latest announcements.