Team Gravity Secure Spot at VR League World Finals During Oculus Connect 5

Gamescom 2018 may still be underway but the virtual reality (VR) industry is already looking ahead towards Oculus Connect 5 (OC5) next month. Taking place at the conference this year is the VR League: Season 2, created by Oculus in collaboration with ESL. Today, eSports organisation Team Gravity have announced they are the top EU qualifiers across three different titles and are now headed for the VR League World Finals.

Established in 2017 as a VR only  eSports organisation, Team Gravity has competed across multiple VR League titles such as Echo Arena, Sprint Vector and The Unspoken. Comprised of members – Tim ‘VR Jersey’ McGuinness, Dennis ‘Affenterror’ Ahrweiler, Philipp ‘Viatrex’ Rietdorf and Rick ‘Flushgogo’ Bos, the last major event Team Gravity competed at was the 2017 IEM Katowice, where they placed fourth.

In a statement regarding their success Team Gravity said:

“Having welcomed our new members Flushgogo and Affenterror this season, the team have been working hard to incorporate their strategies and style in to our game plan and have emerged stronger than ever before. Qualifying this year hasn’t been easy – the increased interest in VR eSports means there are more players, and less spots. However, we have had an excellent season and have been racking up wins across multiple competitions and games.

“Whilst some matches were very close, we have consistently prevailed, coming top at World Final qualifiers for all three games we compete in. Flushgogo has truly impressed us, placing first and second respectively in The Unspoken and Sprint Vector, and the rest of the team have mirrored his success in Echo Arena. We are proud to say that going into these finals Team Gravity are the top team in the EU, and we can’t wait to continue this success.

Echo Arena artwork

“Right now, we are seeing the start of an industry that will take things to the next level, as it merges the cutting-edge technology and strategy of online gaming with the physical demands of traditional sport. This is the future, and we are more than just a gaming team – our goal is to provide support for players looking to compete in the world of professional VR eSports, and to show the world how truly incredible VR eSports is. We are beyond excited to be attending the finals in San José!”

The VR Challenger League World Finals will be taking place in San José, California at Oculus Connect 5 on September 26th and 27th, where teams from around the world will be competing for their share of the $120,000 prize pool. For further updates on the VR League World Finals and Oculus Connect 5, keep reading VRFocus.

Oculus Announces VR League: Season 2 in Collaboration With ESL

While esports like CS:GO and League of Legends (LoL) are massively popular, attracting ever growing numbers of fans whilst offering even bigger prize funds, the virtual reality (VR) is hot on their heels. Last year Oculus, in partnership with ESL and Intel created the VR Challenger League featuring multiplayer titles like The Unspoken and Echo Arena that anyone could enter. Today, Oculus has again teamed up with ESL for a new-look VR League: Season 2.

Echo Arena artwork

For season 2 Oculus has expanded the lineup of vidoegames available, Echo Arena and The Unspoken return but are this time joined by Survios’ Sprint Vector and military simulator Onward. Up to seven titles are said to be participating across the five-month competitive period with three more still to be revealed.

The competition begins tomorrow 18th May, with a month of magical combat in The Unspoken. This will then be followed by  a month of frenzied racing in Sprint Vector starting on 4th June. The titles for July and August will be revealed nearer the time.

For Echo Arena fans a four week competition will return on 20th May. Last year Echo Arena saw 258 players across 98 teams worldwide compete. Additionally, later in the year Echo Combat will be introduced to the VR League, with its own competition.

Sprint Vector Final screenshot1

“Oculus is committed to fostering long-term growth of the VR esports ecosystem, and Season 2—with its new format and additional games—is an amazing next step on this exciting journey,” says Oculus Head of Esports Christopher K. McKelvy in a statement.

Oculus’ VR League will also support the VR Master League with an Onward Invitational event from 16th – 17th June. The live event will be held at the ESL UK Studios, also benefiting Stack Up, a charity supporting US and Allied veterans with gaming.

VR League Season 2 will feature a prize pool in excess of $220K USD. The VR League is open only to legal residents of the 50 U.S./D.C., Canada, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom, who are over the age of 13. For further updates on the tournament, keep reading VRFocus.

VR vs. 2017 (Predictibly) – Part 1

So here we are again everyone. Welcome to 2018 on both VR vs. and on VRFocus. I hope you all had a very good holiday period and new year celebration. I was off playing silly board games and enjoying the company of some friends in what is now something of a tradition. In what is also something of a tradition I came a distant second in Ticket To Ride, expressed interest in a game of Monopoly that everyone ignored because I always win – the last game we played they all actively and openly teamed up against me and I still beat all three of them to much grumbling. I also proceeded to destroy everyone in the one game I’d never played – which was this year Bears vs Babies. A card based game that can be described as ‘from the makers of the far more fun Exploding Kittens. Also we played Pandemic. Pandemic is bloody good.

Perhaps I should do VR vs. Tabletop at some point?

Today however marks my first day back in the saddle, and the last on the VRFocus ‘Christmas Mode’.  So as of tomorrow (Wednesday) it’ll be usual hours for segments, back up to the usual number of stories per day and all hands on deck once again.  Being in the know – well, relatively speaking – I can tell you there’s a lot that’s going on with the website this year. New people, new activities, new responsibilities. It’s going to be a busy ol’ time for us all. Before we get on to the matter at hand and start thinking about 2018 going forward I do have one last needed look back at virtual reality (VR) in 2017 to do.

I know, I know, you’re probably sick of retrospectives at the moment. But this is the one where we look back at my 2017 predictions (or educated guesses) and we see just how badly I stuffed them all up.  In a couple of weeks I can start going through some of my silly little predictions for the year to come.

Prediction: “ZeniMax Becomes VR’s Bad Guy”
Result: False – Through Circumstance

I described this as being “pretty much nailed on” at the time and it certainly looked that way. The ZeniMax situation hasn’t exactly gone away and continues to rear its head, unofficially at least, in a number of ways. For example, the lack of support for Oculus Rift on Bethesda’s recent VR trinity. DOOM VFR only getting support following an update by SteamVR itself, which was described as a “workaround”.

This whole mess is still coming and we are far from done in the battle of ZeniMax vs Oculus/Facebook. Chronologically speaking things escalated this way over the course of 2017: ZeniMax Media acquired Escalation Studios to make VR projects at the same time as ZeniMax was awarded the total of $500 Million (USD). No one was happy with that verdict – Oculus weren’t found guilty of misappropriating trade secrets, so ZeniMax weren’t happy. Oculus still don’t think anything was done wrong at all so they aren’t happy either. John Carmack put ZeniMax’s experts on blast a day later with some very choice words.

ZeniMax then declared that they were going to try and block Oculus from using its VR SDK, Carmack anger turned into a lawsuit of his own against ZeniMax in March, before in May ZeniMax dragged Samsung into things by extending their lawsuit to include the Gear VR.

The ZeniMax situation is still a powder keg.  A ruddy big powder keg that is set to do a lot of damage to VR – but that keg hasn’t gone off yet so I have to mark this prediction as a failure. As we know the role of villain for 2017 ended up being a company I don’t think any of us expected- but the least said about that the better.

ZeniMax MediaPrediction: “Several Trillion Market Research Agencies Will Say VR’s Market Growth Has Slowed/Value Has Reduced”
Result: True

Well this one is true but only really in the sense that everything under the sun seemed to have a market research report on it this year and being such a hot topic in 2016 VR got dragged into a lot of things in 2017, quite a few of which it really had no business being in. Whilst VRFocus reports on a lot of these reports you should see the ones we tossed!  As it turns out more than a few of them did indeed reign in previous predictions a bit for the period to come described in 2016 – but in a lot of cases this reverted to previous levels in the year or two now included after that 2016 prediction period. So, in a sense nothing has really changed. But values were walked back in a lot of them. I’m declaring that one a win.

Prediction: We Would See “The Debut Of Halo-lens”
Result: True.

This prediction starts with “Minecraft this. Minecraft that. Minecraft bloody everything.” and I’m pleased to say that still makes me chuckle. This prediction though was pretty specific. We’d get a Halo title coming to Microsoft’s head mounted display (HMD). At the time I said it was the Hololens. However, what we actually got was Halo: Recruit for the Windows Mixed Reality HMD. Now I wasn’t to know the Windows Mixed Reality series of headsets were coming, but they’re all considered part of the same family of headsets now so we can chalk this one up in the wins column too.

It might not have been what I wanted when I said “a first person Halo experience” in the prediction but it was one. Can we have a proper one next though?

Prediction: “A Big Name Leaves Oculus – And Jumps Ship”
Result: Somewhat True

“Considering last week’s column you may assume I mean Palmer Luckey at this point and it’s entirely possible.” I said at the time and lo and behold Mr. Luckey departed Facebook in March. Though whether or not he fell on his sword, was shown the door to step through it or shown the door to be booted through it is still something of an unknown.

Now whether or not I got this one right is kind of open to interpretation since yes, Luckey left Oculus and he was certainly the biggest name at the company. Even bigger than Carmack. However, he didn’t exactly jump ship.  He did set up his own company, Anduril, later in the year, following a period of self-imposed social media exile. Anduril is working on VR projects so you could count that. Luckey also proceeded to appear with HTC Vive at the Tokyo Game Show, which could also be counted.  Personally, I’m leaning towards a loss on this one but it’s at least 50% right.

Prediction: “Patent Wars: The Family Atmosphere Is Over”
Result: False

This one is quite pleasing. 2016 was full of stories about all and sundry filing patents for immersive technology related matters. In 2017 there was quite a few patent-related news stories as well. Not counting the whole ongoing ZeniMax saga, only a couple of them dissolved into actual legal wrangling: Techno View IP vs Oculus and HoloTouch vs Microsoft.

Other than that, the whole atmosphere between the HMD manufacturers remains both cordial and respectful which is good to see. Of course, the fanbases for each have degenerated into a lot of shouting and one-upmanship as has previously been discussed. Still at least the stakeholders can get along, right?

Prediction: “A VR Only eSports Tournament”
Result: True.

Well, I didn’t quite expect this one to come off but low and behold it did. Whether or not you think that VR is the future of eSports is immaterial. With thanks to Oculus and Intel it came to be in the guise of the VR Challenger League.  The tournament hosted a $200,000 (USD) prize for Echo Arena and The Unspoken – which is a pretty sizeable chunk of change. One more than worthy of qualifying this, particularly with its association with ESL – and a ‘proper’ tournament and the sort that I was hoping to see when I made that prediction.

Personally, I can’t wait to see what comes of things like this in 2018. We know Intel have their plans and I’ve recently gone on record as saying you should watch out for them this year. What have Oculus got up their sleeve though? I do hope we’ll see this become a regular fixture of the VR calendar.

VR Challenger LeagueI’m going leave things there for part one. We do have three weeks’ worth of VR vs. features to actually go through so we’re going to have to split it up a bit out of necessity.  Join me again next week to see if I continue to do surprisingly well with these!

VR Challenger League Regionals at OC4 to be Livestreamed Wednesday

In a couple of days Oculus will be hosting its annual event for all things Oculus Rift, Touch and Gear VR related, with new videogames being announced, keynote addresses and more. What will be new at Oculus Connect 4 (OC4) is a little esports tournament the company is running in partnership with ESL, and Intel called the VR Challenger League, with the regional finals taking place on the first day, all of which will be livestreamed.

If you happen to have missed VRFocus’ coverage of the VR Challenger League, it was announced in June just prior to the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2017. Featuring both The Unspoken and Echo Arena, the tournament allowed anyone to sign-up and play, online initially then at physical events, with OC4 being the first.

Echo Arena new

VR Challenger League’s first regionals will take place on 11th Oct at 6pm PT. A livestream will be shoutcasted by John Mullen, aka Blu, and Kier Asher, aka PooNanners whilst the event will be hosted by CSGO player Steph Harvey, aka missharvey.

The VR Challenger League at OC4 team rankings:

  • 8 teams competing
    • Ranked
      • #1 400pts – ECLIPSE
      • #2 400pts – KANGORILLAZ
      • #3 370pts – PHANGASMS
      • #4 345pts – TEAM SOLACE
    • Challengers
      • MOVE OVR
      • LAMPLIGHTERS
      • DISKIN AROUND
      • DYSKOVER

VRFocus will be at OC4 to bring you the latest news and announcements, so don’t go anywhere.

Oculus, Intel and ESL’s VR Challenger League Begins, Regional Finals Dated

Last month VRFocus reported on Intel, ESL and Oculus announcing the VR Challenger League, a virtual reality (VR) eSports competition that involves players and teams from across Europe and North America competing in The Unspoken  and Echo Arena. Today, the first online qualifiers are now open and the regional finals have been dated.

Insomniac’s The Unspoken is a spellcasting experience where players face up against opposing mages in 1v1 battles. Players cast powerful spells and utilize the destructible environment to gain an advantage over their opponents. While Echo Arena is a team-based, five vs five multiplayer where players have to score points by scoring goals. But the arenas all feature low gravity as well as obstacles to stop the disk and cause issues for the players themselves.

VR Challenger League image

For those interested you can sign up here. There’s a prize pool worth more than $200K on offer for those skilled enough to make it all the way through.

The regional final dates and locations are as follows:

  • Oculus Connect, October 11 – 12
  • ESL One Hamburg, October 28 – 29
  • IEM Oakland, November 18 – 19
  • DreamHack Winter, November 30 – December 3

After the regional’s have taken place the main event will be held at IEM Katowice in Poland, where the Intel Extreme Masters takes place.

For further updates on the VR Challenger League, keep reading VRFocus.

Intel Announce the Worldwide VR Challenger League

While the first couple of E3 2017 press conferences were a bit of a disappointment for virtual reality (VR) news, the last couple have greatly improved matters. Today has seen Intel hold its event alongside the PCGamer Show, with reveals including the release date of Lone Echo on Oculus Rift as well as Echo Arena arriving alongside it for free. Additionally, Echo Arena will feature in a new eSports event being run by Intel, ESL and Oculus called VR Challenger League

Both Echo Arena from Ready at Dawn and magical combat experience The Unspoken by Insomniac will be featured during the challenge, which will encompass both European and North American communities with regular online and offline competition. After playing online players will qualify for offline regional events, which will then seed them into the world championships at IEM Katowice in 2018.

Insomniac’s The Unspoken is a dueling spellcasting experience where players face up against opposing mages in 1v1 battles. Players can cast powerful spells and utilize the destructible environment to gain an advantage over their opponents. While on the flip side is Echo Arena which is a team-based, 5vs5 multiplayer where players have to score points by scoring goals. But the arenas all feature low gravity as well as obstacles to stop the ball and cause issues for the players themselves.

The VR Challenger League will begin in July 2017, namely due to Lone Echo and Echo Arena both launching on 20th July. The former is available for pre-order for $39.99 USD, while the latter will be free.

In terms of other VR news, Bethesda made a couple of little announcements yesterday, revealing DOOM VFR and Fallout 4 VR, the former for HTC Vive and PlayStation VR and the latter just for HTC Vive.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of E3 2017, reporting back with the latest announcements.

Intel, Oculus & ESL Launch $200,000 VR eSports ‘Challenger League’

Intel have announced a partnership with ESL and Oculus to launch an eSports league dedicated to VR gaming, featuring Oculus Rift titles The Unspoken and Lone Echo‘s multiplayer counterpart Echo Arena.

It’s official, sitting around watching other people play games is a big deal among hardcore gamers these days and while, right now, the vast majority of those games are played competitively using a monitor, mouse and keyboard, Intel, ESL and Oculus want to accelerate the progression of immersive eSports with their latest initiative, the “VR Challenger League”.

The new event, offering a prize pool of over $200,000, will comprise two VR titles that were both conceived with competitive play in mind. The first is Insomniac’s excellent magical dueller The Unspoken. The game is focused on 1v1 magical duelling and has the player use the Oculus Touch motion controllers to perform magical gestures to create and throw projectiles and cast special attacks.

Next up is Echo Arena, the multiplayer counterpart to the forthcoming Oculus Rift exclusive Lone Echo set in space, featuring some impressive contextual animation and zero-G locomotion which opens the door to some unique tactile gameplay opportunities. Road to VR’s Frank He went hands on with the multiplayer mode at last year’s Oculus Connect 3 event. Here’s a snippet of what he had to say of his experience:

We would move around in zero gravity either with thrusters, or by grabbing, pulling, or pushing ourselves on our way with the help of walls or floating geometry (or even teammates or enemy characters). We’d be vying for a glowing disc in the middle of the Ender’s Game Battle Room-style arena (though it wasn’t nearly as big). Then we’d have to grab the disc and throw it into the holographic goal at the end of other team’s side.

A final piece of the puzzle was a punch you could do only to opponents’ heads to briefly stun them, preventing them from being able to move and hold the disc. You could also grab and climb onto bodies, so a common maneuver would be to grab onto a limb, clamber up, punch them in the face, and snatch the disk right from their hands, then give yourself a shove off of their stunned body to head toward the goal.

You’ll be able to qualify for the offline events by taking part in the online competitions which are set to start on July 12th on ESL Play. As well as the VR Challenger League qualifiers, you’ll also be able to “challenge yourself in our weekly ESL Play cups”, where you can compete for weekly points and prize money.

If you’re interested in taking part, head over to ESL to create an ESL Play account so you’re primed and ready to take part when the league kicks off next month.

The post Intel, Oculus & ESL Launch $200,000 VR eSports ‘Challenger League’ appeared first on Road to VR.