Apex Legends was released a week ago, and it’s definitely been a blast. The Respawn Entertainment Titanfall-series-based Battle Royale game is now back with its first esports tournament hosted by Twitch.
A Twitch Rivals Apex Legends Tournament in the Making
Apex Legends is buzzing with sheer vitality. The game has managed to win itself accolades from critics, skeptics and the most devoted fans of the Titanfall franchise. The game is no Titanfall, though.
The action takes places 30 years after the events in the original franchise when Titanfall 2 concluded. The place is the Outlands and the format is all about teamwork. Released by EA Games and Respawn Entertainment there’s a lot the game offers the Battle Royale fan.
True, you won’t see character do wall-walking or flip themselves sideways in the air, two mechanics some miss from Titanfall, but the game feels easy-to-play and an inspired attempt to create a distinctly different Battle Royale title.
Now, Twitch Rivals are bringing in two distinct events slated for January 12 and January 19. The cumulative prize pool is $200,000, divvied up between the North American and EMEA contenders. Both Challenges will feature a prize pool of $100,000, with a total of 48 competitors.
There will be no tournament structure as of this moment and teams will instead head for an open-world fight with each other. The hosts will put points for certain objectives, such as:
- Five points per match victory
- One point per kill
The hosts are also bringing a lot of casting and streaming talent to make sure that the event will feel like a blast, including:
- Guy “DrDisrespect” Beahm
- Michael “shroud” Grzesiek
- Jeremy “DisguisedToast” Wang
The event itself is just beginning for Apex Legends at this point. The game has cited 10 million players within 3 days of launch time, which was quite the achievement. The transaction systems have now been fully operational with players having a chance to also earn some loot for free rather than paying for their cosmetics.
More importantly, and pertinently, too, esports powerhouse NRG has officially revealed intentions to pursue an esports future for the game. It’s a bit of a chance, but NRG seem confident that Apex Legends’ popularity is not a public sop.
With Vince Zampella just speaking to Venture Beats hours ago, it most certainly seems like the game is headed in the right direction. The only Battle Royale game to fail so far in terms of esports has been H1Z1 where the league ended up in shambles with outstanding payments still not fulfilled and people reportedly having worked illegally.
PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS has been another title struggling with viewership, although this hasn’t diminished PUBG Corp.’s determination to push ahead with its esports plans.
Meanwhile, Fortnite is still gaining traction, heading for IEM Katowice later this month. Apex Legends will have to be careful about the way it approaches esports. It would be for the best if it managed to pull off all the best aspects of esports about the games it tries to emulate.
A franchised model – not on the cards, but why not?