Hi MKCentral;
I'd like to take the time to address in my own words a concept that other people have before and to add my thoughts to it. I'm aware that this has been discussed on numerous occasions however I feel it's only ever been addressed as an "either or" option rather than an "as well as" option.
I've talked to a few people about what I'm going to post about so thanks to them for contributing and helping to construct this. It's still a bit of a mish-mash but ye.
Does this community consider MarioKart 8 Deluxe an E-Sport?
We have a global league with 10 divisions (fantastic btw, great to see MKU still growing), a 200cc league, and now 2 separate leagues also hosted on the site. It would make sense that this game is considered to be "competitive" at the very least given the massive skill gap between top and bottom tier gameplay.
I feel that in this sense, a lot of people consider this game to be more than just a hobby. Team leaders put a lot of effort and work into making their teams run smoothly, entering and winning competitions and making their teams into a nice, relaxing atmosphere for people to be in and enjoy.
So what is it then that stops this community from making the final jump into taking competition more seriously?
There are two things I'd like to address as potential ideas for the community going forwards in this post and I'd like people to read fully before jumping to the Post Reply button to show me their favourite meme of why I'm wrong. Additionally I apologise if these have been tried and tested and failed thoroughly but I don't think they have.
1. Paid-entry tournaments
I always feel like these are shot down with very obvious arguments like "this excludes younger players" or "not everyone can enter if they don't have $5 to spend." While these are valid points I don't think they're strong arguments. And to these reasons I'd quickly respond;
- If someone doesn't want to enter, they don't have to.
- If young players can't enter because of monetary issues, that's cool too, because there are lots of tournaments available for many players to take part in, we have the Solo Circuit going on and MKU every week as well as a French only and now a Spanish only league. We also have had 2v2 FFAs, 3v3 FFAs, people play this game in so many outlets. I don't see why it's not worth trying.
I feel the demographic of the community is increasingly suitable for this kind of event. A lot of people are here because they came back after playing compet MKW in the past or "graduated" to this game from MK8u. I feel like people would take part in this for 2 main reasons (there are more but not as prominent. )
- The hype surrounding a proper pay-to-enter tournament with a cash prize pool or eShop vouchers or games or whatever we would provide as a prize.
These kind of tournaments don't come around often and I feel like they are big things. With the right support on social media and the right promotion by Staff, these kind of events can get a massive buzz around them. We've seen it with World Cups in the past and we've seen it even in MKU seasons, so imagine what kind of atmosphere could be created for a tournament like this. I also believe it would give our casting team and Media Staff in general a proper purpose and a window to attract many people into our community.
- Why not?
I don't know about other people but I like playing MarioKart and if communities for other games can do this then why can't (and why shouldn't) we? The community here is very big, we have the right resources... it feels like this has been missing for a while. It feels like the natural next step.
2. More IRL events hosted by the community
First and foremostly, this is a bigger ask than simply an online tournament and I acknowledge that for sure. Events like these are incredibly difficult to organise but, I think they can be done with enough motivation. I think a lot of the time the deterrent is the sheer amount of work that would be needed to be done to pull it off - but again, I believe the exact same reasoning as the previous paragraph states apply here too. I think that these would be manageable especially in Europe where travel between countries is not super difficult and we have access to excellent transport systems like the Eurostar as well as cheap budget airlines (for example, I don't see getting to London particularly difficult for France or Germany and vice versa). One point that I really want to hit home from this is that events like these are always worth the planning and effort.
We also see things like Paris Games Week where many of the French teams have had a great time going to see each other and even being able to meet some French personalities from the Internet, stuff like that. I'm not sure if there's competition at this event but what I am sure of is that pretty much everyone I've spoken to who attended had an awesome time. It feels like this could be done on a lower scale and people could have the opportunity to get out from behind a screen, have a laugh, meet friends who we talk to on a daily basis over a computer, and make memories.
I'm aware that money is the biggest issue regarding this. I know things aren't always easy, people come to the online community for a lot of reasons and one of the most common is for an escape. But I'm also sure that two of the biggest factors that keep this community thriving are the friends we make and the competitive aspect of the game we play. Why not bring them together in the flesh? I believe a lot of people talk about the Smash community and the reason we don't try is that "we're not sponsored" or "we're not that big". These massive eSports started somewhere, and I feel we could do this too, over time. I don't believe it's too late to start trying, despite the game entering a couple years now.
So where do we go from here?
I'd be very interested to hear of anyone else who would enjoy events like this to be more frequent in their own respective countries. I'd also be interested to hear of events that are already happening in any country. I don't see them promoted a lot and I think they should be. A lot of the players I talk to think that the community could learn a lot from that of Smash + other gaming communities. It's just turned 2019 but summer isn't that far away - I feel opportunities like this shouldn't be missed.
What it comes down to is what the community would like to see, how we would like to progress, and how much effort people are willing to invest in order to make things thrive.
If anyone would like to speak more about me personally with anything I've discussed really;
SleepyDamian#6014
I'd like to take the time to address in my own words a concept that other people have before and to add my thoughts to it. I'm aware that this has been discussed on numerous occasions however I feel it's only ever been addressed as an "either or" option rather than an "as well as" option.
I've talked to a few people about what I'm going to post about so thanks to them for contributing and helping to construct this. It's still a bit of a mish-mash but ye.
Does this community consider MarioKart 8 Deluxe an E-Sport?
We have a global league with 10 divisions (fantastic btw, great to see MKU still growing), a 200cc league, and now 2 separate leagues also hosted on the site. It would make sense that this game is considered to be "competitive" at the very least given the massive skill gap between top and bottom tier gameplay.
I feel that in this sense, a lot of people consider this game to be more than just a hobby. Team leaders put a lot of effort and work into making their teams run smoothly, entering and winning competitions and making their teams into a nice, relaxing atmosphere for people to be in and enjoy.
So what is it then that stops this community from making the final jump into taking competition more seriously?
There are two things I'd like to address as potential ideas for the community going forwards in this post and I'd like people to read fully before jumping to the Post Reply button to show me their favourite meme of why I'm wrong. Additionally I apologise if these have been tried and tested and failed thoroughly but I don't think they have.
1. Paid-entry tournaments
I always feel like these are shot down with very obvious arguments like "this excludes younger players" or "not everyone can enter if they don't have $5 to spend." While these are valid points I don't think they're strong arguments. And to these reasons I'd quickly respond;
- If someone doesn't want to enter, they don't have to.
- If young players can't enter because of monetary issues, that's cool too, because there are lots of tournaments available for many players to take part in, we have the Solo Circuit going on and MKU every week as well as a French only and now a Spanish only league. We also have had 2v2 FFAs, 3v3 FFAs, people play this game in so many outlets. I don't see why it's not worth trying.
I feel the demographic of the community is increasingly suitable for this kind of event. A lot of people are here because they came back after playing compet MKW in the past or "graduated" to this game from MK8u. I feel like people would take part in this for 2 main reasons (there are more but not as prominent. )
- The hype surrounding a proper pay-to-enter tournament with a cash prize pool or eShop vouchers or games or whatever we would provide as a prize.
These kind of tournaments don't come around often and I feel like they are big things. With the right support on social media and the right promotion by Staff, these kind of events can get a massive buzz around them. We've seen it with World Cups in the past and we've seen it even in MKU seasons, so imagine what kind of atmosphere could be created for a tournament like this. I also believe it would give our casting team and Media Staff in general a proper purpose and a window to attract many people into our community.
- Why not?
I don't know about other people but I like playing MarioKart and if communities for other games can do this then why can't (and why shouldn't) we? The community here is very big, we have the right resources... it feels like this has been missing for a while. It feels like the natural next step.
2. More IRL events hosted by the community
First and foremostly, this is a bigger ask than simply an online tournament and I acknowledge that for sure. Events like these are incredibly difficult to organise but, I think they can be done with enough motivation. I think a lot of the time the deterrent is the sheer amount of work that would be needed to be done to pull it off - but again, I believe the exact same reasoning as the previous paragraph states apply here too. I think that these would be manageable especially in Europe where travel between countries is not super difficult and we have access to excellent transport systems like the Eurostar as well as cheap budget airlines (for example, I don't see getting to London particularly difficult for France or Germany and vice versa). One point that I really want to hit home from this is that events like these are always worth the planning and effort.
We also see things like Paris Games Week where many of the French teams have had a great time going to see each other and even being able to meet some French personalities from the Internet, stuff like that. I'm not sure if there's competition at this event but what I am sure of is that pretty much everyone I've spoken to who attended had an awesome time. It feels like this could be done on a lower scale and people could have the opportunity to get out from behind a screen, have a laugh, meet friends who we talk to on a daily basis over a computer, and make memories.
I'm aware that money is the biggest issue regarding this. I know things aren't always easy, people come to the online community for a lot of reasons and one of the most common is for an escape. But I'm also sure that two of the biggest factors that keep this community thriving are the friends we make and the competitive aspect of the game we play. Why not bring them together in the flesh? I believe a lot of people talk about the Smash community and the reason we don't try is that "we're not sponsored" or "we're not that big". These massive eSports started somewhere, and I feel we could do this too, over time. I don't believe it's too late to start trying, despite the game entering a couple years now.
So where do we go from here?
I'd be very interested to hear of anyone else who would enjoy events like this to be more frequent in their own respective countries. I'd also be interested to hear of events that are already happening in any country. I don't see them promoted a lot and I think they should be. A lot of the players I talk to think that the community could learn a lot from that of Smash + other gaming communities. It's just turned 2019 but summer isn't that far away - I feel opportunities like this shouldn't be missed.
What it comes down to is what the community would like to see, how we would like to progress, and how much effort people are willing to invest in order to make things thrive.
If anyone would like to speak more about me personally with anything I've discussed really;
SleepyDamian#6014