CoD Esports Not Looking Good.
Reading this article from bashandslash.com paints a very bad trend to the E-Sports of gaming. Its a long read, but it may show how the trend is going:
So what are your thoughts on all this? Is it really up to developers to make their games E-sports/competition friendly? Is it the communities fault for these changes? Is competition dying by rampant cheating and poor sportsmanship? Does the community need to create the next generation Counter-Strike, whatever it may be?
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I have always thought that the Australasian eSports scene was energetic, adaptable and in many respects ahead of its much larger north american counterpart -- at least 16 hours ahead by my watch. So, it is with some sadness that I must report that our friends down under are having as much trouble finding their bearings in this post-MW2 world as we are having here in North America. <!--more-->
I caught up with two blokes who are synonymous with eSports down under: Arseynimz and Sensuki and had them summarize the scene in Australia and New Zealand. All in all, they paint a rather dismal picture for Call of Duty eSports as we head into 2010.
Australia
You might remember Jordan, aka Sensuki, from some of the CoD Strat Shows he as done.
Well Jordan has been busy! In fact he was recently featured in an article of the Australian PCPowerplay Magazine:
Dec '09 edition.
He was one of the "pros" giving their perspective on Modern Warfare 2. I haven't read that article yet but I can imagine how it might read:
PP: How's MW2 online for competitive gaming?
Pros: Not worth a zack, mate.
That would have left a lot of blank pages thereafter, so I'm sure Jordan was more thorough in his critique.
Actually, Sensuki is quite the wordsmith, so we asked him to sum up the AusCoD scene for us as we end out 2009.
With the PB contract lapsing on CoD2, I sadly doubt that it will ever take off again in any meaningful way.
Auckland, New Zealand
It's over to the Kiwi scene to see if things are any better there so we contacted Craig, "Arseynimz" to find out his summary of the way things look.
You probably remember Craig from BASH 106: Vaultcast as a very entertaining and outspoken shoutcaster from the Gamestah stable.
Craig has his own blog and if you want to stay in touch with gaming in Aus or in NZ this is the reference for you: GameVault
So what did Craig think of 2009 and what's in store for 2010?
Quick someone take all the sharp objects away from Arsey before he hurts himself. Wow. That was a bit of a downer. But in truth, it mirrors the scene here in North America.
You really do have to credit both Arsey and Sensuki though, they are trying their mightiest to keep things alive in their community. Sometimes it feels like it's an uphill struggle.
Take the escalator
A great deal of the blame for the state of eSports around the world must lie with the developers of the block buster games we desperately want to play. They don't seem very interested in supporting PC competition and at times don't seem to even want to support PC gaming period.
But some of the blame lies with us. It might be time to realize that we will never get catered to if we decide to play a game that is built for the masses (and in many cases nowadays...built for a completely different platform).
FPS eSports needs to start looking around for a game that is built by niche developers who specifically are looking to court hardcore gamers. The game needs to be built for competitive gaming out of the box. It must be supported. It must come with anti-cheat and it must support spectate mode.
As flawed as it is, is it surprising that A.V.A made as big an inroad in North America in such a short time?
There are opportunities here and with all the free gaming engines around...surely some of our modding community can see potential.
Remember...Counter-Strike began its life as community-produced mod for Half-Life.
I caught up with two blokes who are synonymous with eSports down under: Arseynimz and Sensuki and had them summarize the scene in Australia and New Zealand. All in all, they paint a rather dismal picture for Call of Duty eSports as we head into 2010.
Australia
You might remember Jordan, aka Sensuki, from some of the CoD Strat Shows he as done.
Well Jordan has been busy! In fact he was recently featured in an article of the Australian PCPowerplay Magazine:
Dec '09 edition.
He was one of the "pros" giving their perspective on Modern Warfare 2. I haven't read that article yet but I can imagine how it might read:
PP: How's MW2 online for competitive gaming?
Pros: Not worth a zack, mate.
That would have left a lot of blank pages thereafter, so I'm sure Jordan was more thorough in his critique.
Actually, Sensuki is quite the wordsmith, so we asked him to sum up the AusCoD scene for us as we end out 2009.
"After Cybergamer Invite Season 3 (ended in October 2008), the 'competitive scene' moved to CoD: WW and shortly found out that the game was a piece of **** (ed: like I said...quite the wordsmith).
A few seasons were completed but meant little to nothing and there was some grand controversy with one of the players, Killerbot, a sniper from Qlimax Crew was banned. You see, he was found hacking in CoD4. The CoD4 CG Open Ladder Season 6 Grand Final got turned over to my team (we had lost 2-1) because he cheated against us. Our Anti-Cheat team reviewed his CoD:WW grand final demos from CEVO, which we have nothing to do with and found he was cheating in that also.
The competitive side of CoD has completely died, until recently due to popular demand, a pay-to-play Call of Duty 2 CGi League started up, with heaps of old teams reforming to enjoy CoD2. There are currently two groups of 8 teams competing:
We have had a few CoD4 teams move to it...most of them are getting smashed and there's a few active Open ladder teams as well.
Since the X-Ray Anti-Cheat program we have is far from perfect, our Anti-Cheat team have declared that it is compulsory for players to upload their demos for public view, we keep an archive of the demos here in this thread. We have made a Demo Review team for the process of going over any suspect demos for our Anti-Cheat team to look at.
We'll definitely get another season of CGi out of the game, hopefully it lasts. Depends on how close the competition is, atm there's four teams that are pretty close over the two groups but haven't played each other yet. Some big games up and coming.
I got Arseynimz into CoD2 shoutcasting hehe. He did a few matches with me the other week.
Teams that are all very good:
Instead I'm playing Heroes of Newerth (the dota-like stand alone game) but I'm going to wait before moving to anything else. CSPromod is an option IF it's good.
I'm not really interested in Battlefield BC2, I'm not exactly holding my breath for Medal of Honor to step up either.
I would love CoD2 to become the CS 1.6 of CoD, but it needs maybe some new competitively designed maps. Playing custom maps such as mp_powcamp, and I think mp_tripoli2 was considered, but something that has the staying power of cpl_mill or mp_strike would be sick. Also the vert glitch and Losing key packets bugs need to be fixed".
- Jordan (Sensuki)
A few seasons were completed but meant little to nothing and there was some grand controversy with one of the players, Killerbot, a sniper from Qlimax Crew was banned. You see, he was found hacking in CoD4. The CoD4 CG Open Ladder Season 6 Grand Final got turned over to my team (we had lost 2-1) because he cheated against us. Our Anti-Cheat team reviewed his CoD:WW grand final demos from CEVO, which we have nothing to do with and found he was cheating in that also.
The competitive side of CoD has completely died, until recently due to popular demand, a pay-to-play Call of Duty 2 CGi League started up, with heaps of old teams reforming to enjoy CoD2. There are currently two groups of 8 teams competing:
We have had a few CoD4 teams move to it...most of them are getting smashed and there's a few active Open ladder teams as well.
Since the X-Ray Anti-Cheat program we have is far from perfect, our Anti-Cheat team have declared that it is compulsory for players to upload their demos for public view, we keep an archive of the demos here in this thread. We have made a Demo Review team for the process of going over any suspect demos for our Anti-Cheat team to look at.
We'll definitely get another season of CGi out of the game, hopefully it lasts. Depends on how close the competition is, atm there's four teams that are pretty close over the two groups but haven't played each other yet. Some big games up and coming.
I got Arseynimz into CoD2 shoutcasting hehe. He did a few matches with me the other week.
Teams that are all very good:
- The Last Reconnaissance: Been around since vCoD, Asterix & sn@p! (the founders of Cybergamer's team)
- GGunit: Three old teams in one: High Caliber (CoD2) + |2eload (CoD2) + Rhythm (CoD4)
- Bashing Services: CoD2 team, originated in MoHAA
- Five Elements of Surprise: This is the old Qlimax Crew from CoD4 with a couple new players
- Qlimax Crew: Previously called Envy, CoD4 team
- I didn't buy MW2 and I will not be buying it even if they fix it up.
Instead I'm playing Heroes of Newerth (the dota-like stand alone game) but I'm going to wait before moving to anything else. CSPromod is an option IF it's good.
I'm not really interested in Battlefield BC2, I'm not exactly holding my breath for Medal of Honor to step up either.
I would love CoD2 to become the CS 1.6 of CoD, but it needs maybe some new competitively designed maps. Playing custom maps such as mp_powcamp, and I think mp_tripoli2 was considered, but something that has the staying power of cpl_mill or mp_strike would be sick. Also the vert glitch and Losing key packets bugs need to be fixed".
- Jordan (Sensuki)
Auckland, New Zealand
It's over to the Kiwi scene to see if things are any better there so we contacted Craig, "Arseynimz" to find out his summary of the way things look.
You probably remember Craig from BASH 106: Vaultcast as a very entertaining and outspoken shoutcaster from the Gamestah stable.
Craig has his own blog and if you want to stay in touch with gaming in Aus or in NZ this is the reference for you: GameVault
So what did Craig think of 2009 and what's in store for 2010?
Right now, the LAN scene seems very fragmented. And all the online tournaments are very much residing in Australian waters at the moment.
LANON3 has been set up to reinvigorate the Auckland, NZ LAN scene,and provide a fresh new approach to LAN in NZ. In this respect, a LAN studio has been set up in conjunction with local PC retailer Playtech (Playtech.co.nz).
A LAN championship has been proposed for 2010 to invigorate all games.
New Zealand's largest LAN is right now in negotiation with LANON3 to potentially take over in late 2010.
The online scene is dead with all players playing in Australia and on Australian teams. This has resulted in the lack of a visible NZ player or gaming presence for us – we’re just another state of Aus in that respect.
What CoD there is, is played in all formats (gametypes) of 2, 4, WaW, MW2, but only one really competitive totally NZ based team exists: Team Uprising.
As for the year gone for NZ:
The scene started with no NZ stand out teams and with a real hangover from previous year’s absolute rocking of competitive CoD4.
As in North America, players had lost faith in CoD:WW due to Treyarch’s abysmal attempt at a CoD PC game and no patching of the stuff up meant no mod support, which meant no competitive play.
Minimal support saw CoD die and our game saw a merger with the AusCoD scene. Previously all-NZ dedicated teams dispersed and those players still interested in the game were picked up by Aus teams – not good.
NZ's biggest LAN saw a 12 team competition, down from 24 the previous year for CoD4. Team Uprising won it, as Out of the Ordinary were beaten in the final.
The great hope for MW2 was dashed when some guy name Jock Yitch invited IW onto a webcast.
As Sensuki mentioned above, CoD2 has been reinvigorated and some NZ teams are taking part, but as of yet the level of play is not AusCoD competitive standard.
It’s been a tough year for gaming and with all hope now resting with EA and BF:BC2, competitive gaming could completely die.
CS Promod is a possible revival mechanism for the CS scene, but even that has diminished in the same way CoD has with all players going to Aus for their competitions and teams.
Of course then there’s the fact that Promod is just classed as a mod for CS, not a full game (although it has been recoded essentially as a combination and enhancement to the original Source game, and mega upgrade of 1.6) – the players will probably dislike the game on this fact alone.
-Craig (Arseynimz)
LANON3 has been set up to reinvigorate the Auckland, NZ LAN scene,and provide a fresh new approach to LAN in NZ. In this respect, a LAN studio has been set up in conjunction with local PC retailer Playtech (Playtech.co.nz).
A LAN championship has been proposed for 2010 to invigorate all games.
New Zealand's largest LAN is right now in negotiation with LANON3 to potentially take over in late 2010.
The online scene is dead with all players playing in Australia and on Australian teams. This has resulted in the lack of a visible NZ player or gaming presence for us – we’re just another state of Aus in that respect.
What CoD there is, is played in all formats (gametypes) of 2, 4, WaW, MW2, but only one really competitive totally NZ based team exists: Team Uprising.
As for the year gone for NZ:
The scene started with no NZ stand out teams and with a real hangover from previous year’s absolute rocking of competitive CoD4.
As in North America, players had lost faith in CoD:WW due to Treyarch’s abysmal attempt at a CoD PC game and no patching of the stuff up meant no mod support, which meant no competitive play.
Minimal support saw CoD die and our game saw a merger with the AusCoD scene. Previously all-NZ dedicated teams dispersed and those players still interested in the game were picked up by Aus teams – not good.
NZ's biggest LAN saw a 12 team competition, down from 24 the previous year for CoD4. Team Uprising won it, as Out of the Ordinary were beaten in the final.
The great hope for MW2 was dashed when some guy name Jock Yitch invited IW onto a webcast.
As Sensuki mentioned above, CoD2 has been reinvigorated and some NZ teams are taking part, but as of yet the level of play is not AusCoD competitive standard.
It’s been a tough year for gaming and with all hope now resting with EA and BF:BC2, competitive gaming could completely die.
CS Promod is a possible revival mechanism for the CS scene, but even that has diminished in the same way CoD has with all players going to Aus for their competitions and teams.
Of course then there’s the fact that Promod is just classed as a mod for CS, not a full game (although it has been recoded essentially as a combination and enhancement to the original Source game, and mega upgrade of 1.6) – the players will probably dislike the game on this fact alone.
-Craig (Arseynimz)
You really do have to credit both Arsey and Sensuki though, they are trying their mightiest to keep things alive in their community. Sometimes it feels like it's an uphill struggle.
Take the escalator
A great deal of the blame for the state of eSports around the world must lie with the developers of the block buster games we desperately want to play. They don't seem very interested in supporting PC competition and at times don't seem to even want to support PC gaming period.
But some of the blame lies with us. It might be time to realize that we will never get catered to if we decide to play a game that is built for the masses (and in many cases nowadays...built for a completely different platform).
FPS eSports needs to start looking around for a game that is built by niche developers who specifically are looking to court hardcore gamers. The game needs to be built for competitive gaming out of the box. It must be supported. It must come with anti-cheat and it must support spectate mode.
As flawed as it is, is it surprising that A.V.A made as big an inroad in North America in such a short time?
There are opportunities here and with all the free gaming engines around...surely some of our modding community can see potential.
Remember...Counter-Strike began its life as community-produced mod for Half-Life.
So what are your thoughts on all this? Is it really up to developers to make their games E-sports/competition friendly? Is it the communities fault for these changes? Is competition dying by rampant cheating and poor sportsmanship? Does the community need to create the next generation Counter-Strike, whatever it may be?
Source
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