The World of Tanks success story trundled into the eSports arena with an announcement from developers, Wargaming.net, of their intention to launch a global competitive eSports league in the first quarter of 2013.
The debut season, comprising regular regional tourneys and play-offs leading to Grand Finals should make its debut in the next few weeks. The mention of a $2.5 million prize pool is certainly a big lure to draw in starry-eyed tank commanders, although specific tournament format and how the prizes are to be distributed has not yet been made clear.
World of Tanks is no stranger to eSports, having featured in a number of other regional and national tournaments and at the World Cyber Games last year. Jonghyuk Baak, Wargaming’s Global eSports Director explained their move into professional competition organisation;
“The scale and popularity of competitive gaming has been skyrocketing over the last couple of years, and we have now reached the point where we can focus significant effort on advancing World of Tanks on to the global eSports scene. Wargaming.net League is a groundbreaking step in our quest to bring the game’s eSports potential into the international spotlight.”
Intriguingly, the statement released on WorldofTanks.com suggests Wargaming does not intend to stop at organising tournaments just for their own games; “The Wargaming.net League is planned to include tournaments within other company’s MMO titles, when they reach their release stages.”
Andrei Yrantsau, Vice President of Global Operation explained Wargaming’s ambitions;
“Now we have a sustainable tool to broaden our global eSports involvement in an unprecedented way: stimulate the growth of the competitive community, organize bigger and better tournaments with larger prize pools than ever, and provide our best pro gamers with completely viable career opportunities.”
It will be interesting to see how this develops, especially with Wargaming’s intention to deliver a more complete theatre of war experience by combining their forthcoming World of Warplanes and World of Warships.
Perhaps in the future, it will be possible to watch entire wars take place online.
