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Now that summer is fully installed, you have to make sure to keep hydrated and seek the shade. And while you’re inside, waiting for the temperature to lower a bit and enjoy outside activities, why not participate in a competition or two?
Here’s a selection of Open Community tournaments for you:
You are an organizer, and would like us to showcase one of your upcoming tournaments? Contact us, and come advertise it on our Discord Server!
Every year, the E3 Event is the occasion for everyone to discover what will the future of video games be made of. Incredible games are in the making and have been announced, along a hardware evolution going into the next console generation, but as usual, we will be focusing on these games and news that will likely have an impact on the esports landscape.
Maybe one of the games will be the next esports phenomenon? Or it will bring new paradigms and mechanisms that will shape the future or competition? Maybe they will just be fun community games that the players will get to grips with?
Either way, let us see what this year’s E3 had in store for us, with highlights and :
The EA Play was the unofficial opener of this year’s E3, and they logically announced the new editions of their sports IPs, with FIFA 20 and Madden NFL 20 making it under the spotlights. The big news was the revival of the “Street” mode for FIFA, under the new name “Volta”, with multiple game modes involving between 3 and 5 players per team, various rules for terrain etc.
Apex Legends is getting a 2nd Season, going with the name Battle Cry, whereas Battlefield V will soon receive its Fourth Chapter, “Defying the Odds” with new maps, modes, vehicles and more!
Next up was the Microsoft, or more precisely the Xbox conference. It was an impressive stream of 60 games, including 30 newcomers to the Xbox Game Pass (which now boasts more than 100 games, and new offers for PC and console owners!), 14 first-party games developed by Xbox Game Studios and 11 world premieres.
Among these, Gears 5 and Halo Infinite obviously caught our eye, being the sequels to some of the most renowned series in history, and having vibrant esports scenes. Bleeding Edge, the new game by Ninja Theory promises to shake things up too, with a colorful melee brawler where teams of 4 players will fight for objectives.
There is also Crossfire X, an Xbox version of the famous Asian shooter coming up. In another genre entirely, the Definitive Edition of Age of Empires II will let us cruise down memory lane while we wait on the highly-anticipated new game of the series.
Finally, this conference was also the occasion for Microsoft to present their new gaming solutions, with the new Xbox Game Pass offers we spoke about earlier, but also new information about the release of xCloud, a new Elite Series gamepad and Project Scarlett, the future generation of consoles, with hardware retro-compatibility.
Two news from Bethesda involve competitive multiplayer. The first one is the addition of a Battle Royale game mode for Fallout 76, Nuclear Winter. 52 players, a new map and a fight to the death to determine the next Overseer!
The other one came as a surprise, during the Doom Eternal BattleMode showcase, a new asymmetric multiplayer mode where a Slayer had to fight off 2 human opponents controlling demons, with powers and impressive weaponry. A bit early to know how it will fare, but definitely a breath of fresh air, and something exciting to keep an eye on!
In pure Devolver Digital fashion, this year’s conference has been nothing short of amazing, though containing quite some graphical violence (again).
Regarding the games line-up, there is one that stood out of the bunch for its competitive aspect: Fall Guys. We would not dare try to sum it up better than they did: “Fall Guys flings hordes of contestants together online in a mad dash through round after round of escalating chaos until one victor remains!”.
Might sound like a Battle Royale, but think of it like more of a Takeshi’s Castle meet Human Fall Flat, and it sounds awesome!
Ubisoft followed with their conference, and in pure Ubisoft fashion, announced continued support for their existing titles, with a new Rainbow Six: Siege season, and the addition of a Spectator Mode in For Honor.
Just Dance celebrated its 10th anniversary, and will have its 2020 edition with even more hit songs and awesome choreographies (plus a special anniversary mode).
Last, but not least, they officially announced a brand new IP with Roller Champions, a roller derby game where teams of 3 skaters face off to score the most points through speed, tactics and acrobatics. A free demo is available during the E3 duration, so try it out!
Next up was the PC Gaming Show, with no less than 30 games on the program. Let’s kick it off with the Versus update for Vermintide 2, which will let players assume the role of special Skavens to try and kill their heroes counterparts. Looks like the medieval melee genre is still going strong, with Chivalry II also announced, to try and reconquer the genre they pioneered.
Two strategy games were also presented, to further prove that the genre is still close to the heart of many players, with Songs of Conquest (which looks like Heroes of Might & Magic) and Age of Wonders: Planetfall (a new addition to the decades-old series).
Finally, there was Midnight Ghost Hunt, a team-based shooter with hide & seek mechanics reminding Garry’s mod Prop Hunt and a cartoony Ghostbusters feel… We do not know about you, but we’re hyped!
2019 is going to be a huge year for Nintendo, with the Switch receiving more and more love from developers and players alike. The list of games to be available on the console is packed with great titles, and it does not look like it is slowing down anytime soon! As for competitive multiplayer, the current banner title, Super Smash Bros Ultimate will welcome two new characters: the nameless hero from Dragon Quest XI (and echo alternatives) and Banjo-Kazooie!
Later this year, two new games are to be released, with the new Pokemon Sword & Shield, and Mario & Sonic at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, both with duel (and more) competitive formats for players to actively confront their skills and prowess.
There are two other important announcements that were made outside of official conferences, which we will conclude with:
Konami announced the new PES game, which received a new name: eFootball PES 2020, to be released later this year, with, among other things, a new transfer algorithm to make players’ market more coherent and realistic, a dialogue-driven progression, a remastered version of the Masters League, intentional fouls on the field etc.
We learned a while back that Activision had decided to bring back the most celebrated series in Call of Duty history, with a reboot of the Modern Warfare franchise. We now know it will feature a brand new single-player campaign, and cross-play multiplayer! No more season pass, but regular and free content updates are on the menu, for what is bound to become a CoD reference!
That’s “all” for this year, and we can’t wait to put our hands on most of these new games and updates, which will hit Toornament in due time for communities to get the competitive side of them running!
Even though summer is closing in, with its never-ending sunny days, and beach/pool parties for the luckiest among us, we still have some rainy days to hone our gaming skills, and try to win some tournaments (not that you can’t play when the weather is nice, obviously)!
Here’s a selection of Open Community tournaments for you:
You are an organizer, and would like us to showcase one of your upcoming tournaments? Contact us, and come advertise it on our Discord Server!
Toornament is an open esports platform, and as such, we have huge communities of players from the Triple-A and leading esports titles, but that does not mean we shun other games or communities, quite the contrary actually!
We have always had a down-to-earth approach about smaller and indie games, in that they might just be the next phenomenon, and bring something new to the table.
As such, we strongly believe that all games that want to go competitive deserve their spot on the platform and we want to make everything we can to make them feel at home. This way, they will have access to all the features that enable a great competitive environment.
We regularly add new games, big and indie, on the platform, and part of our latest batch was Ultimate Chicken Horse by Clever Endeavour Games, an indie party game that wanted to provide their community with tools to organize their competitions and tournaments.
Ultimate Chicken Horse is a party game in which you place traps on the level, and try to reach the finish line before your opponents
“Some of our community members there were already running fan tournaments, and ever since we’ve been meaning to help them do so by providing our support as well as the right tools to make their lives easier.
Due to the free-for-all design of our game, we needed a platform that integrates the 1v1v1v1 format for tournaments. We’re also excited about Toornament TV, because we have seen a lot of demand for the streaming of tournament matches.”
– Genevieve Leblanc, Clever Endeavour Community Manager
So we worked together, and added their game as a discipline on Toornament, for everyone to be able to organize tournaments, from the evening friend-gathering to official events.
“We’re looking forward to seeing the events that the competitive part of our community will organize on Toornament, and hoping to see that community grow more thanks to the platform! This promises to be a big step towards better organization and sharing potential. We don’t have specific plans yet as organizers, but we’re hopeful that this will allow us to feel like Clever Endeavour can take a more official role in running tournaments before long.”
– Genevieve Leblanc, Clever Endeavour Community Manager
We want to welcome the Ultimate Chicken Horse community on Toornament, and we are also eager to see what they come up with!
If you want your game to also get added to Toornament, for your players to enjoy our features, feel free to contact us!
FIFA has always been a top game on Toornament, and its community one of the most active on the platform. So it’s only fair that we put the spotlight on these amazing organizers from time to time, and there is also a great opportunity for our German friends that currently under way with the Charcoal Cup, that can be summarized in a few words:
The Charcoal Cup tournament is not affiliated with or sponsored by Electronic Arts Inc. or its licensors.
Find all information on the Charcoal Cup Website, and if the registrations for the first qualifier are over, you can still try your skill in the next three:
For those of you who are not in Germany, or did not make it through the qualifiers, we have plenty of other tournaments to hone your FIFA skills, and compete against the world:
