Esports is one of the fastest growing forms of popular entertainment. I took the opportunity to check out a new student competition – set up by BADASS – bringing University students from across the country in preparation for entering the professional esports leagues.
The stream I checked out was for the first-person shooter game Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege. The game consists of two teams of five players, one tries to break into a selected arena of their choice, whilst the other tries sieging the arena and the other defending it whilst they both try taking each other out.
Victory is decided once all the members of a team have been eliminated. In Esports, one stage is chosen by the players and certain characters are banned. Matches much like racquet sports, for example Tennis are decided by the team winning six games cleanly, and if equal go into a deuce of games (score two more games to win) or go to sudden death on the twelfth game.
Game objectives can vary over matches as well from just eliminating the other team to trying to diffuse or detonate planted bombs which will explode after the time limit elapses. Teams have 30 seconds at the beginning to set up their traps and then three minutes to eliminate their opponents. Views offered are a wider view of the Arena with the different layers of the building and first-person views of the various players.
The best two teams playing were “The Fookin Zoo” and “The Lockdown Ludens”. At the moment, I can’t quite get into it (maybe Rainbow Six Siege is not my kind of game) but I will give it time to see if my views change over the next few streams and as I get used to some of the technical language used. There is no denying the talent of these players, particularly Octagon from The Zoo and Proctork from the Ludens.
It is also fun listening to the commentary offered by hosts “Muhcreedy” and “Gerry The Music Man” who help to explain the madness happening as well as having a bit of fun trying to predict what charcters the players are going to ban. Some of the fun matches were the Zoo against Team Triton (including an NTU Representative TheHyd) and the second game where the Ludens faced Ophis which both had close results.
Unfortunately, I found that the matches got boring after multiple games (I think it might be better to do only two games rather than cramming four in one night). I know most professionals often spread out their games, so I think this would be better. I also feel the views got disorientating switching around and maybe offering a split screen option to see the levels and how each of the player’s views. Also, much like other esports tournaments, the arena always seemed to be the same with the games rotating between a clubhouse and an abandoned cafe (Kafe Dostoyevsky).
In conclusion, whilst I still need to adjust and get to understand the game, I feel there are a few technical things which need to be done to enhance the player experience. However, I enjoyed this stream and will be continuing to follow the tournament. The UK seems to be farming some fantastic new talent for the Esports scene. Here’s hoping BADASS takes more steps more from strength to strength.
BADASS University All Stars is streaming live on Twitch on Monday evenings. Next stream starts at 6pm. You can also follow them on Instagram.
By Stuart McComb
Feature image: Futures Platform