The 2015 Arena Respawn Showdown January 23rd-25th

[tf2.com]

The EdgeGamers Organization presents Arena: Respawn, a ladder-style tournament open to all TF2 players taking place January 23rd-25th, 2015!


Arena: Respawn is a modification of TF2's Arena gamemode developed as an alternative to sixes. The goal is to eliminate the enemy team as quickly as possible. There are no respawn timers, but players can capture the central control point to respawn the dead members of their teams.


It's time for a showdown! Think you have the skills to match up against some of the best in Arena Respawn? Form a five-man team and join the fray!




Source: TF2.com

 

[Grizzly Berry]

Of course this is going on the weekend of the 72hr contest.

 

[Shogun]

Man, I really wish this mod had come out a few years earlier. Competitive TF2 might have had more of a chance then :\

It's great to see Valve taking notice of these small tournaments though.

 

[wareya]

Gamemodes have nothing to do with why competitive TF2 isn't "successful".

 

[Shogun]

Gamemodes have nothing to do with why competitive TF2 isn't "successful".

In this case they do, although I agree it isn't the only reason. If you look at successful competitive video games, more importantly successful competitive first person shooters like Counter Strike, if you're dead, that's it, you're dead. No respawning. This, combined with the fact that most people are killed in 1-2 shots makes for fast paced gameplay that is fun to watch.

In TF2, 75% of the time the teams are waiting around for uber or a pick spamming at doors or waiting for respawns. This is incredibly boring to watch, even for people who like TF2. The success of any sport or any esport highly depends on people being able to spectate the game as you probably know, but no one is going to watch that willingly. In Arena Respawn the lack of (well, for the most part) respawns leads to faster paced, more interesting gameplay.

But yeah, gamemodes aren't the only reason why competitive TF2 hasn't been successful. There are certainly loads of other problems (the most apparent probably being that it wasn't built for competitive play in the first place), but it this case it happened to come up.