Why Tournaments are important for Rivals – and how Redwood could support them

Tournaments are the heart of every competitive multi player game. They are great not just for the players, but also for the community: Casual players can watch great games, follow the development of the tournaments, root for their favorite players or decks, and discuss the results.

All this would count for Rivals, too. I for one would love to not just watch top player replays from time to time, but see them perform at their best in a tournament finals, all that with an entertaining and insightful commentary.

Yet, for Rivals, tournaments would be even more important. Rivals carries the baggage of a lot of negative perception from C&C fans, and fans of competitive RTS in general. The negative perception is because Rivals is a F2P game with "pay to win" elements (i.e. spending money gives you an edge in the default game mode).

I laid out in different articles why I believe that Rivals gets the balance right and why I think Rivals is still the best Mobile RTS out there. But what I think doesn't matter. It matters what people think who would in general be interested in playing a good Mobile PvP RTS, but do not – because they fundamentally reject the idea of F2P, or because they never played the game and don't understand why it's still a great game, or because potential new players read negative press and reviews about Rivals.

Yes, there are some examples for positive reviews about Rivals. But much of the feeedback is negative. Some of the negative press and reviews might be understandable, but it's often just focused on the principled issue, and does not check whether Rivals still can be great – even for players who don't want to spend money.

Yes, there are some P2W elements to rivals, but it's still a great games  And in tournaments, there would be no P2W.

Tournaments could help tackle this issue. How?

• Tournaments are held at equal unit levels, i.e. there is no pay 2 win element in Rivals tournament
• Tournaments are a hook to create some buzz and coverage for Rivals. Right now, if you Google for Rivals, you mostly find launch reviews on various gaming sites. Some even positive, but usually not very insightful, and not reflective of the great PvP RTS that Rivals can be. Tournament coverage can show people that Rivals can be an amazing and fair PvP RTS
• Tournaments can create the "meta content" and accessible community feeling that any multiplayer game needs. Yes, we have our discords, but they are intransparent for new players. There's no community sites or forums. There's basically just the Rivals Subreddit as a docking point to the community for new players. Tournaments can increase new player retention because they create community feeling and a meta layer on the game.

What should the Community do?

Simple: Run great tournaments. With a focus on good coverage. Tournaments need to work for the players, but they also need to work for the audience. Casual players who like to 'follow the scene' or just like to watch good games. 

Hence, any tournament run by the community should think about how make it accessible to casual players. Things that help:

1. Twitch stream for the tournament
2. YouTube videos with commented/casted top games from the tournament
3. An easy way to discover all relevant information on the tournament
4. Be reliable – that's not just key for players and watchers, but also to gain trust and buy-in from the developers

How could Redwood support the community?

Easy things Redwood could do for trustworthy, proven tournament formats (of which there are not many, yet – so the ball also lies in the corner of the community).

• Announce tournaments in the app through the notification system
• Announce tournaments on their Twitter or the Facebook page (which is by the way horrendously inactive)
• Advertise YouTube videos of the finals if they are on trusted YouTube channels like Captain Benzie or Excoundrel

Harder things:

• Have a dedicated community & social media manager, whose job is to run Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, Discord and liaise with tournament organizers to support them
• Support tournaments with some prizes, e.g. Diamonds or Chests for the prize pool

Very hard (expensive) things to do:

• Support a tournament mode in the app
• Support / run more sophisticated tournaments, potentially even including offline events like the launch celebration

My suggestion would be:

1. For the community to run more events that show Redwood that there is value in them (which needs a bit of reach, good YouTube content etc.)
2. For Redwood to start with the simple things I listed above. The hard things can wait, but there's no reason to not start something soon.

Okay, Flash, Jaedong and Bisu won't play Rivals anytime soon. But let's try to get Rivals tournaments somewhere!