eSports Saturday: I competed in my first local eSports tournament last week

clash-city-championships

Last week I attended and competed in my first live local eSports tournament. First things first, I am pretty terrible at all video games across-the-board. I’m not much of a gamer but I am really interested in gaming and eSports but more as a spectator than a player. That being said, if there’s one game that I’m “okay” at – it’s Clash Royal made by one of my favorite game studios on the planet, Supercell.

I got into Clash Royale because I was previous a Clash of Clans player who had to stop because after investing close to $1,000 into the game I realized that I was competing against players that were happy to throw thousands of dollars into it. What I like about Clash Royal is that there’s a much more even playing field and it reminds me a bit of Magic the Gathering which has long been a favorite of mine.

I’ve been playing Clash Royale for about two years now and finally reached a point where I’m a high enough level that I can compete in tournaments. Just to be clear, this doesn’t mean I’m good at the game. In fact, at the tournament that I attended, I was the lowest ranked player there. That being said, I still had a blast and managed to eek out one win during the tournament but of course lost overall.

The tournaments that are taking place in cities across the US are part of what Supercell is calling Clash Nights: City Championships. Clash Nights have been going on for a while now but they recently added a Tournament-style competition element to the mix. If you want to understand a bit more about Clash Nights, there’s a pretty kick ass video on You Tube that you might dig:

For me, the entire experience was really interesting, I learned a lot, and yes – it was very humbling to be around an entire group of people that were much better than me at the game. That being said, I found everyone to be very welcoming and more than happy to share strategies, tips, common pitfalls, etc. I also got invited to join a local Clan so now I’m playing on a team with people I’ve actually had the chance to meet in real life which is pretty neat.

In two weeks there will be another tournament here in San Francisco and I’m looking to redeem myself so I’ll be there and hopefully can bring my A game this time! If you haven’t played Clash Royale before I’d say give it a shot, as someone who grew up playing chess, I really like the strategic thinking involved in games like this where you have to pick which pieces to move and when to move them based on a balancing of abilities.

Have you ever participated in a eSports tournament? If so I’d love to hear about it. As usual, I love to hear from you – my reader, comment and let your voice be heard!

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton