3 Things We Learned About Clash Royale as an Esport from Helsinki
This weekend gave us our first glimpse of Clash Royale as an esport. Two hundred players from all over the world met up in Helsinki this weekend in what was our first real glimpse of Clash Royale as an esport. Not only were the stakes high (with €15000 up for grabs), but so too was the level of competition. Here are a few takeaways about the state of the game from the tournament.
Varied — With sheer number players competing, virtually every card found its way into a winning deck at some point in the event. As the tournament reached the final 8 however, we still had no clear idea of which strategy would reign supreme. From troupe rushes to building defenses, it seemed like any battle deck was viable. There were definitely a few cards that saw more play than others. Barbarians and Hog Rider were critical in many a winning push, whereas Goblins and Minion Horde were frequently utilized for their defensive capabilities. The jury is still out on the most effective offensive spell with Poison, Lightning, Fireball, and Rocket all seeing play.
Strategic — With the best-of-five series, many of the matchups were ultimately decided by the competitors ability to bounce back from a loss and make adaptations to counter whatever they succumbed to in early games in the series. The importance of anticipating and countering strategies on the fly was never more apparent than in the semifinal matchup between Naazime of Finnish Royale and steroidi69 of Pusja Mafia. Going into the first game of the set, Naazime had a good read on steroidi69’s Mortar and Tesla strategy, crushing the deck that had bested Elite Nation’s Clash with Ash in the quarterfinals. Steroidi69 changed up his deck mid series, and once he found an answer to Naazime’s anti-Mortar strategy, he doubled back onto the deck he played in game one. Both players used the time between matched to gain advantages, but it was steroidi69 who won the series and a place in the finals.
Intense — All of the players had their eyes set on the €10000 first prize, but not all of them were prepared for the level of competition. Two of the playoff series in particular swung heavily in favor of the the winner of the first game in the series. It was Derek Cheung of HKEsports in the quarterfinals and Steroidi69 in the finals, against Jason of F1nland Assault, who were visibly shaken up after their first loss in their respective series. Steroidi69 even suffered several technical mistakes, or ‘misclicks’, as his play began to fall off. For those of us on the sidelines, it might be tempting to write off the toll that this competition takes on its competitors, but maybe it’s just Jason’s cool demeanor that made it look easy. Jason had an undefeated playoff run with his terrifying Giant pushes and measured play.
Clash Royale really has a lot going for it as it makes its push to be a serious esport, and Helsinki was definitely an encouraging start for such a young game. We’ll be keeping our eyes on the ever-changing state of the game, and the would-be-kings that hope to take the next crown.
