FIRST OFFICIALLY SANCTIONED BEAT SABER TOURNAMENT SCORES BIG

Ryan Burningham
Aug 31, 2018 · 3 min read

We at VAL, along with our industry partners SpringboardVR and LIV, co-hosted a record-breaking Beat Saber tournament on Friday, August 17th. Beat Saber, currently the industry’s top selling title in the VR home market, celebrated the launch of its VR arcade version by holding its first officially sanctioned global tournament with us. Beat Saber fans participated in 168 arcades worldwide across 24 countries, well surpassing our original projections and marked a new milestone for VR Arcade tournaments worldwide. This was a new world wide record for any VR esports event in terms of locations. The interest and excitement from the operator community and the Beat Saber fans was overwhelming.

It was a unifying event for many in the VR arcade industry, including arcades both big and small. For 70% of VR arcades, this was the first tournament held in their location. We had experienced arcades like IMAX VR, who had run tournaments before, participate as well as brand new arcade owner-operators.

Ruirize from LIV cuts a custom track in the LIV mixed reality software for the tournament

Players competed for top prizes and tuned into watch the action on Twitch on the VAL VR esports channel. The event was broadcast with live casters, showcasing local action and updates from arcades around the globe. “We appreciate the way VAL, SpringboardVR, and LIV respected our brand and managed the event such that our fans and our licensed operator network were the first to help us explore the burgeoning eports space. This was an important foray for us as we look to our future in esports,” said Jenna Seiden, commercial partnerships lead for Beat Games.

One of the key takeaways from the event was that during the tournament the Springboard VR platform saw its Beat Saber usage minutes double from the previous week. Arcades who legally license Beat Saber from some of Beat Games’ other premium platform partners, such as Synthesis VR, Private Label, MK2, Mont VR, Neurogaming, and other also participated in the inaugural event. According to Will Stackable of Springboard, “It was great to see all the platforms coming together. For us, Beat Saber vaulted into our top 5 most played games in less than 30 days, a record for any game title.”

Players practiced for hours both at their local arcades and at home before taking part in the day-long event. The top prize was an HTC Vive and players who took places 2–6 each received prizes of $100 for their combined scores of the original Beat Saber songs “100 Bills” and “Escape”. The tournament also featured a half-time show on the VAL esports channel which featured 5 popular global Beat Saber streamers who showcased impressive technical skills, and individual style while playing.

Esports is 100% community driven. This event was a celebration of what happens when VR content creators, arcades and fans come together in a magic way and we felt privileged to host such an incredible community.

Although no concrete plans for more Beat Saber tournaments have been announced by Beat Games, VAL is definitely expecting the world of VR esports to grow and be a powerful upcoming ecosystem. This was a historical moment in the growth of this brand new fusion of VR + esports.

To check out and see the full list of the Beat Saber Tournament scores please visit VALVR.com (where you can also join our discord).

VALVR

VR Esports League

Ryan Burningham

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VALVR

VALVR

VR Esports League

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