Oculus has confirmed that a number of VR eSports tournament finals are officially headed to Oculus Connect 5, the company’s annual developer conference.

Competing for a total cash prize pool of $120,000, tournament hopefuls will descend upon San Jose’s McEnery Convention Center on September 26th – 27th.

Live coverage of the tournament finals will begin at 11:30 am PT (local time here) both days of OC5 on VR League’s Facebook, Twitch, and YouTube channels.

SEE ALSO
Update: 'The Unspoken' VR League Final is Back on & Coming to Oculus Connect 5

Day One of the conference will include Onward and The Unspoken finals, while Day Two will feature Echo Arena and Sprint Vector finals.

The best bit: could get a shot at the prize money too. For more information on how to compete in each game’s ‘Last Chance Qualifier’, head over to the Oculus blogpost for relevant sign-up links.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Luke

    Echo VR <3

  • HybridEnergy

    The only VR sport I got into and like is SPARC.

    • Lukimator

      So basically you only like games with mechanics that don’t make any sense for a sport lmao. The only way a game like Sparc would ever have a serious torunament is if their creators or a sponsor pay for it

      • HybridEnergy

        That makes no sense. Sparc is very competitive and everything typically to be funded and serious needs sponsors.

        • Lukimator

          Maybe I didn’t explain it properly. Yes everything needs sponsors, but there is a difference between sponsors doing it because it also benefits them in some way, and doing it to try to push VR forward. No sponsor is going to ever sponsor this game because it benefits them, not even if VR had millions of users, because the mechanics are ridiculous. There are way too many games out there that would make good e-sports to waste money on that crap

          • HybridEnergy

            Nonsense, there is nothing wrong with the mechanics of Sparc. It’s simplicity also has a better chance of spectator retention rate and lower chance of some kind of cheating abuse. You would be surprised how many people say “I don’t know wtf is going on” when it comes to those echo MP games. Lone Echo was an amazing single player game, it’s utterly over complicated no gravity nonsense in multiplayer.

          • Lukimator

            Sorry mate, but you live in an alternate reality. In planet Earth, nobody gives a shit about Sparc because it just sucks. There is a reason nobody plays it, and even less people would watch that snorefest of two dudes pointlessly throwing two different balls at each other non-stop

          • HybridEnergy

            Not pointlessly , there are points involved. lol As if the Echo Arena games are fun to spectate or something, give me a break. The grounded simplicity of Sparc while still being in VR is what gave it that E-sport charm. Oculus needs to get off this echo obsession. Give us Lone Echo 2 SP and find something else for MP.

          • Lukimator

            I never said Echo Arena games were fun to spectate, but Sparc is just a shit game, proven by the fact nobody plays it, so don’t even mention spectating a game

          • HybridEnergy

            I play it and I know people who play, and I don’t have much trouble finding a game. So I have no idea what you are talking about.

          • Lukimator

            Oh you play it, that must mean the game is really popular and good. In the meantime, peak on Steam is 6 concurrent players, lmao

            Even Smashbox Arena has more players than Sparc

          • HybridEnergy

            Well, I always find someone to play against so I don’t care. lol You’re funny. I don’t know of any VR game with a “large” player base in general.

          • Lukimator

            I’m funny yeah, here’s the thing. You are telling Oculus they should stop supporting something pretty popular like Echo VR (that is a kind of zero-g handball) and instead support something like Sparc (pseudo-dodgeball game, just worse). I have to admit just typing it here made me laugh

            Nothing you say will change the fact that you are in the minority, and that Sparc sucks for most people which is why right now it has 5 players online on Steam. There is a big gap to be in between 5 players and thousands/millions. Even if VR had the same playerbase as PC and consoles, Sparc would just be another Lawbreakers, because better developers could afford to develop games with bigger budgets that don’t suck

          • HybridEnergy

            Zero g handball vs pseudo dodge ball, lmao, see you are kinda funny. I don’t think to be honest by now either of these two games have what it takes to be some kind of E-sport phenomenon, but good luck. I never said Oculus needs to dump money anywhere, I was speaking of VR sports in general. Think of my opinion what you want, but I’ve played both and it was only Sparc that gave me that serious E-sport Vibe.

          • Lukimator

            Aaaaand back to square one. So basically you only like games with mechanics that don’t make any sense for a sport

            Good thing you are one of a kind

          • HybridEnergy

            What mechanics make sense for an e sport ?

          • Lukimator

            They sure don’t involve any that give you incentives for NOT throwing the ball first.

            Maybe you want to play my game, it consists on hitting the wall in front of you with a ball, each player has their own ball, and the person that hits it less times wins. Yes, that basically makes as much sense as Sparc does

          • HybridEnergy

            Sparc is more complex than that once you get good at it actually. Also, all real popular current sports are simple in rules and to understand but hard to master. Over complicated computer games aren’t going to draw a spectator count. I win a lot of my games and I throw first, and you get a free strike if your opponent ball holds too long. Throwing first allows you to get the first slap shot in afterwords in advanced controlling the flow of it first. So one more time, what makes good VR mechanics into an E sport?

          • Lukimator

            You aren’t going to hit anybody with your ball when your opponent has a big ass shield to knock it back and then can throw his ball so you have to defend yourself from both balls without a shield

            Mechanics are absurd for high level play. You can win against noobs throwing first sure, but you aren’t going to beat any good player that abuses the stupid system

          • HybridEnergy

            You can play me on there anytime and abuse the system to show me. Good luck.

          • Lukimator

            Sure. Right now I’m going to install that shit game, and waste my time playing that shit game against an internet random that loves games that are dead for a reason. I guess it’s dead because nobody understands it, not because it just sucks

  • Foreign Devil

    will be interesting to watch the players this time around. Usually in E-sports watching the players smash a keyboard is pretty boring. . at least now they will be moving around more.

    • Zachary Scott Dickerson

      I wonder if it would cause them to do a bit of physical training as well? It is a bit more demanding for physical dexterity and stamina. I wear kneepads for dropping down to shoot/crawl, a rifle sling to steady my aim. A lot more work than getting a kill in CS:GO

      • ummm…

        this is why i dont play onward anymore. gun mods, knee pads. i cant compete. i dont have the time!

  • Zachary Scott Dickerson

    Yes, I feel this is going to be much more interesting to watch as an E-sport spectator. Add in mixed reality maybe (if not cheesy). It’s better than the Overwatch League camera snaps of Korean kids picking their nose while moving a mouse.

  • ummm…

    i love the dude that looks like a navy seal and he is just playing a videogame lol. as if he has to carry a big gun and live in harsh environs lol. anyway onward is dead to me because i never kept up with the skill curve. we need more ai scenerios onward dude!

  • Pasi Ripari

    Okay, I’m going to give this hint only once, so pay attention.

    The only way this will take off, is by showing the action in mixed reality. Like those beat saber vids, you know what I mean. If you don’t dedicate to that 100% this is gonna flop. Esports are hard to watch. Dota and SC etc tourney succeed because the gametype makes them easy to follow.

    • JJ

      ..Oh thanks almighty knower of all things… if you hadn’t graced us with your prophetic knowledge we would be so lost. Or not.
      I disagree with you pretty much 100%. if esports pre-VR were successful than VR eSporst are going to just as successful if not more because nothing has been taken away, only added to the experience. Instead of watching Overwatch league where we only really see the players faces and expression paired with gameplay footage now we get to see them jump around and be fully physically involved instead of just with their hands.
      I think Mixed reality viewing will certainly be huge and i’ve said to many bore the mixed reality streamers are about to boom. But without mixed reality eSports would do just fine if not better than eSports.
      Feel free to rebuddle, but i seriously doubt you can. If thats your mindset then you clearly have not put too much thought towards it. Plus your “Everybody pay attention because what i have to say is super important” statements do not go well received here. You’re just some random dude and via your comments its pretty obvious your level of understanding of the vr industry.

      • Maria

        The public ain’t gonna wanna watch people swing invisible bats and shoot invisible guns because it looks so fucking retarded. It’s the reason why things like Google Glass failed. They care about how things look.

        JJ you should rename yourself to Master of Ad Hominem. Your “arguments” would do better in a rap song.

  • Cool idea to push VR eSports

  • Maria

    This isn’t going to be ANY more interesting dummies. It’s gonna be the same as them mashing keyboards except they are gonna look even sillier pretending to hold a gun or lightsaber and sway their arms frantically in calculated patterns. This sounds dumb af.

    • JJ

      whats up your ass?
      This is the next chronological step for eSports, if you can’t see that then you’re most likely wearing a dunce cap…
      You must not find normal eSports entertaining at all or you wouldn’t be saying what you’re saying. You are someone who probably avoids eSports regardless of if they’re VR or not so none of us give a shit if you like eSports or not. Go choke on a dick, you’re just a shitty troll with no life.

      • Maria

        Is that what you call people who disagree with you? Trolls? You must live in quiet a politically insulated place. I’m arguing with people who say that it will be more exciting than regular esports physically. That most people don’t find looking at the players themselves on the computer interesting, only the screen where the action is. Now you are gonna get the same people WAGGLING frantically a la Kinect looking like total shitsticks. Lick my split you rude asshole. This is the comment section.

  • Rafe Frost

    Virtual sports are developing. But such championship requires players to have fewer skills than a “classic” virtual sport. For classical virtual sports, you need to have more knowledge, skills (for example – fast motor skills). I often play team VR games with my friends. In our city, there are many different clubs with VR games. For example – https://virivr.com.au/. Such games bring special emotions. But they are difficult to use for competitions… Classical games (for example dota) are very good for a team championship.