EVA Stadium, the solution for the esport of tomorrow?
While mobile competition will continue to grow in 2023, and “traditional” esport clubs are being overtaken by new teams led by influencers, we will explore an innovative option currently developing in France: EVA, or Esports Virtual Arenas. A physical space that allows players to compete in VR and move freely in an arena, an FPS that could well lead to a new way of thinking about esports.
Launched 3 years ago, Esports Virtual Arenas are a series of venues, most of which are currently located in France, which allow players to come and compete in a virtual arena, but on a physical ground. This is called free roaming. In its esport formula, the room proposes to two teams to face each other in 4v4 on After-H, a game realised by the EVA teams for this project. Armed with their HTC Vive headsets and a plastic replica equipped with sensors, the players roam around a 450 m2 field that serves as their playground. It should be noted that it is now possible for teams to meet remotely, an option that has already been used in competitions and which does not seem to suffer too much from ping caused by the distance.
Domination is the only mode currently available on the esport side, nothing innovative, but it’s clearly the physical and sporting aspect that distinguishes EVA. A feature highlighted by Esteban, aka Nips2Light, coach of a team from Reims (Champagne-Ardenne, France) : “The big difference with classic eSports is the physical effort that EVA requires,” before adding that he and his teammates train five times a week, with two 40-minute sessions. He concludes: “Today, a player’s lack of physical condition can cause a team to lose”.
All these new aspects are forcing today’s esport to reinvent itself, starting with the broadcasters, such as Dimitri “Deamz” Vertino: “The fact that it is a technology that is more impressive to live than to watch obliges us to explain certain peculiarities of VR”. Nevertheless, he remains reassuring for regular viewers of FPS esports: “There are ‘meta’ weapons, respawn time, duels, rotations, so it’s pretty intuitive !”.
On the business side, EVA also has an important card to play for the future of esport. 2022 has established the supremacy of the so-called “influencer” clubs in esports, with the examples of Karmine Corp, KOI, Moist or LOUD, burying at the same time a decades-old model that wanted a club to exist only for its sporting aspect and its results. A success that is very often explained by the presence of a well-known personality at the head of the new teams, which by their very nature have no difficulty in seducing fans. This is an imperative for esport clubs, which essentially live — or survive — thanks to sponsorship, the sale of merchandise and the few media revenues available in some elitist leagues (ESL Pro League & Blast on CS:GO; franchised leagues on League of Legends and Valorant). Three sources of income that are closely linked to the number of fans that follow and support these organizations. It is in this context that EVA, which we are talking about here, seems to be able to stand out, as its format makes it possible to create a geographical bond, like traditional sports.
This year, for the first time, several French cities such as Tours, Paris, Lyon, Toulouse, Lille and Reims competed in a real Coupe de France with a cashprize of 17,000 euros. After the qualifying rounds in each city, the competition went online before coming to a physical conclusion at Paris Games Week (the second-largest video games convention in Europe) in front of a largely technology-discovering audience. In the future, we can hope to see real physical arenas, rather than the simple gyms of today, so that the matches can attract spectators and become a constant source of income for the clubs.
Of course, outside of esport, these EVA rooms are also open to the public for 40-minutes sessions on different versions of the After-H game, with PVP or PVE mods. This is another option that could be of interest to the organizations that own the rooms, who are looking for other sources of revenue. Ticketing is also a possible option, where we can imagine teams travelling to compete every week like traditional sports leagues, through their countries.
Obviously, not everything is ready to dethrone other FPS games like Valorant or Counter Strike, but the project is moving forward and Deamz would like to see some new features on EVA in the future:
“I would like to see several competitive game modes on After-H. A Search & Destroy style mode would be a great way to get the most out of the game, in good old Call of Duty nostalgia, emphasising tactical skills, and why not some sort of capture the flag?“
As for the future of the project as a whole, he’s dreamy: “Regarding the EVA technology, I feel like the possibilities are endless, so as a sports fan I’d love to see a football or basketball game adapted to this technology. […] Regardless, I would love to discover a new game using this technology, because I really think the potential is incredible”.
Coupe de France Final:
I’m obviously not getting paid for this article, I just want to share an idea of the esport of the future that I got from exploring this technology, I hope you enjoyed the read.