Esports
Seven years after its release, the mobile smash has a massive World Championship tournament underway. Supercell and Tribe Gaming share insights on Clash's surprising surge.
Supercell are putting on a mobile competition this year with US$1m up for grabs – and no, we're not talking about season two of the Clash Royale League. Surprisingly, it's the original 2012 strategy smash, Clash of Clans, as Supercell and ESL's Clash of Clans World Championship is putting up a staggering US$1m prize pool for a game that's never really been on the high-level esports radar.
Of course, Clash of Clans has been a competitive favourite for mobile players for years now and a mainstream smash in its own right. After the success of last year's first season of the Clash Royale League and team-centric tweaks on the game's own formula, though, Supercell believed that the time was right to see how Clash of Clans could fare as a proper esport.
With Clash of Clans World Championship qualifiers underway, we had a chance to speak with Supercell and pro team Tribe Gaming about turning the game into a mobile esport, the reception so far, and whether it has the legs to stick around after this first big battle.
Esports evolution
The village building (and attacking) game has gradually introduced competition-friendly features, beginning with 2016's Friendly Wars option, which let clans directly challenge each other. The community ate it up.
"It almost felt like the community had everything ready and prepared, because the first community tournaments were announced only a few weeks after the Friendly War update went live," recalls Marika Appel, Clash of Clans community manager at Supercell. "Thousands of clans from all over the world have been participating in these tournaments and it's been amazing to see the competitive scene grow from there!"
Transforming a community fixture into a polished and well-funded esports tournament is hardly a small feat, however – and for that, Supercell needed a hand from an esports giant. Supercell and ESL collaborated on an update live stream in June 2018, and as they discussed the incoming Clan War Leagues feature, it sparked an idea in both parties.
"It turned out that ESL were as curious, passionate and crazy as we were regarding what would happen if there was a World Championship tournament for a mobile game that's almost seven years old," says Appel. "Both of us felt that this is something we should do and see how it's received by our most dedicated, skilled and passionate players. No matter how crazy the dreams we had back then, the reality has proven to be even more amazing as we already have the very first pro esports teams in Clash of Clans."
The Clash of Clans World Championship spans several months, with six monthly cycles of online play leading into in-studio LAN play between the top teams in Katowice, Poland. Ultimately, eight five-player teams will make it to the live World Championship Final at an ESL event in Germany later this year, each vying for a share of that prize pool. Additionally, Clash of Clans is also being featured in the ESL Mobile Open, a separate competition held in partnership with telecom giant AT&T.
Tribe takes charge
Tribe Gaming were the first team to secure a spot at the World Championship Final and for Tribe founder and CEO Patrick 'Chief Pat' Carney, entering Clash of Clans esports felt like bringing his career full circle. Chief Pat first entered the mobile-gaming scene by uploading Clash of Clans videos in 2012 and now, seven years and 2.5m YouTube subscribers later, his esports organisation is seeing success in the game's largest competition to date.
"For myself to have a chance to get back involved in the scene through esports was a dream come true," says Chief Pat. "Clash of Clans has always had a strong competitive element to it and I've personally travelled the world to cast competitive events during the so-called 'humble beginnings' of competitive Clash. I'd have to say that recent updates have truly let the best players shine inside of the game for the world to see and expanding their esports efforts naturally made sense."
However, while Tribe are entirely focused on mobile games – the team competes in the Clash Royale League and won the last Vainglory World Championship – he admits that he couldn't just jump into another esport without doing some homework.
"While my first, albeit biased, reaction was 'We have to be involved!', we obviously had to examine the scene to see if it truly made sense for us to be involved,” Chief Pat explains. “The results were overwhelming – tens of thousands of concurrent fans were tuning into competitive Clash of Clans live streams and VODs from the competitions were receiving anywhere from 200,000 to 1m+ views per video. Additionally, we had the opportunity to partner up with the consensus number-one team/clan in the space, making it a perfect recipe for us to get involved and help enhance the scene from the ground floor."
Tribe's team won the first monthly qualifier and another mobile-centric org, Team Queso, have won the second. Given how much money is at stake, could we see even larger, multi-game organisations join the fray as they have with the Clash Royale League?
The Clash continues
Both the Clash Royale League and Clash of Clans World Championship will unfold over the next several months, giving Supercell a pair of high-profile mobile esports offerings. Appel affirms that the Clash Royale League's success last year helped push Supercell into exploring the esports possibilities for their original Clash smash. And there could be more Clash of Clans competition coming beyond this first World Championship.
"Seeing Clash Royale's esports scene flourish has definitely encouraged us! Learning from Clash Royale's successes and seeing how excited their players are made it easier for us to take the leap and build a similar global tournament also for Clash of Clans," she says. "This is just the beginning! We've built the first version of what we think our players might enjoy and now it's time to collect feedback and to see how our community feel about it. The signs are looking very promising!"
"In my eyes, this is just the beginning of an emerging esport. Supercell have learned quite a bit from previous esports endeavours, both in Clash Royale and Clash of Clans, and they're applying all of those lessons towards building the best esports scene possible around their most-storied title," adds Chief Pat. "This year will be an epic journey on pushing the limits for competitive Clash of Clans and going forward into 2020 and beyond, I'm excited to see how the scene will blossom."
