Atlas Reactor, Trion’s turn-based, team-oriented action MMO is already receiving a lot of attention from the gaming community. Its turn-based approach not only levels the playing field so that success is no longer defined by click speed, its set of original and customizable characters keep the game simple, yet still allow players to create varied customized builds for each character, and even the Trion’s eschewing of the traditional free-to-play business model in favor of a flat fee that unlocks every hero are all subjects that have been covered by a variety of gaming news sources from Rock Paper Shotgun to TMC itself. The game has garnered so much attention that this past weekend, a somewhat ad-hoc community tournament was announced on Reddit by users LordCleveland and Lothens. To date, Trion has made a point of being involved in the game’s player base in as many places as possible, with developers appearing on Reddit, Discord, and the game’s Steam community hub. So it wasn’t long before developer Joe “TheBlueMuzzy” Brogno caught wind of it, offering support in the form of publicity and 7500 In-Game Credits (worth approximately $50 US) for each member of the winning team. “It’s really great to see the community coming together to support such a solid event,” reported Brogno. “Even with one of the matches ending with one team seemingly having lost due to a bug, everyone handled it well and continued amicably.”
What made this particular tournament so interesting was that the format by which four-player teams were created out of nearly 100 applicants. When registering, players could volunteer to be a team “Captain” responsible for drafting the other three players out of the remaining pool of players, schoolyard style. Instead of seeing pre-organized teams of players who have been practicing together for months, nearly every team contained players with a wide range of experience with Atlas Reactor, competitive gaming, or even MOBAs in general. Competitor Cbellg, when asked for his experience with the tournament, was particularly impressed with how the game’s mechanics simply don’t require players to have much more than a tactically creative mind, a philosophy that flies in the face of traditional MOBAs: where the more a player plays, the more successful they are; leading to situations where one must have years of game time under their belt to be competitive. Cbellg noted that the tournament’s format demonstrated “the extent [to which] experienced players can group with newer ones and succeed.”
One of this past weekend’s winners, DianaTheDragon has been playing the game since the game was in Alpha, but decided to enter the tournament because she “wanted to try my tactics, even if it was completely with people I didnt know, also since it was my first ever tournament, I wanted to try new things. I am of coarse [sic] gonna join future tournaments, even if they are painfully long, they are fun.” A self-described “somewhat veteran,” DianaTheDragon is, of course, playing more regularly, “learning new tactics and [teamwork]” with every match, though that is no guarantee of success next time around, and that’s a good thing.
As for that next tournament, while LordCleveland is already planning his next event, the website prepphase.com has surfaced so people can register teams for tournaments or sign up as a free agent. “Atlas definitely has what it takes to be an E-Sport!” according to LordCleveland. The developers do seem to be pushing for that, even in it’s development stages, with the ability to create and view custom matches already in place. The only thing that’s left is a player base large enough to sustain competitions like this. It is remarkable that even a small one like this could be announced, held, and executed in the span of a week while the game is still in closed beta. Atlas Reactor still does have a couple months left before its official release, so there is still plenty of time. As Brogno commented, “I’m really proud of this community and have faith that they’ll lead by example for all of the new players entering into Atlas Reactor.”
Personally, my team was eliminated in the first round, but I won’t let that stop me from registering on PrepPhase.com as a free agent. Now I just have to wait for those sweet, sweet sponsorship contracts to come rolling in!
