Recently, we got the opportunity to interview Dariya Klimchuk, eSports Director for World of Tanks Blitz (Free), during the Blitz Twister Cup of World of Tanks Blitz. We are always interested in how mobile games become competitive eSports games, and World of Tanks Blitz is a great example of that. Wargaming has become a behemoth by now, with World of Tanks Blitz doing very well and World of Warships Blitz on its way to a global release. It’s always hard to gauge people’s interest in eSports, but we do know that Blitz’s PC brethren, World of Tanks, has been doing well as an eSport, so we wanted to see how the team is developing a mobile game with an eye towards eSports. Enjoy the interview below.
1) How do you feel about the eSports side of World of Tanks Blitz after Blitz Twister Cup?
Blitz Twister Cup 2017 marked a great step forward in the eSports evolution of World of Tanks Blitz. The winning team (Legion, from Europe) managed to defeat last year’s reigning champion. This is particularly important because teams from all over the world had hoped to see a new winner this year. It proves that practice alone can take any team to the top – and maybe even result in winning the championship!
Half a million viewers watched this year’s Twister Cup. That’s a clear indicator that eSports are being embraced by the masses. It motivates us to keep investing in eSports so that we can bring even more spectators and players to the fold.
2) How do you develop the game as an eSport? Do you have a separate team working on eSports features versus features for everyone, or do you develop with both in mind?
We integrated a full eSports module (which includes a full-featured tournament system, series, and ratings) for players looking for ways to improve their skills. Both standard and tournament-specific features cover two different types of players.
The first group wants – and needs – to compete. For them, we’re implementing a number of improvements and challenges such as tournament seasons and clan leaderboard/ hall of fame. A second group is more interested in playing random or rating battles – but this doesn’t mean that they’re not interested in eSports.
We have an eSports team working on the new eSports features and events – and another set of developers responsible for the “standard” game, with the goal of having a cohesive whole. We can’t lose sight of our core players. At the same time, World of Tanks Blitz has embraced those who want to compete. Even if you never thought about becoming a professional gamer, you should still have a chance to watch eSports and to perfect your in-game skills.
3) How does game balance factor into a successful eSports event, and are you happy with that balance in Blitz?
On the player’s side, the main differentiators are the skills and teamwork required. In random battles, you’re playing against 7 random players… with 6 other players on your team. On the other hand, in the tournaments you will be playing with 6 players on an organized team with a clear vision of the most effective tactics for each map. You’ll be using voice chat as well. Tournament players don’t get their favorite tanks every time, because that choice will depend on the team’s tactics and desired roles for any particular scenario.
But there are no differences between standard and eSports content in World of Tanks Blitz.
For example, we use the same random battle game modes for eSports purposes. We believe that eSports game modes (and tanks!) should be the same for random battles because everyone deserves a chance to practice. Random battles are great for learning the ins and outs of the game – and when players join tournaments, they should be familiar with the gameplay. Winners are defined by individual skill and teamwork – not the ability to play in elite, exclusive areas and/or game modes. If a game’s tournament setup has different game modes (or formats) than in everyday battles, this makes it nearly impossible for players to adapt if they decide to take the eSports route.
Our tournament series starts at tier 5. In the top leagues, players get to play on tier X – but it’s the same map, and the same game modes. They may train at any time using these settings, and the tactics developed here will work in a tournament setting. In random battles, it’s 7 versus 7; this is the same for tournaments. Random means that you play with 7 random players without voice chat. In the tournament, a well organized team of 7 uses voice chat apps like Discord or Teamspeak to work as a well-oiled machine and coordinate/strategize together.
Everyone can take part in a tournament. All they need is to find a team! In this year’s Twister Cup, we had an amazing example of this: As mentioned earlier, Legion (the European team) won 1st place. This was an unpredictable outcome because last year, the CIS team was the champion. At Wargaming, our key goal is to show “average” players how easy it is to become cyberathletes. That’s why it’s so important to keep random battles and tournament battles on an even keel.
4) What are the long-term plans for the eSports side of World of Tanks Blitz? Are you hoping to get more casual players into the eSports side of the game? If yes, any plans, modes, or contests to encourage that?
We’re planning to define two types of competitive groups. First of all, we understand that not everyone wants to become a cyberathlete. We want our core players to be able to compete in a simpler tournament mode – the Quick Tournaments mode, which is in the works right now. This will allow for:
● Open registration (team may register even if the tournament has already started).
● Several attempts to win (even if the team loses the game, the team has two more chances).
● Pauses at any time between matches.
● No static brackets (opposing teams are enrolled in real time from a pool of those who are ready for battle).
● Rewards that may be given by winning each run or the best run.
Our budding pro gamers already have a team. For them, we have a Tournament series that goes from Bronze to Silver to Gold and then Championship. Winning is incredibly challenging, but players get a chance to attend offline competitions and win real money – and maybe even become celebrities! The Tournament series has “seasons” – just like any real-world sport. Teams get rated and compete against each other. Later, Qualification Tournaments take things to a whole new level.
5) How does the fact that Blitz is on PC too affect the game as an eSport? How do you ensure fairness given how different the controls are?
When we started on the eSports path, we asked this same question. World of Tanks Blitz as a competitive game: How would it work? The answer was clear: Mobile controls would allow us to standardize control methods. We reached that conclusion because it turns out that most of our players are on mobile. Since competitive players must abide by the same rules and regulations, it makes sense that they should stick to the same control method – just like mouse and keyboard on a PC first-person shooter. It just didn’t make sense to allow a mix of control methods. So we decided to embrace Blitz’s mobile roots and require mobile controls for anything above Gold – including online tournaments, because they lead to offline finals (which are touch control only). We like to think that World of Tanks Blitz is mobile-only from an eSports perspective.
The Bronze and Silver series allow players to use PC controls – or have them use both touch and more traditional mouse and keyboard controls on the same team. Those are the leagues where teams are a little less stable – with most of them playing for fun.
Thank you for the interview and congratulations on a successful tournament.
UPDATE: We also got to talk to Andrey Ryabovol, Publishing Product Director for World of Tanks Blitz, on the state of the game more generally.
1) How do you feel about the state of the game after Update 4.4? Is the balance where you want it to be?
We feel that the current balance is pretty good – especially on higher tiers. Meta has shifted toward heavy tanks – and we’ve seen their domination at Twister Cup. We’re going to track the numbers and constantly make changes to ensure that other types of tanks are useful as well. This is meant to add variety to high-tier gameplay at the competitive and eSports level.
2) Do you feel that Consumables and Provisions might be providing an advantage to those with more money versus free-to-play players? I know many players, including myself sometimes, worry about that. How do you go about alleviating those worries?
We’re looking at this issue. It turns out that some players skip provision/consumables to save money for a new tank or modules. We plan to change this – because provisions and consumables are supposed to bring more fun and tactics to gameplay.
3) What features do you have coming down the pipeline after 4.4, and how do you go about deciding which direction to go? What are your current long-term plans for the game?
Great question. We’re actually in the process of creating a long-term roadmap with a focus on the in-game economy, onboarding, and seasons – among other key areas.
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What a great game! Runs and looks great on my iPhone X!
Well...still stuck with an iPad Air...gahh....no way to get a iPad Pro
Perfect but have in mind if you use an account from other country you’ll have to change your iPhone language for the game to work.
Same, runs very well on the X. 4GB download, 912mb for the DLC pack and about 623mb for the HD textures pack, 5.61GB fully installed.
Love the 3D touch for gentle acceleration and braking. I found the camera tilt was ridiculous, way too fast so I went into the advanced settings and enabled "limit gyro camera sensitivity" and it's much better now. Lots of advanced settings to play about with though.
I have to win the lottery before I can afford the X ,I bought my first iPhone 6+ the same time that BioShock was released on the iPhone and I hoped that this was the start of console games on the iPhone but we all know how that went and showed at the same time that the iPhone isn’t a platform to release big budget titles on because one iOS version can break the game but the iPhone X is a fine piece of high-end quality hardware/software.
It works perfectly on my 6s Plus.
Sadly I haven’t 6s my phone is 6+ but I am curious to know if there are people that have tried it on the 6+ and with which results?
Why is it that iPhone 6+ can’t handle the game but the iPhone 6s can (better processor?) is there that much off a difference between the two 🙄.
I think the Plus scales up the display, so the GPU is doing more work on the big screen.
This sounds cool, but being " overwhelmed by the difficulty" is something I can live without!
Did you say that the difficulty level in the game is really hard,because I didn’t see any gameplay vids yet? but when the gameplay is balanced this must be a temporary thing because by playing the game people learn to get better and this is one off the things that I liked in gaming but this is all on the assumption that you “talk” about the difficulty in the game.But there are games out there that have a really unfair difficulty level and don’t “learn” the gamer how to overcome this.
Believe it has to do with the processor chip and they are different
I’m running 6s plus playing it with Hd textures all dlc and all good so far
I know that the game is looking amazing but how is the gameplay just as good?
It’s working perfectly on my 6S Plus.
Thanks for your info👍
Probably ram as well. The 6s has 2gb of ram which is significantly more room for textures to be loaded into memory and such.
Hi guys thanks for your reply makes things more clear.
We’re conservative about setting our standards; after months of testing, the SE met our standards while the 6S did not. The chipset may be the same, but there are differences between the SE and 6S that affect performance. We want everyone who plays GRID Autosport to get the best possible experience, so the 6S models didn’t make the cut for supported devices. It's possible to run the game on your 6S if you wish, and I see a few people here are happy with the experience they have doing so. :)
Thanks for the info....but still a bitter pill to swallow I really wanted to play this because I like race games and this is setting a new standard for racing games on mobile the game is looking awesome.....
This is a console game, not a F2P/P4F/FREEMIUM IAP driven pay out the a$$ mobile game.
So many mobile gamers are a little confused with the spec requirements, game size, power use and scary $9.99 upfront cost.
😯
Has anyone tried the on screen controls. How does it compare to the tilt settings as not a fan of turning the phone to steer in racing games.
steering wheel option is not fixed, wheel appears where you place your finger. as for the arrows option, depends on your device. if your device supports 3d touch, the more pressure you put on the arrows/gas/break icons the more you turn/accelerate/brake.
Thanks very much have a 6s+ so will be purchasing now.
Any Porsche content?
What worries me is that: that says you have purchases in app, I am disappointed with that, plus I would have liked an offer to launch at least in 8 usd.
The IAP is the free DLC packs mentioned in the article, this game should be $60, not $10, so an $8 sale is sort of silly.
This game is definitely worth $10, even $20. However, $60 for a port of a 2014 game?
Look at the game description before posting... This game is already at a great price of $10.
I really hope this sells like hot cakes.
Even if I am not buying it. Dont get me wrong, I am simply not a fan of racing games, but I sure hope this sells well.
We need more developpers willing to take the huge dive Feral take here, I want more fully developped AAA titles, great job guys I hope you get the recognition you deserve !
Thanks very much.
It has been years since I played a racing game since its not my forte... but now that I won an iTunes gift card and am feeling for a try at something different.... you won Feral, im buying this now ;)
I bought an iPad pro 2nd gen this year telling myself i'd like to try more premium game experiences... gotta respect my own goals ^^
Love the recognition and praise this high quality premium game is getting. High quality premium mobile racing games have almost disappeared leaving behind often freemium versions of their former selves. This is a wonderful release!
Thanks for your support, we're fans of the premium model too. 👌
FERAL deserves all the credits to bring this fantastic looking game to the iPhone and tablets but sadly this is something that is very rare on the iPhone and by that a mean
high quality graphics/gameplay console style premium games instead of FTP/PTW and super simple “games” that it seems the only purpose is to made money by ads instead of bring great and original gameplay.
Has anyone tried it on ipad 2017? Any feedback?
works flawlessly on mine. Controls are a bit fiddly for me, but that is just me I'm sure. Looking into controller support now.
Frame rate?
No idea! How can I check?
Well if you play and see it smooth and with no lags it means they have made a good job then. How does it work on yours?
Yes it's smooth, I uploaded a video but can't post it here. some camera angles lead to better fps and if you disable HD textures the fps rises even more. But honestly it's nice without changing anything.
On youtube?
yeah user "sevenape" The screen recording reduces fps a tiny bit.
Found it and seen it. Trying to understand when ios11.2 will be released in order to do an upgrade and the purchase the same day
Have fun!
You guys at Feral deserve all the credit for making such a great job!!! Awesome!!
I can’t find on Brazilian App Store! Somebody know if it’s going to be there or will be US and others exclusive?! (There are some GTAs games that doesn’t appear on BR App Store!)
Thanks Eduardo! It's not quite ready for the Brazilian App Store yet I'm afraid, but I'm happy to tell you it will be. :) Stay tuned...
Oh, man! Thats so sad! It doesn't need to be in portuguese, just make it available so I can buy it! lol! Please, don't make me buy on US app store! =[
Hehe, just a little longer!!
But it has been submitted to BR App Store?! Just let me know that, so I can decide to buy or not on US App Store! Thats OK if it takes some time, but I don't want to wait an updated version!
Ty again, and I'm sure this will be a success for you, guys!!!
I don't think it'll be ready this week! The Brazilian Portuguese version is totally worth waiting for, though... check out Adeh's video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wat...
Either way, thanks for your support! :)
Wow!!! Impressive work! You guys nailed the portuguese! Thanks! I've never seen something like that!!!
Cheers!!!
It made game of the day on the App Store.
Game of the day? Game of the year at least imo just for the technical achievement of shoehorning a 4 year old xbox 360 game onto mobile
So so happy this is finally out - I really think there is a market for "proper" full AAA games alongside more conventional mobile games and so its great whenever a game like this comes along for that space
Really hoping this does well and that Feral continue to support mobile gaming going ahead with more excellent games like the Total War series and now Grid:Autosport
Not available in Brazil... =/
Not yet. But it will be, promise.
Imma get this as soon as I update to iOS 11 (depends on when apple fixes their battery drain usage bug). I'm hyped though!
Just bought it. Downloading now. Let's see what this is all about. Really enjoy GRID on my iMac.
I had 8Gb free storage and it wanted more space to install DLC. Hmm.
Works great on my iPhone 8+. Hopefully this doesn't turn out to be another Bioshock.
Well, Feral already looks more involved than 2K will ever be IMO...
Need this for iOS 10.3
Not yet in Switzerland...