Echo Combat Flamingo League, a VR esports league featuring Ready At Dawn’s zero-gravity first-person shooter, launches on March 2 amidst much hype from the community as well as sponsors eager to support another competitive league for the game.
Echo Combat was released in November 2018 and featured in the Oculus-sponsored, ESL-run VR League a few months later. It was immediately a popular title, particularly among fans of Echo Arena, a zero-gravity sport game in the Echo VR universe. Currently the VR League is focusing on community-building efforts that will draw more participants overall into the VR esports scene.
Players eager for tournaments are doing their part to encourage the competitive scene by teaching boot camps, engaging new players, and organizing their own leagues and events within various games.
“Flamingo League is the answer the Echo Combat community has long been asking for, player created and built from the ground up,” stated Codasleuth, an ECFL admin and member of the Echo Combat community.
“With the support of the players, developers at Ready At Dawn, the ECFL team, and our supporting sponsors,” he continued, “we hope to inspire new and old players alike to come together and experience some of the best team-oriented competitive VR available today.”
Developers from Ready At Dawn have put a lot of effort into maintaining a positive relationship with players and the league’s name is a tribute back to them since Flamingo League was named after the bright pink flamingo that is prevalent in the game. In fact, when the game’s first map – Fission – was revealed in 2018, many people were shocked by the giant flamingo payload, but it has become a beloved feature of the game in both payload and capture the point maps so it makes sense that league founders would incorporate it into the name.
The overall structure of Echo Combat Flamingo League (ECFL) is similar to the stage set-up that was seen in the VR League. Structure was decided with input from enthusiastic Combat players who have participated in other events such as VR League Season 3 and the Echo Combat Beginner’s Cup as well as new players who have come to enjoy the game.
“Our primary philosophy here is to make sure all teams get a fair chance to play the same amount of games throughout the season and for every team to play each other,” stated Alex H. (Robocreator223), a Flamingo League admin.
To that end, the league will have a flexible scheduling format. The season will be broken up into three stages, a last chance qualifier, and then the grand finals.
Schedule
Stage One (Last day to register is Sat., Feb 29.)
- Week 1: March 2 – 8
- Week 2: March 9 – 15
- Week 3: March 16 – 22
- Week 4: March 23 – 29 (qualifier)
Stage Two (Last day to register or switch teams is Sat., March 28.)
- Week 5: March 30 – April 5
- Week 6: April 6 – 12
- Week 7: April 13 – 19
- Week 8 – April 20 – 26 (qualifier)
Stage Three (Last day to register or switch teams is Sat., April 25.)
- Week 9: April 27 – May 3
- Week 10: May 4 – 10
- Week 11: May 11 – 17
- Week 12: May 18 – 24 (qualifier)
Last Chance Qualifier (Last day to register or switch teams is Sat., May 23.)
- Week 13: May 25 – May 31
Grand Finals
- Week 14: Date to be announced
Format
The first twelve weeks of the season will consist of competitions broken into three stages. Winners of each stage will receive a prize (to be announced) from one of the league sponsors as well as a placement award that secures a position in the Grand Finals.
Following the first three stages, teams that haven’t qualified have one more opportunity to secure a spot in Grand Finals through the Last Chance Qualifiers. Every team that didn’t qualify during stages one, two, or three can participate in the one-week Last Chance Qualifiers tournament. New teams that didn’t participate in previous stages are also eligible to participate. The team that comes out on top in the Last Chance Qualifiers tournament will receive a sponsored prize as well as secure a spot in Grand Finals.
Grand Finals will consist of the top four Echo Combat teams in a double elimination bracket seeded according to the record over the entire season.
Sponsors
Since VR esports is still an emerging industry, players can bask in the glory of bragging rights for the first tournaments in the various leagues and competitions for various games that are popping up around the globe. Knowing your team is the best in the world is a prize in itself, but there are also some awesome sponsors who have come forward to support the efforts of competitive VR gaming and the first season of Echo Combat Flamingo League.
Sponsors for the first season of Echo Combat Flamingo League are:
More Information
Players can register for the tournament through this link. The actual tournament, however, will be run through a platform yet to be announced.
Games will be streamed through Twitch. Links will be posted at a later date on social media sites such as VR Fitness Insider, VR Community Builders and Echo Games.
All Echo VR players are encouraged to join the Echo Games Discord server. The game developers maintain an active presence there along with mentors, coaches, and other Echo VR enthusiasts. For information specifically about Echo Combat Flamingo League, visit the #ecfl-information channel.
Tournament admins can be reached through the Echo Games Discord. Echo Combat Flamingo League admins are:
- Robocreator223
- Codasleuth
- Jok126
- Vidman321
- SuperDope
More information about Echo Combat competitive strategies, gameplay, etc. can also be found on the dedicated Echo Combat Community Center Discord server.
