Finals for the first worldwide VR multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) tournament, the Cradle of Sins Alpha Cup VR Tournament, will be broadcast on Sunday, February 16. Competition kicked off in December with a $10,000 prize pool.

Cradle of Sins is a first-person MOBA game developed specifically for virtual reality by U24 Solutions. The strategy-focused game includes 10 playable characters with unique abilities and over 70 weapons, including crossbows, staffs, shields, and crystals. The range of weapons along with character abilities and upgrades offers a lot of variety in the 3v3 competition so no two games are the same.

During qualifiers, the top 40 players received a portion of the total $10,000 prize pool. The Cradle of Sins Alpha Cup Tournament Finals will consist of the top six players and the winning 3-person team will take home a $3,500 prize and the second place team will win $1,500.

The top players are divided on two teams representing North America and Europe. The yellow team will include Joeaha, TF-garsh, and PeskyCashew – all from the United States. The red team, or the European team, includes AxisMunde from Scotland, RexarCZ from Czech, and CrazierRex from Russia.

North American Finalists

PeskyCashew tried VR about two years ago on a whim and he hasn’t looked back since. After a brief adventure through Beat Saber and Rec Room territory, he stumbled upon Skydance Interactive’s Archangel Hellfire. The small tournaments there ignited his interest for competitive VR and he has since traveled around the world to participate in events. “Cradle of Sins brought an uncommonly large prize pool that certainly peaked my interest,” stated PeskyCashew, “and I’m stoked to have made it to the finals and even more so to be back at it with my former Beat Saber team member Garsh.”

TF-garsh ordered the Oculus development kit when it first came out, but he wasn’t able to do much with it initially due to the PC he had at the time. A little over a year ago he was able to build a VR capable PC and at that time he purchased an Oculus Rift. He is excited about the opportunity to compete in the Cradle of Sins Tournament and says, “I’m pretty surprised I actually managed to make it in” to the top six finalists.

Joeaha went to a local game park where they had virtual reality headsets. Although he initially had low expectations, he decided to try it because it was free. They put him in Epic Games’ Robo Recall where he says he instantly fell in love with VR. Concerning the tournament, Joeaha says, “It feels great to make it into finals. I put a lot of time and practice into this game and I know other finalists did, too.”

European Finalists

AxisMunde says he was hooked on VR from the first moment he put on the HTC Vive headset his dad brought to their home in the United Kingdom. He began playing davevillz’ Pavlov and discovered an active competitive scene there. AxisMunde says he “is excited to compete in the [Cradle of Sins] finals because he finds competition fun.” In fact, in June 2019 he qualified for the VR League Season 3 Finals in Leicester, England, where he competed with teammate Manello in Ubisoft’s Space Junkies.

CrazierRex, a 33-year-old from Cherepovets, Russia, had his first VR experience in 2018 on a virtual roller coaster. Since his hobby is Sim racing, he began racing on virtual roads. Although he initially experienced motion sickness during elevation changes, this dissipated after the first couple of weeks and he no longer experiences motion sickness. CrazierRex says he’s pleased to participate in the Cradle of Sins VR Tournament and looks forward to the development of the game.

RexarCZ had a love for new technologies since he was a child. He fell in love with the concept of virtual reality after trying it in a VR arcade in Czechia (the Czech Republic). The idea of competitive VR gaming appealed to the 25-year-old so he joined the Cradle of Sins Tournament and is excited that he made it to finals, saying he is “looking forward to the top level games against the best players / finalists.”

Tournament Coverage

Similar to traditional esports, much of the competition takes place online. Although there are LAN events such as the Oculus-sponsored VR League finals, most VR tournaments take place online and the Cradle of Sins Alpha Cup is no different. However, although gameplay takes place in various locations around the world, there are still efforts being made to ensure that VR esports are cast in a professional manner very similar to traditional sports.

Players will compete at home for this tournament and stream it to the studio where professional esports broadcasters will be on hand to give spectators play-by-play coverage of the event.

Finals will be host by Caleb Eubanks (Reality Check VR), an experienced host with tons of energy and enthusiasm for virtual reality. He has also been a TEDx speaker and owns ProGearVR.

The matches will be cast by professional esports commentators René “GRunner” Buttler and Marek “Envision” Pihel. Players will be interviewed in between matches by VR esports journalist Sonya Haskins (Hasko7).

More Information

Cradle of Sins is still in the alpha stage so the tournament was open only to community members. VR enthusiasts who are interested in learning more about the game or participating in future competitions should follow the development on Cradle of Sins social media sites.

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