In Short: This year’s Clash Royale League World Finals will be happening in Tokyo, Japan on December 1, 2018. The event will take place at Makauhari Messe Hall 6, and doors will open at 10 AM JST. Getting in will cost you 1,450 yen, equal to about $12.75 USD. The event will last until 5 PM JST, and during its seven hour run, a grand total of six regional teams, one being from Japan, will duke it out for the grand prize. Buying a ticket will net you a Princess statue, as a bonus. For those who can’t make it out to Japan, the tournament will be livestreamed on YouTube in the Clash Royale Esports channel.
Background: Clash Royale is one of the largest mobile games on the esports scene, and the competition has historically been fierce. Last year’s grand finale took place in London, and saw top player Sergio Ramos taking home $150,000 from the $400,000 prize pool. Much like last year, the event will see teams whittled down until individual players fill out the rankings. Players from the top teams will be pitted against each other in single-elimination matches, and in both the team and player brackets, a single individual card can be banned from play each match in order to change up the meta and keep rounds fresh.
Impact: The legitimization of the mobile gaming scene in esports is already well beyond completed, and now the genre is set to expand. Clash Royale is one of the most popular games on Android, played by millions across the globe. This tournament’s entry process began right inside the game with a worldwide tournament back in March of this year, which meant that literally any player who was skilled enough could enter and take their shot at the prize. Mobile games are, by definition, simpler than their PC and console counterparts, which means that this advent of mobile esports is opening up the arena to a wider number of people than ever before. As for Clash Royale, the tournament makes for great publicity, and gets the game coverage in not only the usual mobile news circuits, but also a number of gaming and esports media outlets. The scene being fairly fresh and mostly sponsored by the game creators themselves is a boon, both for those creators and for players, in that things are simpler and not quite as entrenched as is seen in traditional esports. The message here is pretty clear; from Guns of Boom and Clash Royale to Vainglory and Shadowgun, if you’ve got a favorite mobile game and you think you’re good enough to compete on the world stage, all you have to do is prove it.