When you say esports and competitive gaming, you think of League of Legends, Overwatch, Fortnite and so on, but it never crosses your mind you’d see a farming simulator game!
Giants Software announced today that they would have a Farming Simulator League in which you’ll get to see or compete – if you’re a pro at stacking hay bale – in a competitive tournament.
Europe will have ten tournaments, and you’ll see them even at Gamescom or Paris Games Week. But their plans don’t end for this year: in 2020 they will host the grand final at FarmCon!
Giants Software will offer prizes in money (over $280,000), and it has Logitech and Intel among the sponsors.
Farming Simulator League
The league will have players compete in Farming Simulator 19 which is the most recent title in the series, selling over a million copies in the first 10 days after being available for purchase.
The first competitive event began in 2017, explains Giants CEO, Christian Ammann:
We saw this phenomenon. We just tried to build something, and then we started the first tournament. The feedback was quite interesting.
And by interesting, he means unexpected. The event was meant to be something that should fit in a regular-sized booth with three players competing against each other as they stacked hay bale in the game. But just look at the crowd it drew in the photo below!
PR and marketing manager Martin Rabl says everyone was impressed, so why not make it bigger and better next time?
When the senior guys of AgriTechnica came by and saw how many people there were, I think that’s when they realized that they should do it again in two years on a bigger scale.
Also, that’s when we realized that that’s something that we could potentially do on a bit more professional level.
As for esports teams, some might be sponsored by farm-tech manufacturers to compete on their behalf at tournaments, explains the Giants Software CEO, adding that the events are open for everyone and that there are no secured league spots for esports teams.
Nora Reynolds is a major in biology and a minor in Biological Basis of Behavior, writing about science in general. She also likes to try new gadgets and sports about the AI new era.
