The Virtual Athletics League (VAL) is teaming up with Cloudhead Games to launch the first worldwide Pistol Whip tournament, spread across three weekends in March. The tournament is supported by Oculus and iBUYPOWER and will be open to anyone, with the one pool taking place entirely online from the comfort of user’s homes.
The tournament will be split across three parts, each taking place over one weekend. The first part is the Home Tournament, which is entirely online and takes place on March 13-14. The second part is the Arcade Tournament, on March 19-22, and will take place at participating VR arcades across the world. The Grand Finals will then take place at Salt Lake City at VAL HQ on March 29.
For the home and arcade portions of the tournament, players will be competing to gain the highest combined score after playing two Pistol Whip levels – Black Magic and Download the Future. The levels will be played on the hardest difficult, with the ‘no-fail’ modifier enabled. At the end of the arcade section of the tournament, the results of both the home and arcade tournaments will be compared and the top 3 players with the highest scores will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to compete in the Grand Finals in Salt Lake City, which will also be livestreamed on Twitch and Facebook Gaming.
The total prize pool is $10,000, with $2500 allocated to the home tournament, $2,500 allocated to the arcade tournament, and $,5000 allocated to the Grand Finals. Players who place 1st-8th in the home and arcade tournaments will receive a share of the allocated cash prize pool, ranging from $100 to $500 depending on their placement. For the Grand Finals, the prize pool will be split up with $2,500 going to 1st place, $1,500 to 2nd and $1,000 to 3rd. The top three players at the Grand Finals will also all receive an Oculus Rift S in addition to their cash prizes.
The tournament will be run by VAL with support from Oculus and and iBUYPOWER, alongside other companies like SpringboardVR, who are supporting the effort to involve 500 VR arcades across the world. There will also be an accompanying mixed reality social media contest that runs through March, with categories like “best dressed” and “best deadeye score.”
If you’re interested in competing in the tournament, you can sign up at VAL’s website.
