Warriors in a post-apocalyptic world fight for survival in smartVR’s first-person shooter After-H, which is hosting an arcade tournament this month in Europe. Finals for the After-H Arcade Tournament will be played during Paris Games Week with a prize pool of 5,000 euros.
A trade fair held annually at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, Paris Games Week (PGW) features video games and is organized by SELL (Syndicat des éditeurs de logiciels de loisirs), a French organization that promotes the interest of video game developers. It’s exciting to see yet another major gaming event ready to feature a VR tournament as we continue to introduce the world to VR esports.
After-H is set in 2080 on Mars, where players battle for resources and control of strategic points in the solar system. Futuristic soldiers are all that remain of the human race and they hunt each other down in an attempt to ensure that their faction survives.
SmartVR has been collaborating with arcades for the past two years and they’ve sponsored numerous tournaments, including a 2v2 competition at Futurist Games in Belgium and a global tournament through the Virtual Athletics League in 2018.
Sign-ups for the current After-H Arcade Tournament close Thursday morning, Oct. 10. Teams that would like to participate need to sign up via the Google docs registration link and should be available to travel to Paris in early November if they qualify for finals. This tournament is open only to European arcades.
Schedule
- Group Stage: October 16-17th (7 pm – 10 pm Paris time)
- Playoffs: October 24th (7 pm – 10 pm Paris Time)
- Finals: November 2 (1 pm – 4 pm Paris Time)
Format
Teams from Europe will compete against each other through online competition at their chosen arcade. Following the Group Stage and Playoffs, four teams will advance to the Semi-Finals, which will take place in Paris.
Semi-finals and finals will be held as part of Paris Games Week, providing yet another opportunity for VR esports to be featured at a major gaming event.
After-H at Home
The arcade version of After-H has been incredibly poplar and recently smartVR released a home version. Not only does the home release feature full cross-play with arcades, but it’s also available as a Free to Play title.
After-H is compatible with the Valve Index, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Windows Mixed Reality devices, as well as most other headsets. Users can choose to go solo or join one of the various multi-player modes with 2 to 8 players.
In addition to gameplay options, there are also various maps, weapons, skins (for characters and weapons), and a leveling system for your account.
SmartVR has worked diligently to ensure that there are numerous options and they state on the After-H Steam page that the game “hasn’t grown to its final form yet.” They state an intention to continue developing the game based on player feedback.
Currently in “early access,” the game is fully playable. The full version will include more weapons, skins, game modes, and other features. SmartVR has also made it clear that they have a continued interest in developing the VR esports aspect of the game.
