Echo Arena VR Master League Season 3 will kick off on January 4 with changes to the community structure of the league.
The date reflects a slightly longer period between seasons due to the holidays, but it will usher in the new year with a full 15 week regular season that will end on May 2. The regular season will be followed by finals on May 8-9 and 15-16.
VR Master League is a community-driven platform that was established in early 2017 by DaKinMan as a hub where players could be involved in organization and decisions. The VRML has grown tremendously over the past two years and currently manages competitive scenes for some of the most popular VR games available, including Downpour Interactive’s Onward and Vankrupt Games’ Pavlov VR.
VR Master League welcomed Echo Arena in the fall of 2019 with a pre-season that featured 158 players. During 2020, as a result of the Quest port, a Rookie Cup event that introduced new Echo players to the VRML, and even the pandemic, the number of registered players in season 2 had risen to 1473.
As the community has grown, so has the need for additional or revised community resources, including a dedicated Discord server, additional casters and league moderators, a more structured organization behind the scenes, and more.
Echo Arena VRML Discord Server
In response to the specific needs of league players, Echo Arena VRML leaders made the decision to split off from the popular Echo Arena Discord server that recently passed the 20,000 member mark. That server will remain in place as a community hub and the new server geared specifically to league players opens today.
The Echo Arena VRML Discord server will have resources tailored specifically for Echo league players. Channels include places to find a team, organize scrimmage matches, share league-related videos, and more.
League Moderators
Organization, production, and promotion of a league don’t happen without leadership. Volunteers in the VR Master League include governors, moderators, production crew, and others. Leadership is particularly necessary on the Discord server since everyone involved in the league relies on this resource as an organizational hub.
Volunteers invest countless hours to ensure that the league runs properly and to provide a quality experience for everyone involved. One example of this is the ticket system, which was implemented on August 18. The ticket system gives players an easy way to submit issues that need to go directly to the moderators and the moderators can then respond to tickets and there’s a record of the interaction. Since the ticket system was implemented on the community server to handle VRML-related requests, moderators have handled over 550 support tickets in less than three months.
New league moderators for the official league server will help close tickets and otherwise assist players. They join a team of experienced leaders who oversee the league, player actions, and decisions related to Echo Arena VRML.
New mods are Burnzy, SirDimwi, T_Wolfo, and TheRealPunda.
They join Echo Arena VRML mods Wit, Sneakyevil, Dano Mcfabulous, na_da, and Alcoste.
Governing mods for the VR Master League are DaKinMan, MamaVirds, Princess, and Giligin.
Growth Encourages Sponsorships
In addition to attracting dedicated volunteers, the rapid growth of VR esports has enticed additional sponsors to step in for events such as the Quest 2 Rookie Cup or the VR Fitness Summit.
Earlier this month, VR Master League partnered with Asterion Products, a company that creates innovative products for VR users. They joined other Echo Arena VRML sponsors ProTube VR, VR Cover, Rebuff Reality, ARMA, VR Wear, and FIXT Gaming.
While most players are happy to compete for glory and intangible prizes such as a special color on Discord, increased sponsorships encourage overall growth and in an industry where most people are spending countless hours building it from the ground up as volunteers, this is encouraging.
While we can’t share details yet, there’s buzz about another sponsor for Echo Arena VR Master League Season 3 and of course we’ll announce that as soon as the information is made public.
About Echo Arena
Ready At Dawn’s Echo Arena combines technology and physicality as players jump, duck, and dodge their way through a virtual arena set in zero-g. The game has been widely featured in online as well as LAN events and is the purest example of VR esports. Released in July 2017, Echo Arena comes free with the download of Echo VR, a multi-player game based on Ready At Dawn’s award-winning Lone Echo.
Where to Sign Up
Additional details about season 3 rules and format can be found on the Echo Arena VRML website, where players can also register for an account.
