Editor’s Note: Nareg Djabrayan contributed to this article.
If you’re wondering what to do while you’re sitting at home in quarantine with much of the world, turn on your favorite streaming device and watch some VR esports! For the past few weeks, some of the world’s top Contractors competitors have been participating in a Contractors 1v1 Tournament. In addition to their choice between a limited-edition sweatshirt or a gunstock accessory, the tournament winner will of course claim bragging rights as the world’s top Contractors player.
Semi-finals in the double elimination tournament will take place tonight at 9:30 EDT / 6:30 PT during a winner’s bracket competition between Cerebral Parsley and Sir Galahad the Chaste. The winner of tonight’s battle will take on the loser’s bracket champion in an upcoming final event. Viewers can watch live tonight and also see previous videos of the intense back and forth battles that have occurred in the Contractors 1v1 Tournament at twitch.tv/dnutmegb.
Contractors is a competitive squad-based multiplayer VR Shooter by Caveman Studio and it aims to compete with the likes of Downpour Interactive’s Onward and davevillz’ Pavlov VR in the VR esports arena. Contractors can be best described as being more “run and gun” than Onward but with a lower TTK (time to kill) and more stable weapon handling than Pavlov. Released in December of 2018, Contractors has been in continuous development. There is also an Oculus Quest port on the way that will offer cross play with PC VR players and eventual plans to provide mod support.
Contractors offers a game mode where teams battle over control points that spawn at different points in a map and collect data points that count towards victory. Once a control point has been captured, it will begin transmitting data and can be neutralized by the opposing team. The game mode also features respawn, allowing players to plan their counterattack should they be eliminated. The round ends when one team reaches 1,024 Kb of data transferred. Also available is team death match in which teams fight to 50 kills. Gun game is a popular death match style mode where players advance through a series of weapons ending with the knife.
Players have the option to choose loadouts that best fit their playstyle, making it popular among first-person shooter enthusiasts who want flexibility. With a point-based system, players choose different levels of armor, weapons with specific characteristics such as damage, recoil, rate of fire and magazine capacity, attachments such as optics, suppressors and grips, side arm, melee weapon and utility. This wide range of options allows the teams of five players to strategize exactly how they want to approach a given situation.
The weapons that range from fast shooting, short range SMGs to hard hitting, long range DMR rifles also offer realistic reloading mechanics that faithfully mimic their real-life counterparts. For example, the M16 is equipped with mag release, bolt catch and a bolt release button. Conversely, the magazine for the AK-47 must be removed by hand and the bolt recharged after reloading.
Join the Community
If you’re interested in learning more about Contractors, download the game and join the community. In addition to meeting other VR first-person enthusiasts, you’ll receive announcements about the game and future tournaments.
- Purchase Contractors on Steam.
- Purchase Contractors on Oculus store.
- Join the Contractors Discord.
