"DnDSports": Competitive Play With Prizes

It seems like the rumours of D&D as e-sports weren't so far off after all in today's bit of unexpected news, as D&D Beyond and Encounter Roleplaying have announced DnDSports. "DnDSports is the first online D&D Tournament in a cooperative Party vs Party setting from Encounter Roleplay & DnDBeyond with a grand prize of $5,000."

It seems like the rumours of D&D as e-sports weren't so far off after all in today's bit of unexpected news, as D&D Beyond and Encounter Roleplaying have announced DnDSports. "DnDSports is the first online D&D Tournament in a cooperative Party vs Party setting from Encounter Roleplay & DnDBeyond with a grand prize of $5,000."

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[FONT=&amp]Here's the full announcement:

Imagine if two parties fighting for opposite sides found themselves in the same dungeon. It’s kill or be killed. What will they do to survive?[/FONT]

DnDSports is the first online D&D Tournament in a cooperative Party vs Party setting from EncounterRoleplay & DnDBeyond with a grand prize of $5,000. Over the course of 4 weeks, 16 players will compete in teams of 4 in single elimination games. Each game is a best of 3 arena battle and played via Roll20.

How is it Played?

The full rules for DnDSports will be released shortly after our next round of Playtesting. We don’t claim to have created perfect balance, nor is that our aim, as every competitive game has an element of strategy. We’re also implementing MOBA-esque mechanics such as a Pick/Ban phase to help expand the strategy. We’ve been working closely with over a dozen talented DMs to create 15 pre-generated characters from which the players will choose, and adapt the pre-existing Dungeons & Dragons: 5th Edition rules.

We know that this will be an incredibly fun new way to play D&D, because as long as you’re having fun, you’re doing it right!

When is it?
Day 1: November 10th at 12pm PST
Heat 1: Team Beholder vs. Team Mindflayer

Day 2: November 17th at 12pm PST
Heat 2: Team Kobold vs. Team Tarrasque

Day 3: November 24th at 12pm PST
All Stars Charity game for 826LA foundation

Day 4: December 1st at 12pm PST
Grand Finals

Where can I watch it?

Watch live on Twitch here.
The VODs will be uploaded to Youtube here.

Who is involved?

The EncounterRoleplay & DnDBeyond crews have teamed up to bring this production to life!
As for who’s competing? Keep an eye on the DnDSports Twitter & here on the blog to learn more about the teams as they are revealed!

But D&D Shouldn’t be an eSport?!
It’s not an eSport. We created something that would make competitive gamers feel safe and comfortable trying out D&D5e for the first time. It’s a new way to display the versatility of combat in D&D5e in a unique setting. We encourage you to respect the way different people play D&D because we know that this will be a fun event and there is no wrong to play D&D, as long as you are having fun!


(Thanks to Jeremy for the scoop!)

Many feel competitive play isn't what D&D is about, historically that's not entirely true. Here's a history of D&D and competitive play, going back to the 1970s.

"D&D has always had a competitive streak. Many of co-creator Gary Gygax's published adventures were adapted from tournaments that were played competitively at conventions, like Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan and Tomb of Horrors.

Thanks to its wargaming roots, tournament play was well-established by the time D&D came along. Tournaments were associated with wargaming conventions. The first large-scale D&D tournament took place at Origins in Baltimore, MD on July 25-27. An estimated 1,500 attended, with 120 participating in the D&D tournament."
 

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Ristamar

Adventurer
Yeah, but the players of Critical Role are popular and entertaining because of the campaigns that they have played, their characters, their acting, their jokes (and their being farily well known voice actors). This seems to be teams of people with a lot of optimization knowledge for D&D 5e competing for a prize. Doesn't sound promising, honestly (especially because, as I said, plan all you want, strategize all you want, D&D remains a random game: a random low roll will screw up all your strategy, and that's extremely anticlimactic for people who like strategy). But hey, maybe there's an audience for this.

Again, I don't think this show (or this edition) is geared toward a hardcore strategy crowd. First and foremost, it needs to be entertaining.

It's not difficult to optimize in D&D, particularly 5e. The team dynamic and arena features will add some depth to the pool of potential strategies, but even that will barely scratch the surface relative to the average MOBA. The randomness will likely be a feature, not a bug.
 

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Brodie

Explorer
Is anybody else here a long time reader of Knights of the Dinner Table? I'm hoping that I'm not the only one here who thinks this sounds extremely similar to Hackmaster tournaments that are run at conventions in the comic.
 

Morrus

Well, that was fun
Staff member
Is anybody else here a long time reader of Knights of the Dinner Table? I'm hoping that I'm not the only one here who thinks this sounds extremely similar to Hackmaster tournaments that are run at conventions in the comic.

Those are based on *actual* tournaments that are run at conventions in real life, dating back as far as the 1970s. Competitive D&D play has always been a thing.
 

pemerton

Legend
I remember the D&D Open at Gen Cons of old - competitive dungeoncrawling isn't a new thing - but 5e is such a floofy rules set, I can't see this ending well. (The Open also promoted a really weird and boring playstyle of minimal RP and everything sacrificed in the name of time, so there's that.)
I don't see how 5e is very different from AD&D in respect of most aspects of adjudication. It's combat positioning/movement rules are in some respects more fiddly, but presumably this will be resolved on a grid to handle that fiddliness.

Also [MENTION=177]Umbran[/MENTION], [MENTION=6801204]Satyrn[/MENTION], what have you got against darts?!
 



dave2008

Legend
totally agree.
I'm seriously thinking about abandoning d&d for other TTRPGs. the standard ones, the ones with stories, friends and bucks far away from the table.

Not sure if you are being sarcastic or not, but D&D 5e is all about the stories and friends. Some would argue more so than 3e & 4e. It is at least the design intent / philosophy of 5e more than 3e or 4e.
 

Morrus

Well, that was fun
Staff member
totally agree.
I'm seriously thinking about abandoning d&d for other TTRPGs. the standard ones, the ones with stories, friends and bucks far away from the table.

You want to abandon D&D because somebody else you've never met plays D&D differently to you?
 

trancejeremy

Adventurer
I really don't understand why this is controversial. Competitive D&D has literally existed from almost the beginning. Maybe not the 1-2 years of it's early life, but in the mid 70s.

It's like all the hand wringing over the thief....
 


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