It is interesting to ask this question as a new competition is emerging in France, the EVA League 1, whose first season is underway. This hybrid format, between esport and connected sport, is in full development and brings new and unique content.
A new esports competition of a new kind was born at the start of 2023: the EVA League 1, a virtual reality video game competition. This championship, for its first edition, brings together six teams of four players who compete every other Tuesday and will decide in a final phase next July. What does that look like? How do we play it? Do we see the birth before our eyes of a connected sport which, tomorrow, will experience immense success as technology becomes more democratic? Questions we answer with Laure Valée, esports consultant for franceinfo and Pascal “Paascool” Sagna, player in this EVA League 1.
franceinfo: What does virtual reality look like in esports and in particular this championship which is starting in France, the EVA League 1?
Laura Valee: When you look at the game, it looks like a classic video game, from the spectator’s point of view, but the big difference – and this is what makes all the subtlety of virtual reality – is that the players have a helmet on their heads, with connected devices that follow their movements. So when you play the game, or when you watch it for real from the outside, you see players who are active, who make real moves on a real pitch.
Pascal “Paascool” Sagna, EVA league 1 player, explains this concept a little more in detail: “From the outside, we can only see the teams moving around in an arena which is completely empty… But in the helmet, we have different settings: aquatic, desert, space, jungle, in which we move. But the distances are very real. If we stretch out our arm, we really touch the person in front of us, even though we are also in a virtual world”.
So players make real moves in a setting that doesn’t exist in real life. It’s a bit like two rooms, two atmospheres. When you’re close to the field in real life, but in the game and you watch the players, it gives rise to movements that are quite funny, quite interesting.
Does this require different qualities from video games and classic esports that can be played on a console or on a computer?
Laura Valee: The skills that are often put forward are precision, speed, alertness. Here, we have a whole additional physical dimension. What Pascal “Paascool” Sagna explains very well: “It requires physical skills like good cardio. You have to be very flexible, because there are game actions that require you to go up or down very quickly”.
Is virtual reality a real revolution in esports, will it develop?
Laura Valee: The EVA concept is a 100% French concept which appeared five years ago, and which has already grown considerably. Today, there are about twenty cinemas in France, cinemas in Belgium or in the United States, like in Texas, where the first two cinemas have just opened. So it’s really a system that is set to develop.
And I think that in general, consuming video games in virtual reality, especially for esports, is something that will become more and more democratized, with the arrival of this technology. Why not observe, look at esports differently. I don’t think it will change the way we look at esports that already exist, but in any case, new games, like the one we just talked about, I hope we will see more and more of them.
The EVA League 1, matches every other Tuesday evening and broadcast live on Twitch.
