A screenshot from Titanfall on the Xbox One

Gaming

How Titanfall can become a top eSports shooter

What Xbox One’s hit needs to do to take its place beside Call Of Duty and Halo as an eSport great

Written by Joshua Nino De Guzman

8 min readPublished on 10.12.2016 · 11:29 UTC

Hotly tipped as the next big first-person shooter to make its mark on the eSports scene, Titanfall is aiming to beat Battlefield 4 with its explosive brand of robotic warfare. So will it be the Xbox One’s flagship eSports game? Well, Respawn has not denied interest in the competitive community but current details are sketchy, with the developer yet to share information on how it could support the community. From experience, this is perfectly normal for an all-new game, even one with six-on-six shooting action that, on paper, seems perfectly suited to the strategic action of tournament play.

From an eSports perspective, Titanfall is an unknown quantity and feedback from the community will dictate its future on the eSports calendar. That the developer expresses curiosity in competitive gaming at this stage is encouraging and, historically, a first for something so fresh.

Titanfall’s developers have experience of eSports. After all, members of Respawn’s team introduced the world to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, a landmark game that, over six years on from release, is supported by a thriving competitive community comprised of sponsored players who attend international events and million dollar tournaments. Will Respawn be able to repeat its success with Titanfall? Here is what it needs to do to make Titanfall an eSports legend.

1. Be accessible

The most important factor of all. Call of Duty reigns as the current king of FPS eSports because it balances the allure of a steep learning curve with the ability for newcomers to pick up and shoot from the off. Most gamers take no interest in epic four hour shooting sessions with a restricted arsenal and if they can’t jump online for thirty minutes to rack up points and leave feeling satisfied with their performance, their interest will quickly fizzle out.

Take the example of the player who camps out in a shady corner, plotting the demise of anyone who might walk by unaware of their presence. In Halo, an unsuspecting player of a decent skill level might take a few bullets before almost certainly escaping to regain health, quickly returning to unleash their fury on the 'camper'.

Call of Duty is different. The beauty of Activision’s FPS is that a similar situation would present a sneaky shooter who has played for 10 hours with a good chance of dropping the million dollar champion who has invested 1,000 hours in their rise to the top. Of course, the likelihood of a pro of that level entertaining public lobbies is low and the same strategy would not work for long, but the point is that a fast kill time brings people back for more.

The huge success of Call of Duty obviously cannot be attributed to one factor; excellent customisation tools, exciting mechanics and its sheer variety has ensured that the pros are still playing it today. It all combines to allow scope for improvement without detracting from the appeal for an audience of various tiers of ability.

Equally, Halo's competitive downfall was not simply thanks its lack of speedy kills. Its recent attempts to emulate features introduced by its usurper suggest that CoD has the right ideas, though.

2. Watch the skills of the top players

A new series presents a great opportunity as all players start at the same position. Of course, some skilled shooters will quickly pick up the pace with pioneering ideas and play styles, enabling them to shoot ahead of the pack.

The ability to run across walls and double jump in Titanfall gives gamers a chance to try out a different movement mechanic that has only been utilised in a few shooters before it. With practice, players can glide through maps, providing huge potential for tactical battles which will spawn new strategies during Titanfall's lifespan.

Such a breadth of possibilities can have its drawbacks, though and too many variables may place a disproportionate emphasis on detailed knowledge of maps. There isn’t a crash course which helps gamers make it into the top flight of eSports but games like Titanfall can’t thrive solely on experienced players.

Breaching the upper-tiers demands enduring effort but constantly chasing an outrageous amount of hours is not a realistic prospect for every ambitious amateur. Ideally, new methods observed on pro and tournament live streams need to be easily replicated, at least with practice, in order to fuel the interest of gamers hoping to emulate the best players. Otherwise, players’ long-term interest will fall through a widening skill gap.

3. The community and developers working together

Titanfall has been hyped as the first real next-gen heavyweight but the Titans were always going to evoke concern among FPS purists. The public beta gave online gamers their first hands-on experience of the game and while the reception was overwhelmingly positive, some competitive fans pondered the necessity of the towering battle mechs and questioned whether there might be an in-game option to remove them.

It is unreasonable to expect Respawn to undermine Titanfall’s unique selling point (it is called Titanfall for a reason) by appeasing a small niche of the market. The community must be careful what it wishes for, too. History highlights several instances where gamers have been initially short-sighted when it came to new concepts that would later enhance the overall experience.

Developers should welcome an external point of view but it is important to realise that a player's outlook is distorted by nostalgia and the current best thing. No one would doubt that a significant part of eSports' growth can be attributed to input from the community but sometimes the decisions are best left in care of the creators. Both can work together but Respawn must steer the ship as gamers offer occasional words of advice.

Everyone knows that the first step for Titanfall needs to be the inclusion of private lobbies and Respawn has already acknowledged this in the form of a patch due for release in the next couple of months. An eSports rule set would be the next step and that largely falls under the community's remit.

4. Balance weapons and game modes

This encapsulates the difference between a good multiplayer game and a prospective competitive title. Blending maps, weapons and game modes in harmony is a delicate balance largely assigned to the eSports community. Of course, the tools available must be of good enough quality and Respawn has covered all three bases in Titanfall with ample material for players to shape the next eSports shooter.

The experience of members from eSports' existing console community, many of whom have a keen interest in Titanfall, should encourage a collective effort in refining a rule set but months of debate is inevitable in the goal to fine-tune the perfect system. Longer still considering that private lobbies are still a little way off.

There’s a decent mix spread over a healthy selection of 15 maps. Last Titan Standing has you playing as a pilot fitted with a Titan who has to kill enemy Titans until they’re, as the title suggests, is the last Titan standing. Pilot Hunter is another type of deathmatch in which only Pilot kills are tracked while Attrition is like a team deathmatch. Then there’s Capture the Flag and Hardpoint Domination in which you have to capture certain points on the map and are awarded marks for the amount of points you hold. There is no shortage of variety from launch day.

So what other options do the eSports community need to embrace Titanfall? Symmetrical maps are not essential but spawns need to reflect fair opportunity for either team at the start of each match. A limited ability to dictate spawns is a just reward for controlling vital areas but teams should still be given space to calculate their approach for regaining ground. Adjusting spawns is likely to be an ongoing project, requiring two-way feedback to prevent lucky spawns that intrude on space earned by an opponent. Having said that, given the faster pace of Titanfall in comparison to shooters from the past five years, that may be too traditional an outlook which could be made obsolete depending on how the game plays out.

Based on what little there is to compare it to, Titans are uncharted territory and gamers will be attempting to gauge their competitive compatibility. An open mind is the best approach but the only foreseeable problem comes down to whether they are overpowered. Early battles suggests that they offer a proportionate advantage that doesn’t completely subdue the opposing team to the point of no return.

Have you played Titanfall? Do you think it will be a giant on the eSports scene? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below.