Warhawk Tournament: I Will Fail Miserably, But so What?

The announcement of a Warhawk tournament this week by the Playstation Blog has been met with a mixed reception in the community. Sony has been heavily promoting their Spring sales, and the recent price drop of the excellent third-person shooter from Incognito has prompted SCE to re-energize the game’s following anew with a tournament. However, concerns around fairness, actual possibility of winning, and the value of tournament prizes are raging through the Warhawk forums.

Though my personal Warhawk play time has waned of late, the announcement of this tournament really has my juices flowing again. Granted, while preparing for the tournament is going to cut into my FFXIII time, the break from Vanille’s insipid cooing may be quite cathartic. The possibility of being able to compete against some of the best players in the world should have been met with only enthusiasm, ironically it has not been. Before we go any further, details of the tournament from Playstation’s US and EU blogs are as follows:

• Competition starts on April 2nd at 5am Pacific Time and will run through May 3rd at 5am Pacific Time.
• Players must play on Official Sony Servers named ‘œTournament-CTF-1,2,3, etc.’
• Competition is open to North American AND European players.
• The top 50 players that have earned the most Points on these designated servers will win the competition.

Winners will receive the very rare Champions Blade which is an in-game weapon like a trophy that you can bash people with. You’ll also get a special edition Warhawk shirt for your avatar in Home ‘” only available to the winners of this competition.

Before I address the negative response from the Warhawk community some details about the game are important to review. Firstly, this is a difficult game to jump into. Levelling up is not easy and if you are accustomed to regular promotions in other shooters like Modern Warfare 2 or Battlefield Bad Company 2, then you may find this game frustrating. The maps are massive, they require a lot of practice, and the combat itself demands a commitment despite the addition of a tutorial; something some of us saw as a bit of a sissy move when it dropped as a free download in August 2008 that also saw Trophy support added.

My concerns about the response from the community revolve around the petulance in the tone of some of the posters. One poster wrote:

‘œPeople with no life will win’ while another added:

‘œThis tournament thing, doesn’t look appealing to me. They should of [sic] given us better prizes. Goes back to playing BFBC2 and U2.”

There are many other comments like these which concerned me but they follow the same strain. The reality of a game like Warhawk is that it truly is a hard game, and I think that even the so-called ‘œhardcore’ gamers are drifting into casual territory with the whining and complaining displayed here.

The tone of entitlement is equally troubling as it is tantamount to kids playing basketball in their driveway and then expecting to win a Varsity Tournament. Yes the fifty winners of this tournament are going to be the same players who have dominated for years now. Yes the winners are also going to be the regulars who invest a large amount of time in the game as well as the community. Why are these bad things? Frankly I’m looking forward to just getting on the same server as some of these players to see where I measure up. I know I’m not going to win but who cares? Warhawk is one of the great success stories of this generation of games and it’s a pleasure to play for any reason.

If you’re looking for me in April (PSN: bartholomew999), just check the tournament servers in Warhawk, I’ll be near the bottom in most of the matches and I’ll be having an awesome time.