The Clash Royale World Finals come to Japan

Next weekend will see the culmination of an epic mobile gaming tournament when the Clash Royale World Finals take place in Tokyo, Japan. This highly anticipated competition will see six of the best Clash Royale teams in the world slugging it out in a bid to win a share of the $1 million prize pool.

Read also: Clash Royale Betting

© Supercell

It’s a big step forward for the mobile esports scene that has traditionally been dwarfed by its PC and console-based counterpart. But with record-breaking viewing figures for the qualifying rounds, and many more expected to tune in to see the exploits of teams like KINGZONE DragonX competing this weekend, it seems that the mobile esports revolution has well and truly begun.

All about the Clash Royale World Finals

The Clash Royale World Finals follow on from Supercell’s Crown Championship World Finals that successfully took place in London last year. This saw the Nova Esports team picking up a respectable $150,000 in prize winnings, but the Clash Royale World Finals tournament looks to take things up a gear by offering a $1 million prize pool.

This year, the very first Clash Royale World Finals take place on 1 December at the massive Makuhari Messe convention centre in Tokyo, Japan. Featuring six top Clash Royale teams from different regions such as North America, South America, Europe, China and Japan, it promises to be a thrilling competition.

What’s interesting is the fact that this event won’t be streamed live on Twitch.tv, but the event organisers have taken the unusual step of teaming up with YouTube to broadcast this massive gaming tournament. Regardless of this fact, there are expected to be many millions of Clash Royale fans who tune in to watch this masterclass in mobile gaming this weekend.

Who is competing in the Clash Royale World Finals?

Whilst there was the potential for 25 million participants to reach the finals, it was only the top teams of KINGZONE DragonX, Nova Esports, PONOS Sports, Vivo Keyd, Team Queso and Immortals who managed to make it to the weekend’s tournament.

The North American team, Immortals, are looking especially strong at the moment with key players like Royal helping the side to dominate the CRL NA qualifiers. But also keep an eye on the top European side, Team Queso, who have talented stars like Soking who always cope well under extreme pressure.

© PONOS sports

There will be plenty of home support for the Japanese team, PONOS Sports, who have plenty of experience in stars like Fuchi, and their playmaker, Mikan Bouya. Similarly, Nova Esports will be keen to maintain their title-winning ways with valued players like Auk in rare form.

Whilst the Latin American stars, Vivo Keyd, might seem like a long shot, they have players like Javi who can quickly alter the gameplay to devastating effect. And obviously, you should never discount a team with the gaming heritage of KINGZONE Dragon X. This top Chinese side have struggled with different player line-ups throughout the campaign, but with stars like X-bow Master always ready to deliver the goods, it looks like anything could happen in the Clash Royale World Finals.

Why Clash Royale is the flagship game for mobile esports

Ever since Supercell released Clash Royale at the beginning of 2016, it has swiftly grown to become a mobile gaming sensation. With well over $1 billion in revenues in less than one year, the game showed that Supercell clearly understand what mobile gamers are looking for. Clash Royale cleverly incorporated different features of gaming genres such as tower defence, MOBA and collectible card games to become a massive mobile gaming hit.

Whilst the title has received plenty of criticism for featuring a large amount in-game transactions, it’s this strategy that has helped the Clash Royale World Finals become a world-beater. This is because the game’s developers, Supercell, found that spectatorship of mobile gaming was struggling to grow, but by incorporating plenty of in-game initiatives to encourage players to watch the tournament, we have seen impressive viewing statistics such as over 2.1 million hours watched during October alone.

Supercell have proven to be adept at tailoring their tournament content with mobile gamers in mind. Rather than focusing on the hardcore gaming demographic, the competition’s coverage has been refreshingly targeted towards those mobile gamers who have never watch esports before.

Obviously, both the prize pools and spectatorship have some way to go before they can catch up with top esports tournaments associated with classic titles like League of Legends, Counter Strike Global Offensive and Dota 2. But as 47% of the world’s games are now played on either a smartphone or a tablet, it shows that the Clash Royale World Finals is well-placed to take things up a level.