Will the recent Strife Rookie Tournament kickstart Strife’s career as a competitive game?

Asiasoft’s 16-team Strife Rookie Tournament, held over the weekend at Campus Game Fest in Singapore, saw Team Impunity of Heroes of Newerth fame return to its MOBA roots and claim first place.

The players left with S$1,000 ($800) in cash, five Dell S series monitors, and five Steelseries Siberia Elite black headphones. First runner-up, team Cyber Carebear, received S$500 ($400) and five Steelseries Sensei mice and five Steelseries Apex keyboards, while second runner-up PKG Storm received S$250 ($200) in cash and a token Steelseries Rival mouse.

Impunity has been rather quiet the past year. Though it added some Hearthstone players to its lineup, there has been little to no activity from its main players. Impunity’s team leader, Ric “Rhonn” Neo, said that it has been in the midst of a hiatus due to several members being busy with their studies or getting conscripted into the Singapore army.

(See: Games in Asia meetup Singapore: the problem with eSports here, debunked! (VIDEO))

“Longer-term wise, we definitely aim to remain competitive and strive for eSports excellence in Singapore. The games we’re rather interested in include Strife of course, Hearthstone, and the upcoming Blizzard MOBA, Heroes of the Storm,” he added.

The Strife Rookie tournament is the first Strife tournament organized by Asiasoft for Singapore, and its generous prize pot of nearly S$2,000 for a 16-team tournament is a good start.

A fan taking a selfie with Strife mascot Moxie.

But that’s also just a start. Moving forward, Asiasoft needs to keep the game afloat in a regional arena already crowded by fancy newcomers and established favorites.

There is presently a small (or maybe nonexistent) community for Strife in the region. In the Philippines, players emerge from the woodwork for the generous freebies that accompany free-play weekends, but their interest isn’t retained. In Singapore, gamers are aware of Strife, but don’t see a reason to continue playing a game that has not yet launched for retail when they can be enjoying League of Legends or Dota 2.

While there is only so much Asiasoft can do to retain player interest, the Strife Rookie Tournament definitely helps. Now that there is an established team like Impunity leading the charge (it was one of the forerunners of the competitive Heroes of Newerth scene back in the game’s day), it might certainly be the turn of Strife’s fortune as a competitive MOBA game.

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