Xfire launches esports platform - "The ultimate tournament platform"

This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.

Xfire’s new platform aims to create a better tournament experience for tournament organizers and participants. onGamers spoke with Xfire’s VP of Marketing Matt Marcou, former esports manager at Riot Games and Operations Manager at Evil Geniuses, about the product. Marcou joined the company in April.

“There are three types of users that we have in mind for our platform. First, the established tournament organizers like Quakecon and Multiplay, who run dozens if not hundreds of tournaments a year. Second, the publishers, who want to provide a great tournament experience for their community. Finally and most importantly, your average player who wants to start a game activity together with their friends.” Marcou said. “Imagine all of the college campuses and gaming clubs that are starting up across the US. They are the most in need of a fast and easy solution to manage tournaments. Xfire unifies the viewership and competitive experiences.”

“At Xfire, we’re all gamers and fans of the competitive scene. We’ve obviously seen the growth of games like League of Legend, which I had the pleasure to witness firsthand. We’ve also seen the coming of Twitch, which has been a destination for the 71 million Western gamers who are watching and participating in tournaments. We see a gap right now in support for that amateur competitive scene. No one is paying attention to their competitive experience. We think there are millions of gamer who would compete if it was just easier to do so.“

On xfire.com, players can create and enter tournaments for free. The platform provides features such as 5 step tournament creation, team management, automated score reporting, and a customizable tournament page. Game specific features and tournament formats will be added on a regular basis.

“Pioneering awesome tools for gamers has always been in Xfire’s DNA,” said Mark Donovan, CEO, Xfire in a statement provided to onGamers. “We feel that our team extensive experience in the esports industry and software platform, we have the potential to drive the next phase of growth in competitive gaming. The feedback we’ve received from the esports community and publishers has validated our efforts.”

Using the platform, you can create and participate in tournaments for any game such as League of Legends, Dota 2, StarCraft II and Call of Duty. Xfire plans to provide global support and to localize the service for different regions.

“Tournaments take a lot of planning time and promotion. We’re taking that work out of it so people can focus on the fun of getting together and competing. We think our platform saves organizers and players hours of work per tournament,” said Marcou. “For us this is the first of many innovations that we want to release.”