Stardew Valley may become an esport with official tournament

This story about surprising esports, boiled down, in 1:14 minutes.

What's the fuss?

The next big esports might not be a shooter after all, but an indie farming role-playing game. With the game's first ever tournament, it might be a surprising esports hit.

The situation

As the name may insinuate, Stardew Valley is a game all about farming and friendship.

• Moving from the city to Pelican Town, the player must restore their old grandfather's farm as well as improve the town, make money, and befriend the unforgettable townsfolk along the way. 
• Impressively made by only one person, the game has a very large cult following and even spawned its own board game.

Given the non-competitive nature of Stardew Valley, it was quite a surprise when the game's creator announced a $40,000 esports tournament for it. 

• The inaugural Stardew Valley Cup will task pre-selected teams into completing different challenges such as growing certain crops or giving villagers specific items.
• Each of the challenges will be worth a certain amount of points based on difficulty, with the entire event being streamable on Twitch on Sept. 4th.

Boiling it down

It may surprise you what kind of games can be esports. 

• From farming simulators to a fighting game starring Shaquille O'Neal, many esports games exist in smaller grassroots scenes.
• Although these games don't have the fanbase or financial backing as mainline esports games, smaller games can thrive competitively as long as there is a diehard community behind it.

Although the most prominent esports games are played in leagues similar to traditional sports, smaller games don't need to emulate such a formula. 

• In fact, one-off esports tournaments can still experience a comparable amount of success.
• Although competitive Stardew Valley may not warrant an entire esports league, it certainly has enough content and is popular enough to be a very successful esports event.

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