October 12, 2007

Cash Competitions: Tournament.com’s Director Talks to GameZone About This New Online Venture
By Louis Bedigian

“Tournament.com prides itself on having a large number of free play matches, giving gamers the chance to warm-up before cash games.”

Money doesn’t grow on trees. But thanks to Tournament.com, a new venue for online game competitions, it can be won by those who excel at Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, Counter-Strike: Source, or Day of Defeat: Source.

“Tournament.com was created to give PC gamers the ultimate destination to play their favorite games and win money at the same time,” said Alex Holt, Director at Tournament.com. “Players, upon creating an account, have the option of taking part in free matches, which require no entry fee to participate in. In order to win money, players need only deposit funds into their account wallet and start playing. Each cash game has a pre-set entry fee and pre-determined cash prize for top players.”

Half-Life 2: Deathmatch

Alex says that once players have accumulated winnings, they can withdraw them from their wallet into their personal bank account. “To keep the system secure, Tournament.com utilizes an identity verification system, to ensure that players are who they say they are, as well as make sure that players are of legal age to use the service and live in a territory that allows online competitive gaming.

“And, thanks to our TAC anti-cheating software and Smart Rank system, they can be assured that their competitive experience is balanced and fair.”

Counter-Strike: Source

The service is free to play for fun, but then you must pay to play for cash prizes...?

Alex Holt: Correct, Tournament.com prides itself on having a large number of free play matches, giving gamers the chance to warm-up before cash games or as a means of letting rookie players get accustomed to the competition that they’ll be facing. In order to win money, however, players must deposit funds into their wallet. Once they’ve done that, they can enter cash games and reap the rewards of their skills.

What forms of payment do you accept?

AH: Currently Tournament.com accepts payment via major credit and debit cards. Deposits can be made using a wide variety of currencies, but all transactions are made in gamers dollars, which are equivalent to the worldwide value of the U.S. dollar. Deposits are completely free of charge, too. When a player wishes to withdraw their winnings, the system used is equally easy to use. Players can withdraw as much money from their winnings as desired, although only one player withdraw can be executed in any 24-hour period.

And if all a player wants is to play and be a part of the community, but not participate in any tourneys, they do not have to submit a credit card or anything like that?

AH: That’s correct. Players are under no obligation to deposit money into their wallet. But, the drawback is that those players will also not be able to win any money by taking part in cash games.

How does Valve and Tournament.com benefit from this service? How do you make money from gamers who just play for fun, and what are you doing for Valve?

AH: Tournament.com has signed a licensing agreement with Valve, allowing us to use Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, Counter-Strike: Source, and Day of Defeat: Source in online competitive matches. While it’s true that players who opt to only play free games don’t contribute money to the overall Tournament.com system, we’re confident that most players who participate in those matches will migrate to cash games once they become more familiar with how Tournament.com operates.

Day of Defeat: Source

Now walk us through the process of getting into Tournament.com. You start with a download... What else, what next? How large is the download file, and how long will it take before you're into a game?

AH: Getting setup to play on Tournament.com is quick and easy. You register as a user at www.tournament.com  and then download a 10 MB installer. Once installed, the application guides you through the rest of the installation process in a concise and easy-to-follow manner. Players will need to make sure that they own legitimate copies of the games they wish to play as well as have Steam accounts. Sign-up and Steam verification for our games, however, is a simple process that can be completed in a matter of minutes. Once your Valve titles are verified and your Tournament.com account is set up, you’re ready to play!

Can you give us an idea of the Tournament.com capacity? How many gamers can you handle?

AH: We have a growing infrastructure of over 70 servers globally and at any one time we can have hundreds of gamers on the system concurrently.

Counter-Strike: Source and Day of Defeat: Source are supported. Are there any other games currently supported or that you plan to support?

AH: Currently we allow players to compete in Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, Counter-Strike: Source, and Day of Defeat: Source. We’re always in talks to increase our title portfolio, so stay tuned for more announcements in the future regarding the addition of new games to our stable of titles.

How much of a cash prize can gamers expect?

AH: This is a hard question to answer, given that cash prizes vary per match. What I can say is that we make sure that all cash prizes are worth players’ time and signify a healthy amount of money to be made if a player has the skill to crush their competition.

Will you be having formal tournaments?

AH: Of course! While we operate countless daily cash games, we do run formal tournaments, complete with larger cash prizes. Each tournament is widely advertised on www.tournament.com.  These tournaments may require a minimum number of players and other factors, but also feature larger cash prizes for top players.

Counter-Strike – one of the all-time greats.

What other benefits does Tournament.com offer to gamers?

AH: At Tournament.com, we’re committed to providing players with a competitive environment to play some of the most cutting-edge games around, make money while doing, but also foster a community where players can support each other and create a place where everyone feels welcome.

One of our key features is TAC, or Tournament Anti-Cheat. Our proprietary anti-cheating software ensures that all matches are played on a level field and that no player can bypass the system and profit from it. In addition to TAC, we also employ game masters who regularly monitor all matches for signs of cheating. Our aim was to create an online competitive gaming environment that is both secure and robust, and with TAC, we feel that we are hitting both of those marks dead-on.

Another key feature of Tournament.com is our SmartRank system. We understand that players at Tournament.com might be at different skill levels, and in order to avoid having very skilled players ruin the experience for newcomers, all players are ranked in a unique way. While I can’t get into the specifics of how the SmartRank system works, I can say that we continuously analyze player data and results and assign each player a rank. This rank then determines how they are matched up with other players prior to a match. The result is a system that ensures that players of all skill levels are equally matched with similar players, making matches exciting and challenging.

What else do you have planned?

AH: Right now, it’s a great time to be a Tournament.com. We’ve got three incredibly popular games to play as well as a system custom-built for providing players with unparalleled security features, evolving challenge, and the great opportunity to actually get paid for beating the competition. We’re constantly upgrading the system with new features, as well as planning big tournaments with even bigger cash prizes. Be sure to regularly check www.tournament.com  for all the latest news on what we have in store.

Tournament.com offers gameplay tourneys with existing games, GameFlood.com offers gamers the chance to create and upload new content for games... Have you thought about doing a crossover promo?

AH: While the idea of giving players a larger role in terms of content creation, we want to make absolutely sure that players are having fun, security is flawless, and the entire system is easy to use. Player created content, while compelling, is just not a feature that we’re quite ready to focus on right now.

Anything else you'd like to share?

AH: We are constantly looking at ways to innovate our offering and keep our gamers excited, we have extensive forums on the site which are reviewed and responded to regularly. We listen closely to what our gamers really want and so in the near future we have got a number of new features which are currently in test that will be launched by the end of the year including perpetual games and single player tournaments.

Thank you for your time.

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