All gears of one of the world’s top video games have officially stopped, being removed from the eSports circuit.
Gears of War was first established in 2006 as a third-person shooter game that quickly took the world by storm. Developed by Epic Games and published by Microsoft Studios, the game was loved by all, mostly for its enthralling campaign. Even so, it was quickly set apart from other games when it joined the eSports circuit.
The game gave birth to a competitive community that joined leading eSports titles such as Halo and Call of Duty. Today the eSport has been around for many years, Debuting in its first Major League Gaming (MLG) events all the way back in 2007-2008. However, it was not until 2016, after the release of Gears, that the franchise started taking steps towards greatness within the eSports circuit.
Those steps fell short.
Gears of War’s eSports run never reached its potential due to the series failing to build on its strengths. As a result, most of the blame was put on Epic Games due to its failure to address feedback from a competitive audience that, having lived and breathed Gears, understood the game’s most entertaining qualities.
Since 2019 Gears 5 has been the focus of competition in North America under Microsoft and The Coalition’s Gears Esports banner, maintaining plenty of support throughout the United States and Mexico. This would take a turn when the COVID-19 pandemic led to the league’s 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons being played fully online. Despite several other eSports having since returned to in-person competition in some form, Gears Esports’ Mexico City Major in March 2020 was likely to be its last Local Area Network(LAN) event in history.
This timing only seemed to be amplified by the shortcomings of Gears of War 2, which were not just due to various technical glitches, but also due to the game’s flawed mechanics. Various long-range weapons and cumbersome controls prevented the game from flowing smoothly as a whole.
In addition, the multiplayer features of Gears of War 2 were in no way ideal for team play, as it gave players little time to shine.
After only a year, Gears of War 2 was removed from the MLG circuit, and it failed to gain any traction in Europe. This was a bad time for the Gears community as Call of Duty was starting to gain ground at the same time.
It is worth noting that Gears of War 3 was better than its predecessor, but it was just too little too late. Even with all the improvements that were made, it still lacked features that were significant enough to warrant any praise.
In a statement on Mar. 15, The Coalition thanked its fans for their support during the two years that Gears eSports has been running. The company also announced that the Gears Pro League’s Spring and Summer Majors would be their final major events.
This comes as saddening news to many as Gears of War eSports acted as a starting point for countless people in their gaming careers. This includes Nickmercs, one of the biggest streamers that eSports boasts today. To himself and many others within the gaming community, this shutdown only serves as the start of a trend that people are finally starting to notice. Many of the games that influenced the rise of eSports, like Halo and Call of Duty, are also starting to die down in the presence of newer, more popular games like Fortnite and Valorant.
Although Gears of War’s eSports run has ended, fans can at least find a little comfort in knowing that this is not the end for the franchise entirely. Current developers of the game, the coalition, have decided to focus all their attention on future projects. This means that everyone can look forward to more Gears of War content coming very soon, just not the eSports side.
