Naraka: Bladepoint Esports 101 - What Can We Expect From Naraka: Bladepoint World Championship Finals 2022?

There are certain things that we expect of esports at large. Unbelievable gunplay, lightning-fast reaction-time, intense planning and, perhaps most importantly, unfathomably large prize pools.

And equally, there are the things we don't expect - hand-to-hand melee combat, martial arts, and a battle royale like no other that flips the rules of the genre on its head.

This is what makes it so compelling that Naraka: Bladepoint is back for another year of its World Championships, with bigger stages, stakes and prize money payouts than ever before. The World Champion Finals will descend on Singapore, and we're here on the floor to bring you a peek behind the curtain.

We felt it only important to push Naraka: Bladepoint beyond its bright stage to the world stage, and unveil what exactly is going on here, as here in the West, we don't often see much of the game for sake of the Fortnites and Warzones of the world taking all the love. And who knows - maybe this year could change that.

What Makes Naraka: Bladepoint So Special?

Click to enlarge

Though the West hasn't embraced the game to a particularly riveting degree, Naraka: Bladepoint is a pretty great opportunity to fill a gap in our battle royale market. The notion of the game - a melee-focussed battle royale game that created fast and chaotic swordplay inspired by Chinese martial arts - was one that was met with the fascination of those who heard its battlecry.

But, as is the case with the battle royale genre, it didn't have the platform to garner a wider reach, and as such, has fallen in popularity when attempting to topple the giants. It's a real David and Goliath situation, and though the gameplay can be easily considered similar to the likes of NieR: Automata and even Jedi: Fallen Order, there's certainly an audience here that could gel with its gameplay ideals.

Of course, there are many overlapping details that keep it in the genre, with sixty players appearing on an island with a closing circle of poisonous gas threatening them until only one squad of three stands. But it's what sets it aside that makes its potential so easy to see. And it's what's going to make its return to the World Championships all the more compelling to watch.

What Is The Naraka: Bladepoint World Championship?

Naraka: Bladepoint's bold step into the world of esports is fascinating, as much like the game itself, it represents a collision of the old and the new. The championship boasts a strong prize pool that stands as an impressive marker of the game's popularity that is hidden to the West, with last year's winners of the World Championship J Team taking $576,000 home with them.

Yet, there's something deeply charming about how scrappy the coverage of the game's tournament feels. Without the backing of the likes of EA or Epic Games, it feels organic in the face of the giant tournaments of League of Legends and Rocket League. 

Last year's tournament was the game's first foray into esports, and though it hadn't spent a lot of time in that world, it was immediately clear that this competition was taken deeply seriously by its competitors, with the nail-biting final moments between DZC and LY capping off one of the Finals games will prove. There's clearly enough skill here for the World Championship to prove to be considered a display of sheer talent, only with a little less of the screen noise that the likes of the Overwatch League can often fall into.

Even though the game has its own popularity in Asia, it isn't one of the big swingers in the battle royale genre, but that does an awful lot for the feeling of community that is lost in the sleekness of esports' biggest productions. This is a place for the most dedicated Bladepoint fans to converge and share their love of the game and what talents it can find in its players, and if the first year was anything to go by, chances are, the second year is going to end in bombastic fashion.

Naraka: Bladepoint's finals are bound to go off with a bang, and it looks as though we could be about to see some brand-new world champions rise to the top. Whatever happens, there's one thing that we can assure you - and that's that it's going to be massive.