Early last year, Super Evil Megacorp’s mobile MOBA game Vainglory expanded from quick 3v3 matches to longer and more involved 5v5 battles on a larger map, attempting to match the strategic depth of its PC rivals. It was positioned as a major upgrade to the game’s thriving esports community, but then an unexpected thing happened: the competitive scene largely vanished.

Expecting a period of transition as players adjusted to 5v5 play and organizations reevaluated their teams, Super Evil Megacorp planned to start the new Vainglory Premier League a couple months later than the previous Vainglory 8 season. However, plans were repeatedly delayed and a full league never materialized, with many organizations leaving what rapidly became a quiet pro scene.

CEO Kristian Segerstrale admitted miscalculations in last year’s esports transition plan during an interview with The Esports Observer this week, but suggested that today’s launch of a PC and Mac version of Vainglory on Steam could help right the ship. Now that the game is multiplatform and not limited solely to touch devices, he sees a future in which players compete on any device of their choosing—and aspires to renew Vainglory esports along the way.

Going Multiplatform

We’ve seen competitive games begin life on PC and then move to mobile, as with Fortnite and PLAYERUNKNOWN’s Battlegrounds , but Vainglory‘s reverse shift is unique. The new version is fully playable across devices, with smartphone and tablet users able to battle freely with and against PC users. Segerstrale said that the studio’s original vision for Vainglory was to create a PC-level MOBA experience for mobile, so launching now on PC isn’t as foreign as it might seem.

“We started by spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to create PC-quality gameplay on touchscreens,” he said. “In lots of ways, this PC and Mac launch this week really represents the homecoming of the game.” He added that a console release is tentatively planned by the end of the year, so this is only the first step in a wider expansion plan.

Related Article: Vainglory Heading to Mac and PCs: “The EVIL Engine Was Designed to Hold Up on Any Platform”

However, the PC market is already heavily dominated by entrenched, genre-defining leaders like League of Legends and Dota 2 . Segerstrale acknowledged their presence and influence on his own game, but believes that Vainglory‘s speedier-yet-strategic matches, distinctive character pool, and cross-platform functionality can draw in new players.

“We believe that we have a similar strategic depth and mechanical skill cap to League of Legends, for example, but in shorter matches and ultimately playable with anyone,” he said. “We are, of course, a little nervous, bringing the game back to the platform where the genre began—but we’re also really excited about all of the feedback we’ve had for the alpha.”

A Premium on Parity

Putting an established mobile esport on computers brings some unique challenges, however, the most critical of which is maintaining competitive balance across devices.

“What’s really important about playing together is competitive parity. It’s this notion that you can play on any device and be competitive,” said Segerstrale. “That’s unlike with games like Fortnite, which is amazing and you can play together, but you’re not really competitive if you play on a mobile device. In Vainglory, you really are. For us, it’s sort of a step in the direction where we believe that the game industry is heading as a whole, which is a post-platform state where we don’t think of defining games by which platform they’re on.”

Segerstrale said that honing that level of parity has been a key focus for his team, which includes former League of Legends and Dota 2 pros that have helped balance the experience for keyboard-and-mouse players. “As far as we can tell, we are really close,” he said. “Those things which give PC an advantage, like pixel-perfect mouse accuracy and slightly faster execution of combos, are outweighed by the fact that the game was originally designed with touchscreens in mind.”

Credit: SEMC

And yes, the end result could be a future in which Vainglory live tournaments have players with PC setups alongside smartphone and tablet users. The whole idea is that the idea of platform preference matters to players, but shouldn’t matter when it comes to the actual competitive experience. “We already see a broad set of devices,” said Segerstrale, “and adding PCs, laptops, Chromebooks, or Macs—or whatever people want to play on—to that lineup is something that we welcome. We think it’s a really fun addition to the game.”

Reevaluating Esports

However, one key question remains: does Vainglory have enough of an esports future to even imagine such events ahead? After what’s transpired over the last year, it’s a fair query. Vainglory has one major event on the horizon for next month: the World Electronic Sports Games (WESG) Grand Finals in Chongqing, China. The event concludes what Super Evil Megacorp sees as the end of the current competitive year, and it’s been a tough one for the game without a structured, ongoing league or consistent top-level tournaments.

“The last year, I think—a ‘period of adjustment’ was an understatement at the time,” said Segerstrale, recalling his comments around the 5v5 launch. “I don’t think we fully internalized firstly how long it would take us to truly get 5v5 balanced to a competitive standard, where the games are as fun to play and watch as we want them to be—where they are now, but we certainly weren’t there for several months. The other thing that we didn’t quite internalize, and this is our own learning process, was just how much more involved the competitive scene is when you have five-person teams versus three-person teams.”

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”Perhaps this time, we are a little more cautious about what we promise.”[/perfectpullquote]

That’s only part of what caused last year’s issues, he said. Super Evil Megacorp’s decision to use external partners to run the esports leagues, rather than continue to handle it in-house, caused its own set of delays as the studio adjusted to new working practices. Paired together, the changes conspired to derail the company’s best-laid plans for the Vainglory Premier League with 5v5 play.

“It very much was quite a painful year of adjustment for us, as a result. Now that we are launching on PC and Mac, we are obviously taking those learnings to heart,” said Segerstrale. “Perhaps this time, we are a little more cautious about what we promise, and focused on making sure the launch goes really well first. Then we can grow the player base and figure out what the correct esports strategy from here on forwards will be.”

While he’s seen the excitement from the community about the multiplatform rollout, Segerstrale said that there are still a lot of messages from players who are eager to hear about the game’s next esports steps. Given the fallout from last year, however, the studio isn’t ready to make any promises—even if Segerstrale hopes to return to Vainglory esports to the heights of a couple years ago.

“It’s kind of heartbreaking not to be able to put out a schedule just yet, because I think all of us—us and the community combined—we really loved that regular league format,” he said. “That’s what we would want to get back to one day: that there is regular, every-weekend competitive play with teams you know and love. At the end of the day, that’s a great aspiration, but we want to take it one step at a time.”

Breaking the Stigma

Mobile games in the West are still widely considered lesser competitive experiences than their PC and console counterparts, and the lack of any true breakout mobile esports in the region could tie into that perception. Beyond offering Vainglory an opportunity to expand its player pool and potentially resuscitate its esports ambitions, Segerstrale hopes that the new multiplatform approach helps Vainglory finally dodge the stigma that competitive mobile games aren’t as complex or engaging as those on other platforms.