Clusterpuck as a Competitive E-Sport?

For a while now, I’ve been contemplating Clusterpuck’s true competitive potential. My friends and I gather up to play this game pretty regularly, and we always have a blast. The more we play, the more convinced I become that the game is surprisingly deep. If you’ve got cooperative teammates, you can really dominate intelligently.



It seems like every time we play, a new trick or strategy gets discovered. Learning how and when to pass becomes important. Aiming a pass to someone on the run. Not over- or under-shooting them. Juking other players. Baiting lunges. Defensive and offensive strategies. Having a good “goalie” or “safety”. Situational awareness. All of these concepts come into play. We’ve even been known to diagram things on a white board. In my opinion, CP has all the makings of a fantastic competitive experience. And I think it could flourish as a serious e-sport if the developers got behind it as such.



One of the things that makes CP great as a competitive game is that it’s so easily spectate-able. In my mind, this has always been a downside to first-person competitive games like Call of Duty. As a spectator, you’re going to be pretty lost as to what’s going on if you aren’t familiar with the maps. And even if you’re familiar with the maps, you can only observe the game partially at any one time. But in CP, you can always see what’s going on.



But only certain maps are actually conducive to a competitive experience. Obviously, the Competitive maps (Boring, Turn Around, Back-to-Back, etc) seem to have been designed with this in mind, and they work great. The focus becomes teamwork, strategy, and accurate handling of the puck. Some of the other maps are pretty good as a competitive experience too (sorry Funhouse maps; you're just for kicks).



As much as I enjoy the game, I do think a couple of things about the gameplay need to change in order for its competitive potential to increase. Just about all of these things pertain to aspects of unpredictability embedded in the game. It can sometimes be chaotic and unpredictable, even on the stripped down competitive maps, and that harms it’s competitive potential.



First off, in aggressive fights for the puck, sometimes the puck bounces away randomly and wildly. And sometimes goals will accidentally be scored in this way, which isn’t very satisfying, even if you’re the team that scores. You want goals to mean that one team out-played the other; not that one team got lucky. Lucky goals happen a little too frequently in my opinion. Try to reduce them.



Second, I think the game needs to become a little more geometrically sensical. What I mean is, when you bank a shot off the wall, it often ricochets at an unusual angle. So you can never quite trust your geometrical instincts, which I think is a problem.



Third, the placement of each player at the beginning of rounds has always seemed erratic. Sometimes one team will have a clear advantage in terms of getting to the puck first. I think this should change.



Finally, there’s the question of online play. I’m not trying to start a debate that's been had before; I just thought I would ask the question: Can CP ever really thrive as a competitive game if online play is not implemented?



So what do you guys think? Does Clusterpuck have what it takes to become a legitimate competitive e-sports title?



Criticisms aside, thanks PHL for the fantastic game. We’ve had oodles of fun with it.