Jersey VR gamer to battle for $1m in international contest

Wednesday 31 January 2018

It’s a virtual cross between frisbee and football – and if you’re any good at it, you could win your team $1,000,000. That’s the challenge soon to be posed to one Jersey gamer as he enters the global finals of the world’s largest virtual reality gaming contest.

Tim McGuinness, founder of Virtual Reality Jersey, will fly out to Katowice, Poland in March to take part in the VR Challenger League World Finals in his gaming speciality: a futuristic sports game named ‘Echo Arena.'

In it, teams of three - a defender, midfielder and striker - will clash in a zero-gravity virtual world where they’ll aim to throw a disc into each other’s goals.

While it might strike some as a niche audience, last year’s world finals for another VR videogame gained more viewers than the FA Cup Final, at the same time as the eSports industry was valued at $500million.

Video: Tim on a challenging Echo Arena practice-run. (Warning: expletives)

 Tim’s ascent to the finals comes after he donned his VR headset on a stage in front of tens of thousands of people in Hamburg last year. Tim and his team – named Team Gravity – scooped a spot in the top eight teams, securing their ascent to the finals.

This time, the pressure will be turned up even higher. Last year’s event attracted 173,000 fans attending in person and 46million people watching online.

The team itself is a global entity, with Tim’s fellow members based in Germany and Switzerland. But the nature of VR means that all of Team Gravity can hook up for a practice session wherever, whenever – so long as they’ve got a headset ready.

Tim – a former Hautlieu student – told Express that he first got into Echo Arena after “dabbling” both in online and offline sports. He had previously played tennis and basketball, whilst also being a long-term gamer, but had never reached his goal of reaching a professional level at either. VR, however, worked out to be the “perfect merge.”

“It had always been a goal of mine to reach a professional level at one of them because I always loved playing and watching, but never found I quite fitted the bill to be good enough to get to that level. Then with VR, that sporting and active background was a perfect match. I now have the skills to be able to play at the top level which beforehand I never quite had with either of them individually.”

That sporting background is particularly useful in Echo Arena, where hand-eye coordination is vital.

Speaking about the upcoming finals, Tim, who hopes to put Jersey on the digital map, commented: “I’m really happy and excited to be going to the very first VRCL World Finals. The team worked really hard to get to this point and with a few last minute changes I think we might have what it takes to shoot for the top.” 

Islanders can support Team Gravity by tuning in live to the finals on 3 and 4 March here.