The first rule of fight club is you do not talk about fight club. The first rule of Insomniac Games' The Unspoken, on the other hand, is that everyone should be talking about what we described as a fight club for wizards. That rule will be upheld with the announcement that Oculus, Asus, Microsoft, Intel, ESL, and Insomniac Games have partnered up to host a second tournament for the VR game in select Microsoft stores in the U.S. and Canada.
There's a lot riding on this second tournament. Oculus is using it to show off its hardware, Asus is using it to advertise the VivoPC X released earlier this month, and Microsoft is using it to get even more people into its Microsoft Stores to see VR in action. (We assume that Intel wants to draw attention to its processors' VR capabilities, ESL gets more eyeballs on its streams, and Insomniac Games receives free press for its VR game.)
It's a good thing The Unspoken lends itself to competitions like this. The game tasks you with choosing from various classes with differing spells and using them against your opponent, all while teleporting between multiple columns in the game's virtual arenas. It's quick, relies on skill, and shows what VR experiences are capable of giving you. And, naturally, it has the benefit of existing in a post-Harry Potter world obsessed with all things magical.
The tournament will take place in three stages: Anyone can compete at one of the 80 stores participating in the event on May 13. Then, on May 20, the companies will host regional matches, and on June 3 eight finalists will compete at the flagship Microsoft Store in New York. Prizes will be given out at each event, so even if you don't end up heading to New York in June, the tournament could still be worth a trip to a participating store.
Here are the prizes for May 13:
Winners get a $100 Oculus Store creditParticipants receive swag and a code to get The Unspoken for free
For May 20:
Winners get roundtrip airfare to NYC, a two-night hotel stay, and $150 cashRunners up receive a check for $100
And for June 3:
Grand Prize: Asus VivoPC X Oculus Ready machine, Rift + Touch, and $1,250 cashRunners up: Cash prizes
You can register for the tournament and learn more about its rules on the Oculus website. Oculus also announced that you can get a free copy of The Unspoken, Superhot VR, VR Sports Challenge, and Wilson’s Heart if you purchase a $1,299 Asus VivoPC X with the Rift HMD and Touch motion controllers bundled from Amazon or Newegg between now and June 13. (Note that we couldn't find the bundle on Newegg, and Amazon's selling it for $1,398 instead of $1,299.)
