In recent years streaming events have skyrocketed in popularity. Esports and Twitch have brought live streaming games into the mainstream, and now there are hundreds of events taking place on a small and large scale.
For Minecraft, MC Ultimate has quickly become one of – if not the – largest streamer and creator event in the history of Minecraft. How is this relatively relaxed game played in an exciting live event setting? By pitching players together, Hunger Games-style.
In just its first season, MC Ultimate hit a maximum of a quarter of a million live viewers, and tens of millions of impressions. It’s setting up to become one of the biggest live streaming events, and most certainly among Minecraft players and creators.
Where Did MC Ultimate Get It’s Start?
MC Ultimate was born out of a well-known smaller event called MCSaturdays, which was a weekly tournament that invited 24 teams to play for a generous prize pool. Both of these events were started and run by Talensi. Now, MC Ultimate now focuses on raising funds for charities all over the US. In their first season alone, they raised $40,000 in just 2 hours.
Who is Talensi?
Talensi is the management company behind the event, and they aim to not only create a great event for players and spectators but develop high-quality partnerships between large corporate brands and individual creators. They also provide individual channel management, including working with Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. Talensi is the brainchild of two young entrepreneurs called Ali “Awtra” Mody, who is the CEO and Founder of the company, and Noah “Pikaclicks” Barskiy, who is a Lead Executive.
How Does MC Ultimate Work?
MC Ultimate brings the ruthless nature of the Hunger Games world to Minecraft. The map for season 1 of MC Ultimate was built by the professional Minecraft building team, Team Helix. Just like the terrain Katniss had to navigate in her world, this map featured 8 different biomes and had a diameter of 2000 blocks, making it the perfect map for the first MC Ultimate teams to inhabit for the duration of the game.
In the first season, 236 players took part, from numerous communities, speaking different native languages. Just like in the Hunger Games, every team was a team of two, pitched against all the others. Every player’s perspective was available to play, and many of the players were well-known creators in the Minecraft community. In the future, the game could feature as many as 150 teams.
MC Ultimate is sponsored by Dedicated MC, who provide dedicated servers for players and to host MC Ultimate.
How Are These Entrepreneurs Changing the Game?
Mody and Barskiy, the young entrepreneurs behind Talensi management,are attracting a huge amount of attention to their new event due to the unique playstyle, the incredible list of players, and the sheer number of players streaming their participation. There are plenty of other events and competitions for gamers on Twitch, but few can compete with their custom maps, rules, playstyle, and list of competitors. They understand what the Minecraft community wants to see from their largest livestream event and tease and promote the event for months in preparation, which led to their quarter of a million viewers.
This is just the beginning. Talensi intends to get bigger and better with every iteration of MC Ultimate, paring with better corporate brands and even more of the community’s most popular creators. With a goal of inviting up to 300 players to their incredible maps at once, it will soon become a must-attend event for Minecraft fans all over the globe.
