Tournament.com shuts down

Online gaming website Tournament.com has closed down with immediate effect, ceasing all competitive activities, and putting players on notice to contact site administrators to claim any cash that may have been in account wallets.

The site, which launched in May this year, had acquired the exclusive rights from Valve for the ongoing competitive use of Counter-Strike Source, which prompted cease and desist orders on other sites using the game.

Philip Wride, managing director of Elysium Gaming, told GamesIndustry.biz that the failure of the business was a clear indication that further work on this kind of business model was needed.

"It's one of those services for gamers that gamers don't necessarily need in order for them to meet their requirements, in terms of having the places to play. They were trying to offer a service and make gamers pay for the potential opportunity to win something back," he said.

"Now, gamers are notoriously fickle in that if they see an opportunity that will definitely give them a return, they'll go for it.

"If it's a luck-based thing, or even branded as a supposedly skill-based thing, they're more likely to question it and see what everybody else is doing first. And in this sort of market you need everybody on board from the off in order to get the return on investment," said Wride.

"One of the things they'll have struggled with is getting the numbers through the door and getting the gamers to part with their hard-earned cash."

The Tournament.com collapse follows not long after the closure of the World Series of Video Games, although other commercial competitive gaming events, such as CGS and the ESWC seem to be gathering momentum.