Marvel Comics is beginning to flex its muscles in the world of esports with its mobile MOBA game MARVEL Super War as the focus of a new partnership with ESL Australia and NetEase. The latter is the Chinese tech company responsible for the development of Super War, with ESL Australia tasked with delivering two Super War tournaments for players based in Australia and New Zealand. This partnership not only brings Marvel to the forefront of the esports industry, but it also promises to be a shot in the arm for the popularity of esports in Oceania and the popularity of mobile esports in general.

Going mobile 

The decision by ESL Australia to set up two online mobile tournaments comes hot on the heels of the launch of MARVEL Super War in Australia and New Zealand. The idea is that this will be a mutually beneficial partnership which attracts esports players to this new title, and attracts fans of the Marvel game to the esports industry. 

Ben Green, the Publisher Development Lead at ESL spoke about the partnership in early September, declaring that ESL was "aiming to fill in the gaps in the mobile esports ecosystem that may have previously been missing". There are more quotes from Green at Esports Insider, but the message is clear: mobile esports is an under-tapped market, but the prestigious name of Marvel could help ESL to gain a foothold among mobile gamers.

Esports have predominantly been the preserve of console and computer players. While those gaming methods will always be extremely popular, the ability to provide specialist mobile esports competitions or cross-platform functionality would help to make esports even more accessible. The latter may be a pipe dream, given that mobile users' reliance on a touchscreen can create lag compared to their console counterparts.

However, dedicated mobile esports tournaments could prove pivotal in encouraging new audiences to explore the potential of competitive gaming. Downloading a mobile game can be done on a whim in a matter of seconds, and the Marvel name should attract plenty of interest to app stores. Those in Australia and New Zealand who download Super War may well fancy their chances of competing in tournaments on the ESL Play platform, particularly as those are also open for anyone to enter.

The dominant esports titles

These Super War tournaments could not only promulgate the cause of mobile esports, but they could also establish Marvel as a prominent name in the esports industry. This has the potential to create dramatic changes in the current landscape of esports. The top tier of esports is bossed by a handful of games, as revealed by the statistics regarding the betting volume of each esports title. Betting volume is a useful indicator of a game's popularity, as it neatly breaks down the share of audience engagement with each game.

You can find more info at Legalbetting about esports' popularity and the immense appeal of the leading games, but the headline statistic is this: League of Legends matches are responsible for around 40% of all esports bets. CS:GO is second at around 29%, Dota 2 sits in third at 18%, and StarCraft II is fourth with 7%. These four titles generate around 92% of betting volumes on esports events, with League of Legends comfortably the largest contributor.

This shows that it is something of a closed shop at the highest levels of esports, with League of Legends very much the soccer of esports in terms of its dominance. While there are good reasons why this quartet is the most popular, these statistics reveal the struggles that smaller titles face when trying to break through into the upper echelons of the esports world. However, there is nothing small about the Marvel brand. With a massive fanbase and deep financial resources, Marvel has the potential to garner a significant share of the esports market.

MARVEL Super War 

MARVEL Super War has many of the qualities that you would expect from a MOBA title. Destruction of the enemy base is the aim of the game, while players are able to select their character from six different classes: Fighter, Energy, Marksman, Assassin, Tank, and Support. Players can adopt a wide range of tactics to try and outmaneuver their opponents, whether they're going solo or playing cooperatively. This is all par for the course in terms of the MOBA genre, but MARVEL Super War has a few distinctive features to offer.

This is a licensed game from Marvel Entertainment, so there is obviously a multitude of legendary heroes and villains present in Super War. The epic finale of Avengers: Endgame, which became the highest-grossing movie in history, gave us a sense of just how many beloved characters can exist in the same universe. 

However, the cast of Super War makes Endgame look like a small gathering of friends. That's because Super War's playable characters include members of the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, with neither groups having yet made it into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The whole cast of the Avengers is also present, while the action itself takes place in Wakanda. This is exactly the reason why Marvel has the potential to make serious inroads in the esports industry. Games like League of Legends and Dota 2 have built up large, dedicated followings over the years, but their complex fantasy lore cannot compete with the instant recognition commanded by world-famous Marvel characters.

Marvel has already enjoyed recent mobile gaming success with Contest of Champions, an arcade-style fighting game which we have covered here at Inven Global, but Super War promises to take things to the next level. If MARVEL Super War esports tournaments prove successful for ESL Australia, then it is surely only a matter of time before other continents get the chance to experience the action for themselves. With its mobile functionality and the strength of its brand name, there could soon be a new major player among esports titles.