Ascend hands-on: Bringing Tron’s esports potential to VR

Back at the USC Games Expo in May, I tried out a game called Ascend, which was developed by students at the University of Southern California. All of the games presented at the USC Games Expo were made by development teams made up anywhere from two students to over 50. Ascend was one of the larger teams with over 50 people on the team. When I finished my demo, there was only one thing I could think about: the esports potential.

We’ve seen good movement in the VR esports scene recently. Back in April, Sony filed a patent for an in-VR esports tournament spectator system and just last week, VR League announced the Oculus Quest port of Onward, an impressive VR first person shooter. With both VR and esports becoming increasingly more mainstream, it’s only a matter of time before the two hit it off together.