Yes, Competitive Sea of Thieves is a thing, yes it probably makes 0.01% of the player base.
That being said, it still includes some of the most dedicated and skill full players that the game has to offer.
I don't want to write paragraphs regarding "Comp SoT" but for people out of the loop this is how it works/looks currently in a bullet point format:
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Since Arena died along with NAL, Competitive scenes for SoT has still been cropping up and are well alive.
Problems is, is the vast amount of time setting up for Competitive games is based off the players, there's virtually no support from RARE themselves.
Private servers are given by partners that are willing to support players/comp scene out of respect. -
Since there is no custom options in private servers (Outside of choosing how many ships you want on a server) Supplying up takes up to an hour doing a Tall tale to gather cannonballs/food/planks. A one hour+ effort that could be solved in 2 minutes if custom options where made available.
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The Beauty of SoT has always been "Tools not rules", having community's the freedom of playing the game the way they want to (If not breaking rules of course)
Yet the competitive side has always been hindered in setup, the time put in doesn't reflect the ''lack of love'' that they get by RARE. -
I am not asking for an ''esport'' type deal, or for RARE to endorse competitive SoT, I am simply asking and begging for them to simply facilitate a part of the community that has always been present in the game an easier time to set up games when it comes to private PvP events. Such as the ability to select spawn points, spawn 'X' amount of supplies in barrels from the get go, a feature to turn on/off PvE would go a long way.
And yes HOURGLASS has been an amazing experience for teams (Yes teams and not just random crews) to go toe-to-toe against each other at the expense of smashing lower MMR opponents in between and is not always a fun experience for the receiving end.
tl'dr, Improve private servers to be more customizable outside of just choosing ship types. It has been one year since the NAL has requested updates for custom options in private servers, yet nothing on the horizon indicates change.
Supplying up from a TT and dealing with PvE encounters that increases RNG in what should be a ''fair'' PvP battle soaks in lots of hours wasted in which could be resolved with customizable options in private servers.
Therefore I would Love to hear from a RARE personnel if possible, what their stance is on private servers and if any major updates are to come in catering such communities.
Also I know this topic has been PvP focused, but also consider other community members and partners that provide private servers outside of PvP focused events what the possibilities could look like with customizable private server options.
To end it, I would recommend anyone interested in ''comp sot'' to look up League of Thieves on Twitch to show just how much production and love is given to a competitive community of teams/players and just the raw effort that is put in... These are man hours put in at their own discretion in keeping a niche part of the game alive. No paid promotion, no prize pool, etc.
Just a love for the game that imo should be catered a bit more towards to...
