The perfect Sweet Crush Saga gamers on this planet just lately converged on Los Angeles for a match.
The Sweet Crush All Stars occasion featured a $1 million prize pool, with $500,000 designated for the match winner. Ben Parker Chin, 23, from Ohio got here out with the highest honors. Parker Chin beat out greater than 15 million individuals who competed within the match.
The match introduced collectively gamers from 21 international locations in the identical worldwide competitors. These gamers performed 2.2 billion ranges and so they made 47 billion strikes over two months. They collected 11.4 trillion All Stars candies, and so they exploded 304 billion coloration bombs.
The ultimate 10 went to compete on stage at an in-person occasion in Los Angeles. Brie Garcia hosted the occasion and she or he topped Parker Chin because the winner. He additionally obtained a singular championship ring from Icebox, impressed by the Sweet Crush All Stars candies. Suzanne Sundström, from Stockholm, Sweden, and Verissa Thomas, from Atlanta, completed second and third out of the group of finalists, taking dwelling $250,000 and $100,000.
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“I’m a huge fan of Candy Crush and have been playing for years, so it was an honor to be in the presence of greatness. The All Stars finalists are nothing short of athletes,” Garcia stated in a press release. “I usually play while I’m traveling for work because it helps me relax and unwind, but the Live Final has really brought out my competitive side again. I had so much fun hosting the tournament and even learned a few tips and tricks to level up my gameplay. Maybe 2025 will be the year I take home the title myself.”
After coming into the Sweet Crush All Stars match in March, Parker Chin spent his time competing whereas recovering from surgical procedure.
“It feels epic to say that I’m the ultimate All Stars champion of 2024. I started competing in the tournament while I was recovering from surgery, that’s when I had time to think about my moves and plan my strategy” Parker Chin stated in a press release. “It’s been an unforgettable experience to compete alongside players who all share your passion for Candy Crush, being able to bond over that has been amazing and I’ve made friends for life.”
I did an interview concerning the match with Luken Aragon, head of promoting at 20-year-old King for Sweet Crush Saga, to speak concerning the occasion and informal cell gaming.
Aragon famous that the Sweet Crush franchise has delivered greater than $20 billion in income up to now. The franchise video games have had greater than 5 billion downloads up to now, and there are nonetheless greater than 200 million month-to-month energetic customers from all world wide enjoying King’s video games. Sweet Crush Saga itself has greater than 16,000 ranges.
Luken Aragon: I’ve been at King for 10 years subsequent week, within the shopper advertising group. It’s been an incredible journey with Sweet Crush. It’s a vital second now for all of us this week. We’re operating the Sweet Crush All Stars ultimate in L.A.
GamesBeat: Did you are available in whereas Riccardo Zacconi was nonetheless there?
Aragon: Precisely, sure. I joined in 2014. Riccardo was a part of my onboarding at King. I joined up specializing in CRM again within the day, participating with gamers and attempting to ensure everybody having fun with Sweet was having enjoyable. We’re right here in L.A. now to run the ultimate at this time, with the finalists who managed to undergo the competitors throughout the sport. They’re competing right here to search out one of the best Sweet Crusher. What’s attention-grabbing, we now have a really massive prize pool this 12 months, $1 million, with $500,000 going to the winner. It’s creating loads of pleasure with our gamers. We met them yesterday. You see all of the engagement. It’s loads of enjoyable.
All Stars is a really massive occasion for Sweet Crush. It’s being performed in 21 international locations, with 15 million folks taking part. We’ve got some loopy numbers. We received to one thing like 2 billion ranges performed, 11 trillion candies collected. We’re very proud to be in Hollywood now and having these folks competing for the primary place. On prime of the prize pool, we now have a particular ring for the winner. It’s designed and created by Icebox.
GamesBeat: What are the objectives of this type of match? What completely different goals do you’ve in doing this?
Aragon: It began 4 years in the past with an remark and a few suggestions from our gamers. We work together loads with our gamers, attempting to grasp what they like, what they don’t like. We noticed that loads of gamers saying that it could be nice to play Sweet Crush in a extra aggressive method. We tried to deal with that chance. We’ve got an incredible sport. Tens of millions of gamers play Sweet Crush day-after-day. We began engaged on a pilot for All Stars within the U.Ok. to see if that translated into gamers participating.
We labored very carefully with product. It was a really robust collaboration between advertising and product. We crafted a brand new expertise referred to as All Stars, with the target to play Sweet Crush another way. Most individuals performed Saga, the model of the sport that everyone is aware of. All Stars turned a severe various. After the primary 12 months we obtained a lot constructive suggestions from gamers saying they cherished it.
At the moment there was no dwell ultimate. It was purely rewards throughout the sport. In 12 months three, final 12 months, that was the primary time we launched the prize pool and the idea of the dwell ultimate. It was all about participating and offering another expertise based mostly on our gamers’ suggestions.
GamesBeat: Did you ever consider it as an esport, or do you see it another way?
Aragon: All Stars is a aggressive method of enjoying Sweet Crush. We’re studying by doing right here. We’re attempting to repeatedly hearken to the gamers’ suggestions. I don’t know if the time period “esports” applies to Sweet Crush, however we’re definitely very proud to do one thing that’s distinctive within the informal cell video games business. We’re attempting to carry some esports DNA into an off-the-cuff expertise. We’ll be repeatedly enthusiastic about how this will evolve. We like this type of aggressive method and we’ll proceed to work together with our gamers to see how we are able to evolve the expertise.
GamesBeat: Was it simple, or tougher to set this up in a method that works for King?
Aragon: Every little thing begins with our interplay with the gamers. Listening and gathering suggestions about their wants was on the root of what we needed to do. The method was to create an expertise that’s easy, that might improve engagement with our gamers. We needed everybody to have the ability to take pleasure in All Stars. Many of the effort was working with product to create an accessible option to compete. How may we be certain that most of our gamers may take pleasure in it? We didn’t wish to create one thing too advanced.
Most of our gamers–a few of them could have skilled extra aggressive video games on cell and console and so forth. However I believe that the overwhelming majority have by no means engaged with an esports expertise. We tried to search out the precise positioning between competitors, but in addition making it easy. We’ve been working with product on that 12 months after 12 months. After 4 years, we’ve managed to maintain the essence of what a aggressive expertise might be, but in addition making it extraordinarily simple to play.
GamesBeat: How many individuals got here to L.A. to take part? How did you set up the in-person occasion?
Aragon: Within the shopper advertising group we now have folks devoted to operating the occasion. We’ve additionally partnered with specialists in managing occasions, which is one thing we’ve been growing rather a lot just lately. I don’t know when you noticed the Mighty Hoopla pageant a 12 months and a half in the past, however we now have partnerships with individuals who have experience in that space to take Sweet Crush from cell into the skin world, creating a majority of these dwell experiences. Client advertising has coordinated with specialists who know how you can run such a present.
We’ve welcomed the finalists. We had a chat with them. It was actually refreshing to see how engaged and dedicated they’re with our product and our model. It took us fairly just a few months to construct as much as this, however in the end we’re very pleased with the outcomes.
What we’re attempting to attain right here is attain the identical degree of depth and keenness throughout the occasion. What makes an esports occasion is the emotion. That’s a core a part of the DNA in esports, and it’s one thing we wish to carry to Sweet Crush. It’s combining the enjoyable of the Sweet Crush world surroundings to the larger depth of competitors. We’ll get to the finals, two gamers competing for primary. We wish to translate what makes an esports occasion enjoyable – that intense ardour, folks watching the occasion attempting to guess who’ll win – and apply that to Sweet Crush.
It’s not an occasion with 1000’s of gamers attending a dwell sport. We don’t have an viewers attending, spectators. However the expertise itself is similar to what you’d have at some other esports occasion in depth. Once more, utilized to Sweet Crush. It’s a distinct product from most of what you see in esports experiences. We simply wish to carry that essence of what competitors may be to our product.
GamesBeat: It looks as if the form of occasion the place loads of observers don’t understand how massive the person base is, what number of followers are behind it. The folks enjoying and watching wouldn’t essentially think about themselves esports followers.
Aragon: Precisely. Our gamers won’t think about themselves esports followers, however they’re opponents. What we’re attempting to do with All Stars, and attempting very laborious, is hearken to our gamers. Lots of them have advised us they’re keen on competitors. It could have been a mistake to translate what esports is on console and PC into Sweet Crush. Simply attempting to imitate one thing. What we’re attempting to do is think about what makes Sweet Crush a powerful expertise after which inject that aggressive half. That’s how we created All Stars, which in the end one thing very completely different from an esports occasion. Nevertheless it retains the essence of what a aggressive occasion may be.
As you say, most of our gamers in all probability by no means anticipated they might be on this room now competing for such a giant prize pool. It’s enjoyable seeing them have this wonderful second. They’re proud to be right here, and we’re very proud to see how we’re in a position to delight our gamers. Our mission remains to be to make the world playful. All Stars is a good way for us to exhibit that.
GamesBeat: What sort of particular person do you suppose is the most certainly to win?
Aragon: We’ve got some very proficient gamers. Two of them made the finals final 12 months. They’re positively extra expert than I’m at enjoying Sweet. You see the best way they analyze the board could be very completely different. I’m very eager to see the finals and the way they play there, once they’re on the complete display. Most certainly the strikes they make are very completely different from the strikes that I’d make.
If there’s 50 million folks that have entered, and two of them have made the finals two years in a row, that’s a fairly loopy quantity to consider. The gender stability is fairly equally break up, too, between women and men. It’s attention-grabbing to see a aggressive spirit come out in everybody.
We’re creating loads of content material with the gamers. They’re very proud to be right here. We’ll have photographs and interviews. We did that final 12 months with all of the gamers that participated, and we’ll positively replicate that content material creation. It’s top-of-the-line methods for us to seize that zeal for our gamers.
GamesBeat: We’ve seen some multi-game esports occasions, just like the Esports World Cup that’s beginning in Saudi Arabia now. Is that form of factor attention-grabbing to you, being half of a bigger competitors?
Aragon: Our perspective on All Stars, it’s a learn-by-doing method. It’s vital for us to hearken to our gamers and perceive what we’d wish to do in a different way, what we are able to do higher, what they take pleasure in. I can’t say what is going to occur sooner or later in the best way of esports and large competitions. Nevertheless, my job as a advertising particular person is at all times to discover alternatives that might assist us fulfill our gamers.
Is esports an choice, such a occasion? At present I don’t know. We’re deeply targeted proper now on ensuring All Stars is a profitable occasion. However for certain, we preserve a detailed eye on how the business is evolving and what gamers are on the lookout for. If that’s an choice gamers are eager to see us discover, why not?
It is a large evolution of what Sweet Crush is. We’re at all times attempting to ideate and create experiences that may fulfill our gamers. We’re very excited, very completely happy and pleased with what we’re doing right here. We’ll preserve working laborious to create these sorts of experiences sooner or later and ship to our gamers issues they won’t anticipate, however that we all know they’ll take pleasure in.
