The perfect Sweet Crush Saga gamers on the planet 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 colour bombs.
The ultimate 10 went to compete on stage at an in-person occasion in Los Angeles. Brie Garcia hosted the occasion and he or she 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 house $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 mentioned 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 getting 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 mentioned 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 in regards to the match with Luken Aragon, head of promoting at 20-year-old King for Sweet Crush Saga, to speak in regards to the occasion and informal cellular 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 all over the world taking part in 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 client advertising and marketing group. It’s been an incredible journey with Sweet Crush. It’s an important second now for all of us this week. We’re operating the Sweet Crush All Stars remaining 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, partaking with gamers and attempting to verify everybody having fun with Sweet was having enjoyable. We’re right here in L.A. now to run the ultimate as we speak, with the finalists who managed to undergo the competitors inside the sport. They’re competing right here to seek out the most effective Sweet Crusher. What’s attention-grabbing, we have now a really massive prize pool this yr, $1 million, with $500,000 going to the winner. It’s creating quite a lot of pleasure with our gamers. We met them yesterday. You see all of the engagement. It’s quite a lot 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 bought 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 have now a particular ring for the winner. It’s designed and created by Icebox.
GamesBeat: What are the objectives of this type of match? What totally different targets do you will have in doing this?
Aragon: It began 4 years in the past with an statement and a few suggestions from our gamers. We work together lots with our gamers, attempting to grasp what they like, what they don’t like. We noticed that quite a lot of gamers saying that it could be nice to play Sweet Crush in a extra aggressive means. We tried to handle that chance. We’ve got an incredible sport. Thousands and thousands of gamers play Sweet Crush day by day. We began engaged on a pilot for All Stars within the U.Ok. to see if that translated into gamers partaking.
We labored very carefully with product. It was a really sturdy collaboration between advertising and marketing and product. We crafted a brand new expertise referred to as All Stars, with the target to play Sweet Crush differently. Most individuals performed Saga, the model of the sport that everyone is aware of. All Stars turned a critical different. After the primary yr we obtained a lot optimistic suggestions from gamers saying they beloved it.
At the moment there was no dwell remaining. It was purely rewards inside the sport. In yr three, final yr, that was the primary time we launched the prize pool and the idea of the dwell remaining. It was all about partaking and offering another expertise based mostly on our gamers’ suggestions.
GamesBeat: Did you ever consider it as an esport, or do you see it differently?
Aragon: All Stars is a aggressive means of taking part in Sweet Crush. We’re studying by doing right here. We’re attempting to constantly take heed to the gamers’ suggestions. I don’t know if the time period “esports” applies to Sweet Crush, however we’re actually very proud to do one thing that’s distinctive within the informal cellular video games business. We’re attempting to convey some esports DNA into an off-the-cuff expertise. We’ll be constantly fascinated by how this will evolve. We like this type of aggressive strategy and we’ll proceed to work together with our gamers to see how we will evolve the expertise.
GamesBeat: Was it straightforward, or tougher to set this up in a means that works for King?
Aragon: The whole lot begins with our interplay with the gamers. Listening and gathering suggestions about their wants was on the root of what we wished to do. The strategy was to create an expertise that’s easy, that would improve engagement with our gamers. We wished everybody to have the ability to get pleasure from All Stars. Many of the effort was working with product to create an accessible approach to compete. How might we be certain most of our gamers might get pleasure from it? We didn’t wish to create one thing too advanced.
Most of our gamers–a few of them might have skilled extra aggressive video games on cellular and console and so forth. However I believe that the overwhelming majority have by no means engaged with an esports expertise. We tried to seek out the precise positioning between competitors, but in addition making it easy. We’ve been working with product on that yr after yr. After 4 years, we’ve managed to maintain the essence of what a aggressive expertise may very well be, but in addition making it extraordinarily straightforward 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 client advertising and marketing group we have now folks devoted to operating the occasion. We’ve additionally partnered with consultants in managing occasions, which is one thing we’ve been growing quite a bit lately. I don’t know when you noticed the Mighty Hoopla competition a yr and a half in the past, however we have now partnerships with individuals who have experience in that space to take Sweet Crush from cellular into the surface world, creating some of these dwell experiences. Shopper advertising and marketing has coordinated with consultants who know run the sort of 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 a couple of months to construct as much as this, however finally we’re very pleased with the outcomes.
What we’re attempting to realize right here is attain the identical stage of depth and keenness inside 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 convey to Sweet Crush. It’s combining the enjoyable of the Sweet Crush world surroundings to the better 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 hundreds 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 convey that essence of what competitors will be to our product.
GamesBeat: It looks as if the form of occasion the place quite a lot of observers don’t notice how massive the person base is, what number of followers are behind it. The folks taking part in and watching wouldn’t essentially contemplate themselves esports followers.
Aragon: Precisely. Our gamers won’t contemplate themselves esports followers, however they’re opponents. What we’re attempting to do with All Stars, and attempting very exhausting, is take heed to our gamers. Quite a lot of them have informed us they’re taken with 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 finally one thing very totally different from an esports occasion. However it retains the essence of what a aggressive occasion will 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 continues to be to make the world playful. All Stars is a good way for us to exhibit that.
GamesBeat: What sort of individual do you suppose is the almost definitely to win?
Aragon: We’ve got some very proficient gamers. Two of them made the finals final yr. They’re undoubtedly extra expert than I’m at taking part in Sweet. You see the way in which they analyze the board may be very totally different. I’m very eager to see the finals and the way they play there, once they’re on the total display. Most definitely the strikes they make are very totally different from the strikes that I might make.
If there’s 50 million people who 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 steadiness is fairly equally cut up, too, between women and men. It’s attention-grabbing to see a aggressive spirit come out in everybody.
We’re creating quite a lot of content material with the gamers. They’re very proud to be right here. We’ll have pictures and interviews. We did that final yr with all of the gamers that participated, and we’ll undoubtedly replicate that content material creation. It’s the most effective 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 strategy. It’s crucial for us to take heed to our gamers and perceive what we’d wish to do otherwise, what we will do higher, what they get pleasure from. I can’t say what’s going to occur sooner or later in the way in which of esports and large competitions. Nonetheless, my job as a advertising and marketing individual is at all times to discover alternatives that would assist us fulfill our gamers.
Is esports an choice, the sort of occasion? Presently I don’t know. We’re deeply targeted proper now on ensuring All Stars is a profitable occasion. However for positive, we maintain an in depth 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 blissful and pleased with what we’re doing right here. We’ll maintain working exhausting to create these sorts of experiences sooner or later and ship to our gamers issues they won’t count on, however that we all know they’ll get pleasure from.
