MOBAs are evolving. Supervive is one of several titles attempting to shake up the battle arena rulebook right now, and a passionate community is rising up to support it.
We’ve seen a few former devs from the likes of Blizzard and Riot Games form their own independent studios to do their own things, whether it’s Vela Games’ Evercore Heroes, Ghostcrawler’s Fantastic Pixel Castle MMO or Theorycraft Games’ Supervive (formerly known as Project Loki). Outside of those devs, Valve is also having a crack at something new with shooter/MOBA game Deadlock.
Supervive adds a new spin on the genre with its focus on battle royale, and players forming groups of four in a bid to remain the last team standing. Its quirky, colourful style and action-packed gameplay has earnt it a following, and competitive communities are forming around it.
LORE is one such community on the rise. It recently teamed up with UK-based esports caster and host, Reliq, for the $1,000 LORE x Reliq Prologue tournament.
Reliq also worked as talent co-ordinator/head of broadcast for the event, which was a showdown between 20 teams from the EMEA and AMER regions.
It also featured a range of casters, including the UK’s Initialise and EternalJay.
This Supervive tournament saw AMER winners The Last Door and EMEA winners BOMBA emerge as champions, with the latter team having three UK players: Treadzy, AidanBY and Nyzah (as well as Sweden’s Mythi and UK sub Smol Con).
Nyzah has previously played in the UK LoL esports scene in the past, on teams like London Esports’ academy and LDN UTD in tournaments like the UKEL and NLC.
There are also other UK players in Supervive, including one familiar name who previously competed in Overwatch: ChipSa.
Reliq told Esports News UK: “If there is something that unites the Supervive community, it’s a desire for something fresh. We all hail from a wide diversity of backgrounds; LoL, Dota, Starcraft, Smash, Rocket League, Apex Legends, Overwatch – you name it. On an increasingly hostile internet, these differences might never lead to new connections and friendships. Yet here we all are, playing this same title that hasn’t even entered beta testing.
“Supervive is accessible despite its depth, and this is what our community is so eager to share with others. You can be a 9-5 worker who longs for the evenings or weekends to chill with friends or the next big star in esports.
“All are welcome in this community of passionate and enthusiastic gamers.”
Reliq
“We would love nothing more than to see this game succeed and for Theorycraft Games to get the recognition they deserve.
“The care and attention to detail with every patch update demonstrates experience and a willingness to implement the thoughts of the community as much as their own.”
Reliq also wrote more about his thoughts on the Prologue tournament on X here.
LORE: ‘Our mission is to be a starting point for competitive Supervive’
LORE says it’s a community-run organisation aimed at providing a competitive scene for Supervive players via lobbies, events and livestreams, as well as player development.
LORE originally stood for “Loki Online Regional Esports”, and while the acronym was later dropped, the team liked the name and kept it.
“I like to think of us as the first one through the door of competitive Supervive,” said LORE co-founder Kurbee, who also handles operations and technical management.
“Our original mission is to be a starting point for competitive Supervive while maintaining a focus on the community that Theorycraft has created.”
Kurbee says LORE is working on a long-term format to use for its serious events, at both the grassroots and professional levels.
The community hopes to have something to share in Q4 2024 (when the game’s open beta is also expected to be announced).
Kurbee continues:
“Having an enjoyable format for players and observers is something we want to get right. LORE is also becoming a facilitator for competitive Supervive. We are in discussion with other organisers to act as a service for sign ups, data and administration – if needed.”
Kurbee, LORE
“We do not want to dominate the space as it is unhealthy and will lead to a negative result long-term. So we wish to make others interested in organising tournaments have an easier time getting started.
“Within Supervive, there are recognisable names from Overwatch, League and Apex but we are also aware of many new players who want to learn and possibly chase to become a top player. It was put on-hold during The Prologue but we had an initiative named “Ground Zero” – it’s focus was trying to help players develop themselves with resources and connections we provide.
“This comes in the form of coaches, VOD sessions, automated team-making and videos. The initial trial of interest is with our Player Insights series on the LORE YouTube channel.”
The LORE team also includes tournament manager Superw0rri0r, lead admin Mika, admin Arte (aka Artenyx), video content and logistics coordinator Lorenzo and marketing and communications manager and social media coordinator Panda.
We caught up with Mika, who has a particular focus on esports at LORE (and is also a regular chatter in the Esports News UK Discord) for their perspective.
“LORE is a grassroots community initiative started by playtesters of the upcoming game Supervive, currently in alpha,” Mika said. “We were given a greenlight and some funding by devs to run a tournament, right after its latest playtest.
“Theorycraft are getting involved with us as part of their mission statement of “going to war with the industry on behalf of players”. They are keen to empower the community to help build their game rather than seeing them solely as customers.”
Mika, LORE
In other recent Supervive news, the devs held a Fireside Chat, breaking down significant equipment changes coming to the game.
This comes on top of a streamlining of Hunter ability level-ups and the debut of Supporter Packs, a new way for players to support the development of the game.
A playtest also ran from September 5th to 8th 2024.
This trailer also dropped a few months ago, featuring player comms and gameplay from community showmatches:
With the beta hopefully not far away, and communities like LORE continuing to build, Supervive could have a bright future ahead.
Thanks to LORE and Reliq for talking to us for this article, and we’ll leave you with some links below should you wish to drop them a follow.
Check out the LORE Discord, X account and YouTube channel here. You can also see the current Supervive leaderboard here.
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Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
