Old School RuneScape, a venerable MMO launched in 2001, recently saw an unprecedented live esports event, the Deadman All Stars tournament, held in Chicago. The event attracted 4,000 attendees in person, with over one million more watching online. This gathering marked a significant moment for the game, which creative director Kieren Charles admitted was "not built to have a LAN setup at all."
The tournament featured a unique combat system where players engage in a rock-paper-scissors style of offense and defense, requiring rapid item and gear switching alongside precise input. High-level PvP often involves missing many attacks due to dice-roll mechanics, making strategic swapping crucial. Players were permitted to use their own peripherals, such as mice and keyboards, to maintain comfort and muscle memory. Notably, many participants opted to play within a small 640x480 resolution window on their monitors, a choice made to minimize mouse travel distance between inventory management and the game world.
Charles explained that Jagex has been experimenting with competitive esports for over a decade, with previous smaller events in the UK hosting around 50 people. The Deadman format, inspired by prominent Old School RuneScape content creator Solo Mission, operates similarly to a fighting game crew battle. Each team fields a player, who must defeat opponents sequentially until their team's roster is depleted or they are eliminated. A key element of the Deadman mode is its preparation phase, where all players begin with fresh accounts and have a limited playtime of 120 hours over nine days to level up and acquire gear.
For the tournament itself, Jagex created a special, instanced version of Old School RuneScape running at the venue, separate from the live game. This presented significant logistical challenges for the technical team. "We were doubting at times whether we actually can pull it off, because [with] a lot of the setup, the code expects to communicate with this server, speak to that server, and all of a sudden it's not really a thing," Charles stated. To manage this, players' save files were submitted to Jagex to be loaded onto the offline server operating within the theater. This setup offered advantages such as eliminating the risk of DDoS attacks and network issues common in online events, while also ensuring optimal conditions for players by minimizing ping and reaction times.
"So the fact the server is right there next to where they're playing, they're playing in perfect conditions in a way they've never played before," Charles added. "But now that we've done it, I imagine this is the sort of thing we could do when we do similar events in future." The Deadman All Stars event was Jagex's first foray into hosting a major event in North America and surpassed even the scale of RuneFest in the UK. The success comes at a time when the broader games industry faces challenges, highlighting the continued growth and community engagement within Old School RuneScape.