Farming Simulator Gets an Official Esports League

Typically, when people bring up the ol’ “slippery slope” when arguing against something, you can laugh it off, as the slippery slope has never really been a thing, unless you think that the end of slavery and the slow progression of rights and privileges for minority groups counts as a “slippery slope”, in which case I’m gonna go ahead and say we’d probably not get along very well. In any case, it’s always been a silly, theoretical argument that would never hold water in a proper debate.

And yet… somehow it feels like eSports has wound up on one, because lemme tell ya: when I was arguing for the legitimacy of eSports, I was never imagining that it would culminate in a 10-country-wide esports league for Farming Simulator.

And yet, that’s where we’re at: Farming Simulator devs Giant Software are partnering up with Logitech, Intel, and noblechairs for a Farming Simulator league, with a total cash pool of €250,000 on hand for prizes.

Now, this actually isn’t the first time there have been Farming Simulator eSports. Turns out there were several small, unofficial tournaments in 2018. But this marks the first time that we have ourselves a right and proper Farming Simulator eSports league. And I still don’t know exactly what that means.

Giants CEO Christian Ammann had this to say:

"Competitive farming is something people enjoy for years now, but it hasn’t been done in esports so far... We have lots of esports enthusiasts in our company who can’t wait to show the world that farming can indeed be fun and competitive at the same time. We believe we found the right mix of real farming and fun to play game elements to ensure everyone will find it entertaining."

Y’know, if this makes people happy and excited, then I’m happy and excited for them. Because in the end… isn’t that really what matters? People being happy? So let’s be happy. Let’s all be happy.