If you’re a gamer who spends your time playing shooter and battle royale games such as “Apex Legends,” ”“Fortnite,” or “Call of Duty,” you may have come across a tournament structure called kill races. Kill races are game structures that have gained popularity among both amateurs and professional gamers, and are often found as an option in tournament events.
What is a Kill Race?
Kill races are timed events, usually two to five hours, that place you and your team in a lobby typically matched by skill. This process is called skill-based matchmaking (SBMM), and it’s just like it sounds — players are matched with other players based on their stats and history so that the competition is fair (and fun).
Once the SBMM occurs, your team has an allotted time to get as many kills, or other points indicators, as possible. Some kill race tournaments allow you to play as many games as you can within the time frame. After the clock runs out, your team submits either their total kills or their top X games played and they are compared against the other teams competing. Winner takes home the prize.
Controversy
Although kill race tournaments are popular, that doesn’t mean they’re free from the gaming community’s criticism. Some players complain that kill races are all luck, or can be easily manipulated.
The argument is that since these tournaments heavily depend on SBMM, those who want to gain an unfair advantage could either mess with their team’s stats, change their VPN, or use a companion app and cheat codes to intentionally be matched with easier lobbies. Because kill race tournaments aren’t set up so that the competing teams are fighting against each other, they’ve lost some legitimacy among many professional gamers.
[Related: Cheating in Video Games and Modern Anti-Cheat Measures]
Positive Aspects of Kill Races
Despite their controversy, kill race tournaments are appealing to video game tournament organizers for several reasons. They provide variety among endless brackets, and since they are timed, they usually are shorter events compared to typical double-elimination tournament structures.
Another advantage of running a kill race event is that they allow more variety in the teams that can participate. During a typical elimination bracket tournament, the teams competing are the most-skilled and have some of the most impressive stats. Kill race tournaments can utilize SBMM to pair less experienced players with similar teams in an appropriate lobby. People can compete at any level and still have a good time.
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Drop-In Gaming’s Kill Race Tournaments
At Drop-In Gaming, we regularly run a variety of tournaments including kill race tournaments. Here are the kill races we organize and our rules and regulations.
Call of Duty: Warzone Kill Race
Here are some example rules for our “Call of Duty: Warzone” kill race tournaments:
You have 1 hour to play and submit your best single game under the tournament you registered for on the Drop-In Gaming website. Example: tournament begins at 1:00pm you have until 2:00pm to play your games, submit your scores with photo/video evidence. You must have the clan tag provided by Drop-In Gaming in your clan tag on Warzone. The clan tag will appear on the tournament page you’re registered for 5 minutes before the start time. Failure to submit your scores and upload proof (pictures/video) will result in a score of 0.
Format: You will be joining a solos battle royale game and playing for most kills.
Scoring: 1 point per kill. 5 points for a win. 4 points for 2nd, 3 points for 3rd, 2 points for 4th and 1 for 5th place.
Score Submission: You are responsible for submitting scores under the tournament you’re registered for on the Drop-In Gaming website. No late submissions will be taken into account for scoring.
Apex Legends Kill Race
Here are some example rules for our “Apex Legends” kill race tournaments:
You have 1 hour to play and submit your best 1 game under the tournament you registered for on the Drop-In Gaming website. Example: Tournament begins at 1:00pm you have until 2:00pm to play your games, submit your scores with photo/video evidence. Failure to submit your scores and upload proof (pictures/video) will result in a 0 for your team.
Format: Solo kill race, you will be joining a duo’s game (non-ranked) with fill Teammates turned off and playing for your most kills. This means you will be playing in a duos lobby as a solo.
Score: 1 point per kill. 5 points for a win. 4 points for 2nd, 3 points for 3rd.
Score Submissions: A keyword will be provided 5 minutes prior to the tournament. You must enter this keyword in game, before taking your screenshot of your score. This ensures that scores are captured during the competition.
Fortnite Kill Race
Here are some example rules for our “Fortnite” kill race tournaments:
You have 2 hours to play and submit your best two games under the tournament you registered for on the Drop-In Gaming website. Example: Tournament begins at 1:00pm you have until 3:00pm to play your games, submit your scores with photo/video evidence. Failure to submit your scores and upload proof (pictures/video) will result in a 0 for your team.
Format: You will join a BR game for the mode you registered for (solo, duo, trio, squads) non ranked, and playing for the most kills and placement points.
Scoring: 1 point per kill.
5 points for a win. 4 points for 2nd, 3 points for 3rd, 2 points for 4th and 1 point for 5th place.
Score Submissions: The team is responsible for submitting scores under the tournament you’re registered for on our site. You must have replays turned on in Fortnite. Screenshots must come from the replays section on the career tab in the main lobby. Being unable to submit screenshots due to a full replay library or corrupt files are at the discretion of the competitors. Other forms of score submissions will not be accepted. We recommend clearing out your replay library prior to the start of the tournament.
[Related: Video Game Tournament Glossary]
Upcoming DIG Kill Race Tournaments
If you’re interested in joining any of our kill race or bracket elimination tournaments for a variety of games, check out upcoming events on our tournaments page. With inexpensive and even free buy-ins, and prizes up to $700, you won’t want to miss out!
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