Add To Calendar
Share Description
A few months ago, Mortal Kombat developer NetherRealm Studios indicated that they were no longer planning or working towards new Mortal Kombat 11 content. This comes a few weeks after releasing the appropriately titled Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate update and DLC.
The last update to the game was well-received and intended to be the final push from the developers before moving onto new settings. It was not just the addition of beloved in-universe characters in Mileena and Rain. But also the welcome addition of an icon of 80’s war, fight, and gore movies inspired the franchise in the first place with Jonh Rambo.
Beyond the new characters, the update included a change likely to shape the Mortal Kombat 11 competitive scene for years to come. No, it’s not new easy fatalities. There are well enough of those. It’s the idea of being able to customize each character’s variation for tournament play. Maximizing the value of characters has made it clear that the competitive field in MK esports is closer than one might think.
Unfortunately, many people seem to sleep a little when appreciating the wonderful world of competitive Mortal Kombat 11. So let us walk you through some of the significant factors that you might not know about and hopefully entice you to tune into some of the competition and see the classic do its work.
The ProKompetition
To start, ProKompetition is the official tournament tour of the game. Besides the global pandemic, it is a delightful series of events that lays the groundwork for new competitors to make themselves known to everyone.
It is divided into three regions, North America, EuroAsia, and Latinamerica. It has a big enough pool of players in each to make for some excellent stories of working through the masses to find that diamond in the rough player. Someone who will get invited to the next mayor or through a win in the ProKompetion feels confident they can approach the more significant open events and carve their name into the NRS esports history books.
Everyone has to start somewhere, and the wide range of players and skills of the ProKompetiton lends itself to expose people to what playing Mortal Kombat at the very top of the competition can feel like.
One of the best stories that came out of this series was that of Konqueror. Brazilian Sub-Zero player who capture the eyes of players the world over by winning LatinAmerica’s La Liga series with excellent skills and patience and has since inspired other Brazilian players to take on the challenge of becoming the best, as seen in the LATAM bracket at Evo 2021 Online.
Mortal Kombat esports is part of NRS esports.
It seems like a forgone conclusion, but you would be surprised how Mortal Kombat is its own thing outside of the larger NetherRealm Studios esport circle for some. The game feels unique, but you can trace many top players’ success to their start in games like Injustice or even before that with previous Mortal Kombat titles.
It all works together to construct these fantastic stories of players rising and falling across titles and having to develop new skills or adjust their existing skills to a new set of characters. Series like Smash, Tekken, Soul Calibur, and beyond have a clear through-line in their games, mechanics that stay more or less the same with some tweaks.
To be an NRS champion, you have to make sure you can deal with change, with different rosters, finding a new main character, and more. Being a multi-game NRS champion takes incredible effort, and only a handful of people have claimed that title.
A Breakthrough in Netcode
These days we have plenty of titles coming around to the idea of rollback netcode instead of delay base netcode. Indie games benefit the most from moving into a new standard that will provide good value to their players.
NetherRealm Studios, although they never implemented Rollback, still should be praised for just how well made their netcode platform is. Most other triples A developers are from Japan. It is well known that in the region, the idea of having matches across distant geographical locations is uncommon, leading to developers de-prioritizing a solid netcode for them.
In came NRS with the explicit goal to produce a netcode robust enough to handle the international competition. Of course, it was never going to replace offline events, but it was the clear winner when the pandemic first hit and lockdown were being put in place. Even today, we can see titles using Rollback net code that still has far more issues than NRS with their own solution.
Give it a chance!
Mortal Kombat 11 ultimate is tremendous fun. It works flawlessly and is a classic title for a reason. It might be the last of a generation of traditional fighting titles made on the back of solid franchises as it seems like the dawn of more minor but considerably unique fighting games is upon us. It might go down in history as a side note on the larger FGC continuum, but it deserves greater recognition.
Date & Time
Sun, Jan 23, 2022 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM