Is Competitive Among Us Viable? - Code Red tournament, viewership, rules & more

Among Us is the newest gaming sensation sweeping the industry. But does it have a future as a competitive game?

Let's go over the pros and cons of competitive Among Us, and whether it has what it takes to stay around.

Tournaments

Among Us is considered by most players to be a casual party game. You can see this with the open lobbies, and no ranked modes or matchmaking.

But on the back of the massively successful content around Among Us, including Twitch streams, Youtube videos, and many memes - Among Us tournaments have begun appearing.

The first major Among Us tournament, the Code Red tournament, hosted by Boom.tv, offered a $10000 prize pool.

The tournament featured many prominent Among Us players, mostly those that push the competitive nature of the game on a daily basis. This lineup included players like xQc, Trainwrecks, JakenBakeLive, Punz, Adept, JellyPeanut and more.

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While the tournament brought in tons of viewership - it sparked some disagreement in the Among Us community.

Is competitive Among Us viable?

Viability of Competitive Among Us

If nothing else, the Code Red Among Us tournament, and several since, have shown that there is indeed a market for these tournaments.

Viewership in comparison to the tournament prize pools are massive in relation to esports, and span a wide range of viewers bringing in fans from many different channels.

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The viewership is there, but things aren't exactly perfect on the execution side.

Problems with Competitive Among Us

Among Us challenges players across many skillsets, including gameplay mechanics, strategic decision making, social manipulation, and logical deduction, but there are some flaws in the system.

For starters, some basic strategies put players in massively disadvantageous positions, and neither the game itself nor tournament organizers have been able to control for these issues just yet.

This includes things like stacking, taskbar watching, and 50/50 scenarios.

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When all of these strategies are employed, much like we saw in the Code Red Among Us tournament, impostors have little to no opportunity to win games.

Among Us has a built in ruleset players can customize, covering things like vision, movement speed, vote time and more. But no one has found the perfect recipe for competitive Among Us just yet.

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For some players, this is better off, as a portion of the audience would prefer it remain a casual game.

What Does the Future Hold?

Most esports in the modern day are funded in part by the companies developing the game. This is even the case for the prototypical esport, Starcraft, which still runs decades later.

With competitive Among Us so far being entirely funded by advertisers and, as a result, viewership and ad revenue, it's hard to say the future is anything but bright.

If the developers help facilitate competitive Among Us, this could become more advertisement for the game. This could also take pressure off of sponsors to solely make the profitable return on the events.

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But it should be made clear that Among Us is like no current existing esport, or competitive game. And while the interest is there, it'll take some work to push things forward.