Knockout City is the esports version of professional dodgeball

Dodgeball is dodgeball. It doesn’t matter if there are futuristic bounce pads, flying cars that can squash a teammate or players with the ability to roll themselves up and become a ball. Knockout City takes dodgeball to the next level with esports.

The team-based arena dodgeball game is all the rage with more than 5 million unique players jumping onto EA’s servers to give it a try. It has started to garner similar quarantine-fueled fame that Fall Guys and Among Us had in the past. Several prominent streamers are looking for steeper competition than what they found in regular matches.

“Aye @TwitchRivals WHEN IS KNOCKOUT CITY?????” said Super Smash Bros. commentator Terrence “TKbreezy“ Kershaw in a Tweet. The dodgeball brawler only launched on May 21, 2021, but some players have started to organize tournaments and communities full of wrench-dodgers.

Knockout City = MAD FUN

Knockout City with the Homies tho??? LEGENDARY @CONEY pic.twitter.com/rhPusdOk3D

— TKbreezy 🎙️ (@TKbreezy) June 2, 2021

Knockout City tournaments are coming

After EA hosted their inaugural community tournament with a $10,000 prize pool at the beginning of the month, players have created multiple Discord servers, including one with over 2,000 members where they organize scrimmages and matches across multiple regions.

They’ve even gone as far as to stream and cast a handful of matches in their first 3v3 North American tournament. Organizers have plans to host more tournaments.

While Knockout City’s player base has grown rapidly, due to EA giving players a free trial up until level 25, the game’s viewership on Twitch has been far from impressive. It has brought in over 300,000 viewers when EA and Velan Studios held a beta in April. However, the game only reached the 200,000 viewer threshold on its official launch in late May.

Less than 3,000 people are watching the game on Twitch right now, which isn’t much to write home about.

Is professional dodgeball a thing?

There isn’t much prize money to be made by playing Knockout City yet. But professional dodgeball isn’t much different. Most dodgeball players don’t receive a salary; they earn a little bit of cash by winning matches. Also, most tournaments in the United States don’t offer much in prize money outside of the Dodgeball World Championship — which offers heftier prizes with the sponsors that organizers bring in.

Knockout City has just as much depth as other games that have seen competitive success. While it features auto-aim, there are different types of throws, balls, moves and whatnot that teams can bake into their strategies. The quirky art style, easy-to-pickup gameplay and fun cosmetics could help Knockout City become a competitive cult hit.