The games Catherine and Catherine: Full Body are two puzzle games from Atlus that are part of electronic sports . The first was released in 2011 for PlayStation 3 (PS3) and Xbox 360 , while the second was released in 2019 for PlayStation 4 (PS4) and PC . Catherine has an indicative rating for adults and, because it involves subjects like infidelity and sex, the game generated a lot of controversy. Check out some curiosities about the franchise in esports tournaments.
Catherine at EVO
Catherine’s first official appearance in the Evolution Championship Series (EVO) took place in 2015, when John Hardin, Atlus’ public relations officer in the United States, managed to fit the franchise into the tournament. Since then, Catherine has been present in the competition every year, albeit in a timid and somewhat overshadowed by great games like Street Figther , Mortal Kombat and Tekken . Part of the controversy of the puzzle game being competitive is its history with adult themes like relationship, desires and infidelity. Despite this, the competitive does not focus on any of these issues.
The awards are still modest
Unlike esports competitions with prizes in the thousands or millions of dollars, Catherine’s scenario is still modest, with rewards of up to hundreds of dollars. According to competition records, the biggest prize for Catherine was $ 340 in the Genesis 4 tournament. As for Catherine: Full Body, the latest game in the franchise, the biggest bonus was $ 185. For comparison, Street Fighter V , which is one of EVO’s most popular games, has already won a total of US $ 380 thousand in a single tournament, a thousand times the amount offered in the competition from the original Catherine game.
United States leads competitive franchise
The United States is at the top of the ranking of countries in Catherine. In addition to several Americans participating in the competitions, the list of best players is almost unanimous for the country. In Catherine, the top two players who have profited the most from the game are occupied by US players, followed by a representative from Japan. Catherine: Full Body also has North Americans as the best duo in the competition, but this time the third place is by an Australian. In addition, the United States profited $ 1,500 from the game, the highest amount earned by players in a country, until May 2020.
Online multiplayer mode arrived only in 2019
Catherine: Full Body launched last year and introduced two new features to the franchise: a new playable character to add more drama to the story and the long-awaited online multiplayer mode. Online matches have changed the competitive landscape for the better, as many players no longer need to be in-lan or at a specific location to train against opponents. Although the online mode has pleased many players, the only official Catherine Full Body tournament so far with face-to-face matches has been held at AnimEVO 2019. It is expected that future franchise competitions will adopt the non-face-to-face system.
Catherine is almost 10 years competitive, even if unofficial
The original Catherine was launched in 2011, almost 10 years ago, and already acted as a competitive offline game among friends. Even though it was not created for tournaments, the community saw in the game an opportunity to take advantage of the local versus mode to bet on who would survive the longest in the puzzle challenges. Even before arriving at EVO, in 2015, local amateur championships were already held in California, in the United States. With the launch of the sequel, the franchise became even more popular and won more fans and players.
