Stardew Valley might not be the first title that comes to mind when fans think about competitive games but it looks like the indie farming sim will be getting a $40,000 tournament. Developer ConcernedApe recently announced on Twitter that the Stardew Valley Cup" will be a competition of skill, knowledge, and teamwork and will feature challenges designed together with Stardew Valley YouTuber, Zach "Unsurpassable Z" Hartman.
Although the idea of a Stardew Valley tournament might seem far-fetched at first, it doesn't focus solely on speedrunning the game as fast as possible. Instead, points will be awarded based on the number of challenges completed and there will be four teams of four players that must work together on a co-op map to get as many points as possible before the competition ends.
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How The Stardew Valley Cup Works
Despite the fact that Stardew Valley doesn't seem to be competitive at all on the surface, ConcernedApe and Unsurpassable Z have managed to put an interesting spin on the traditional farming sim mechanics. Typically, games like Stardew Valley are centered around speedrunning but the Stardew Valley Cup will task Stardew Valley players with completing challenges instead in a three-hour window. Featuring four teams of four players, the competition will feature over 100 different challenges that give points based on difficulty. For example, reaching level 10 in a skill will grant the player 20 points whereas catching an octopus will grant players 10 points.
The entire list was revealed on Unsurpassable Z's YouTube channel and the teams will have some time to strategize how they want to tackle the challenges. Furthermore, the teams will also receive points based on every item they ship during the competition, and the team that obtains the most gold will also get 20 points at the end. During the competition, secret Stardew Valley challenges will also be revealed to the streamers that grant 50 points and will test how competitors will react to deviating from their original plans. A blend between speedrunning and min-maxing, the Stardew Valley Cupis a unique take on competitive Stardew Valley that these streamers have never seen before.
Competition Date, Teams, and Prize Breakdown
ConcernedApe has tweeted that the Stardew Valley Cup will begin on September 4, 2021, at 9 AM PST. The competition itself will be hosted on Unsurpassable Z's Twitch stream and together with ConcernedApe, they will be watching the competitor's POVs. At the same time, the Stardew Valley speedrunners will also be streaming their POV so fans have the option to tune in to a specific stream if they wish.
There will be four teams comprised of Stardew Valley streamers in the competition. Team Sandy's Candies will feature TheHaboo, lilsimsie, brandiganBTW, and Fuzzireno. Team Pierre's Cherries is comprised of Cordite89, Waligug, Mr. Penguinpanda, and Lichatton. Team Pam's Yams will have PianoAddict, AlbinoLiger, SeanieDew, and Matthew McCleskey. The final team, Krobus's Crocuses, will feature KingNooblit, Bla_De, SharkyGames, and Therm. The Stardew Valley team that finishes in last place will get $1,600 split between the four of them. The team that finishes third will receive $4000 while the team that finishes in second will receive $10,000. The winners of the Stardew Valley Cup, however, will receive $28,000 and with so much money on the line, there should be plenty of exciting strategies awaiting the competition.
Stardew Valley is available for Mobile, PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
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