ConcernedApe sponsors $40,000 Stardew Valley esports event

Stardew Valley is primarily known for being a wholesome and chill game. But that doesn’t mean some people don’t get intensely competitive over it.

A Stardew Valley esports event has been announced with the Stardew Valley Cup. The event will feature a prize pool worth over $40,000 with a top prize of $28,000, and will see a number of content creators and speedrunners face off in a series of challenges in the popular farming sim. The event was revealed by Stardew Valley creator ConcernedApe, who is working alongside Youtuber Unsurpassable Z.

In collaboration with @UnsurpassableZ, I'm pleased to announce the 1st official Stardew Valley Cup! It's a competition of skill, knowledge, and teamwork, with a prize pool of over $40k. See some of Stardew's most dedicated players in their element! Main event is Sept. 4th 9am PST pic.twitter.com/qtDW5e5LvD

— ConcernedApe (@ConcernedApe) August 21, 2021

The Stardew Valley Cup will take place on September 4 and will be broadcasted on Unsurpassable Z’s Twitch channel with guest commentary by ConcernedApe. It will include four teams with four players each:

• Sandy’s Candies: TheHaboo, lilsimsie, brandiganBTW, Fuzzerino
• Pierree’s Cherries: Cordite89, Waligug, Mr Penguinpanda, Lichatton
• Pam’s Yams: PianoAddict, AlbinoLiger, SeanieDew, Matthew McCleskey
• Krobus’s Crocuses: KingNooblit, Bla_De, SharkyGames, Therm

The Stardew Valley Cup will use a unique format with each team playing simultaneously on its own separate beach farm. There are 100 different challenges in play for each team to complete, with the different challenges being worth varying amounts of points.

The challenges vary wildly such as completing in-game objectives, winning competitions during festivals, obtaining rare items, and gags like hitting Evelyn with a slingshot. Other to-be-announced challenges will be introduced during the competition as well. Teams have a certain length of time to complete challenges and the team that has the most points at the end wins.

Unsurpassable Z revealed the 100 starting challenges on his YouTube channel:

Stardew Valley has sizable speedrunning community

While the notion of competitive Stardew Valley might prompt a scoff from some, it’s not actually surprising due to the sizable speedrunning community surrounding the game. There are many different categories for Stardew Valley speedrunning including finishing community center bundles, getting married, and reaching the bottom of the mines.

Though the Stardew Valley Cup isn’t necessarily indicative of the formation of a larger Stardew Valley competitive esports scene, it does show how much life the game still has in it years after its original release. And those who are really looking to get into esports based around agriculture can always check out Farming Simulator esports.