A little over a month ago, the Minecraft Speedrunning Ranked Grand Finals streamed to a record 12,500 people, who all tuned in to watch the matches across different broadcasts and platforms. “The content itself is entertaining enough that I genuinely think it could have an audience of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people,” Wolfeei told his Wolfeei Extras channel following the event – and enthusiasm from the community suggests his prediction isn’t outside the realm of possibility.
MCSR Ranked is a mod that turns Minecraft speedrunning (known colloquially as MCSR) into a competitive esport. The mod connects two players and allows them to go head-to-head on the same seed to see who can beat it fastest. MCSR Ranked has become very popular within the speedrunning community because it facilitates competition between players.
MCSR Ranked is unique within the Minecraft event space. “Events like MCC and Blockwars are great content, but there’s much more of a focus on fun than trying to win,” MCSR Ranked competitor BeefSalad tells us. “Dedsafio and Twitch Rivals events sometimes try to push to be more competitive by having a prize pool, but few of the players are in contention of being the most skilled players in the world, and the actual games aren’t built to reward those who are. MCSR Ranked Playoffs is the first event whose players are all there because they’re the best in the world.”
“The goal of those other events a lot of times is to entertain,” adds Nerdi, a streamer and commentator for MCSR Ranked. “It’s to be more casual, maybe like a family monopoly match versus what we’re going for, which is more of an esport.” There’s also a big difference between MCSR Ranked and other major events in the Minecraft space in terms of how players are selected. For many events, much of the entertainment comes from the players’ charisma and interactions, whereas Ranked focuses on displays of extreme skill. “Literally anyone can get in,” Nerdi continues. “It’s not at all about an invite or anything like that. You just need to qualify.”
The first MCSR Ranked Playoffs tournament took place in 2023 and has occurred every few months since. The tournament and livestream were modelled after other professional esports competitions. “Back in 2017-2018, like when League Worlds was going on, it was just a spectacle where I felt like I had to watch,” organiser Couriway tells us, “and I want Ranked to be as much of that as possible for the Minecraft space.”
A recent surge in popularity came when Tubbo stumbled upon an MCSR Ranked Playoffs livestream, and connected with the organisers of the event. “When someone like Tubbo takes an interest in what we do, we pretty much dropped everything to do what we could to talk to him, and get more of his thoughts on what we could do better,” Couriway says.
Tubbo then offered his studio for an in-person segment, as well as other resources at his disposal. Commentator, organiser, and event participant Feinberg spoke in an interview about the work that went into the final day of Ranked Playoffs, saying Tubbo and Ranked Founder Oliver “put in literally thirty to forty hours a week in the week leading up to it.”
This most recent Grand Finals stream stands out from its predecessors. The stream opened with a new, in-person segment hosted by Fulham and BeefSalad, inspired by host desks in other esports events. Not only was this the Ranked team’s first time doing anything in-person for this event, but it was also very successful, allowing transitions between runs to feel seamless. “I think this is something that happened last season that could absolutely happen again,” Couriway tells us. “I mean, we’ve had discussions about other studio spaces as well.”
The Ranked team are also considering some changes to some of the graphics on the stream including some that display statistics for competitors that are already displayed at other points in the livestream. “I think we kind of all decided that that’s maybe not as useful as something else we could put there,” says Feinberg. “We were thinking about having a way to integrate it with the match splits as they’re happening.”
Event organisers understand that a barrier to entry for viewers is the amount of specialised knowledge and vocabulary that is needed to understand the game. Commentators try to find a goldilocks zone where they make their commentary accessible for new audiences, while also maintaining technical analysis. “If it’s something that we think is somewhat obvious, but maybe new viewers wouldn’t understand, we will try and mention it once during the stream, or towards the beginning especially,” Nerdi tells us.
One way to make commentary more accessible is to create narratives that span across seasons, such as underdog stories or prominent rivalries between players. “I think in this most recent season, we’ve done a better job of managing all the storylines and all the possibilities of matches that could happen, and just trying to understand what makes each runner unique,” Nerdi explains. The drama and narrative of their story gives people something to latch on to outside of mechanics and gameplay.
With the addition of new live components and rapidly expanding audiences, there is no surprise that the growth has come with stress for some of the organisers. “It increased anxiety a little bit, but in a good way,” Nerdi recounts. “It made me feel like it was more real and more serious, and it increased the stakes for me.”
Not everyone is feeling the pressure equally – the evolution of the production and increased viewership doesn’t make Feinberg nervous. To him the focus isn’t on numbers but quality. “Hopefully it gets good numbers, but we’ll just try to have the best broadcast, and the best gameplay that we can,” Feinberg says, “and if ten people watch, then we’ll have ten people with a good viewing experience.”
These developments are exciting for competitors as well. “More eyes on Ranked means more sponsorship opportunities for the Ranked team, which means bigger prize pools and higher budgets for events,” says BeefSalad. “I am a very competitive person, so it’s very exciting to see anything that raises the level of competition.”
Couriway spoke to us about where some of the enthusiasm for MCSR Ranked is coming from. While big streamers are definitely bringing in new audiences, there is clear organic growth as well. “I think a lot of people who just like Minecraft are going to gravitate to so many different areas of the game, and that’s why Minecraft in general is so popular,” he tells us. “I think speedrunning right now just has a really good foothold. It’s just about seeing how far we can keep going with it over the next few months, and I don’t really see any sign of it slowing down, which is amazing.”
The future of Ranked certainly looks bright. There seems to be very little stagnation in any aspect of the event. “If we can hold people’s attention for seven minutes, they will not leave,” MCSR Ranked host Fulham said on a recent stream.
Now that Midseason Showdown is done, the Playoffs are around the corner. For those interested in Minecraft esports and seeing players show off their technical skill, the event is a must-watch. More information and the latest playoff news can be found on the MCSR Ranked website, X and Discord.
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