It’s been clear to anyone paying attention that the e-sports scene for MLB The Show has been suffering. This year, SDS made it a point to entirely switch how they ran their official tournaments and watched them all go up in smoke. So disastrous was this change that SDS reversed course and linked back up with ESL for official tournaments. Mistakes happen and sometimes stuff just doesn’t work out, but the MLB The Show community is hungry for viable tournament competition and each failure became more magnified.

Beyond major tournaments, however, there’s also been something really lacking from Diamond Dynasty since its inception – proper weekend leagues.

The closest we get in Diamond Dynasty is Events, which rotate rulesets and eligible cards every couple weeks but ultimately aren’t that exciting. On top of that, the quality of Events this year has been degraded with SDS’ insistence on adding top-tier cards to collections and packs versus including them in Events or other online modes. Regardless, Events typically have a cap on rewards once you reach a certain number of wins and the consistent competition level is debatable. So what’s the solution?

The Point Series Events by ShowZone.

ShowZone Point Series Events Beta

*Full disclosure that I receive compensation for all content I produce for ShowZone as a freelance writer. These are my genuine thoughts on the Beta and ShowZone events in general and are purely my own.*

This past weekend saw the final Events Beta take place at ShowZone. Meant as the final step toward a full launch, this Beta was intended to test every bit of the software and features that make up the Events format. I didn’t have a chance to participate in any previous Betas and was quite excited to give it a go this time around.

Due to the unfortunate reality that I must pretend to be an adult most of the time, I haven’t had nearly as much time to grind Diamond Dynasty as I have in the past. Not just grinding the content and staying up to date, but grinding online and playing competitively against other humans. Mashing the CPU has a limited payout of dopamine, whereas the cat-and-mouse game against another person is riveting under the right conditions.

I’ve played zero Ranked games all year, outside of two failed Co-Op games that ended in freeze-offs before the game really got going. For me, the prospect of a Weekend League has always been exciting in MLB The Show and I’ve lamented the lack of one. That’s why I was so interested in seeing what ShowZone could pull off, as in theory, these Point Series Events would give me exactly what I wanted from Diamond Dynasty.

I truly believe ShowZone nailed it.

I already enjoy the general user interface of ShowZone. The site is easy to navigate and I never get lost no matter what I’m doing. As you can see in the screenshot, Events have their own header at the top of the page. There’s no hoops to jump through – you click the purple Events tab and find yourself directly on the Events landing page.

This landing page looks different from the initial aesthetics at the beginning of the Beta. This is my major prevailing thought from the Beta – the developers care about this feature and worked in real-time to implement bug fixes, ideas and general overhauls. This interface is buttery smooth to navigate and everything is straight forward. Streamer Klue27 was also in the Beta and agrees with this notion.

So strictly speaking in terms of user interface friendliness, ShowZone absolutely nailed this function.

Beyond how attractive and easy to use the interface is, the actual software is also stellar. When you’re in the lobby of an active Point Series Event, you’ll see a tracker of how many active users there are in the lobby. From there, you simply click to search for a match and the matchmaking software takes over. Once you match, you get a pop-up window that links you with your matched opponent. It’s all through ShowZone’s website and reduces the need to coordinate through your console’s messaging.

I can’t overstate how smooth this operates. Match up, link up and get your challenge request sent in the game and you’re off and running. This tab remains open until your game is completed, at which point the winner of the matchup is expected to report the score. This is also painless. You click where directed to report the score, record the runs for each team and then submit. Your results are tallied immediately and you even get a green notification that the results were successfully submitted. If you go back to the landing page, you can navigate to the “Standings” tab where your results will already be refreshed and reflected. Klue27 helps us out again in this clip.

Simple, painless and efficient. I’m not sure you could ask for much more from an event or tournament system.

Developer Response

I mentioned above that my major takeaway was probably just how responsive and active the ShowZone developers were during the Beta. They were active in the ShowZone Discord and even had a special channel created for Event feedback. As I was using the software, I was in direct contact about some of the bugs I was experiencing and we walked and talked through everything. I had a pop-up blocker active that was preventing the chat window (which functions as your matchmaking link with your opponent) from being visible. Even something simple like that was handled in real time. The devs weren’t just sitting back, waiting to see what people might say about the Beta on social media or in Discord. They were right there in the trenches, even playing and testing the software alongside the rest of us.

Not only were they present, but they were honest and forthright about the bugs and other things they were working on. This truly was a Beta intended to improve the final product, not just a showing off of the software in hopes that it would gain traction compared to the failed tournament formats we discussed previously. Not to make this about SDS directly, but something they’re often criticized over is the lack of transparency and communication. With something like the Point Series Events having massive potential, it was heartening to know the ShowZone team was ready and willing to admit there’s problems and tackle them head on for a favorable outcome.

The instant feedback and improvements were notable and appreciated as an end user, but it was also refreshing that the ShowZone team was responding to and implementing suggestions for the ruleset on the fly. For example, through feedback it was determined that Hot Zones should be toggled off for gameplay in future Events. Additionally, it was also decided that players would be restricted from using SP out of the bullpen unless all RP were used. This was something I experienced in the Beta, and keeping in mind it was a Beta, it was still annoying to face and a reminder of how annoying Ranked can be at times.

ShowZone listened. Not only are SP banned from the bullpen, but there’s also a restriction on the SP that can be used. Tired of facing the likes of Randy Johnson, John Donaldson and Paul Skenes in nearly every Ranked match? You won’t have that problem in the upcoming Point Series Events as each of those SP are banned. This is a fun wrinkle that should make games more enjoyable, while introducing more strategy to the mix. Dominant pitchers are dominant for a reason but they can also reduce the level of enjoyment from a game. This forces some thought on the player’s part to determine their other options for the rotation. All great things, in my opinion.

The Future

My experience in the final Beta has me incredibly excited for the official launch of the upcoming Point Series Events that you can currently register for. There’s an All-Star difficulty Event and a Legend difficulty Event currently open for registration and registration concludes on Thursday, September 14. Whether you’re a hardcore competitive player that wants to grind out Legend games, or a more laid back player that just wants consistent online competition in a soundly built structure, you have options with the Point Series Events. I encourage anyone and everyone to sign up and at least give it a shot during these initial Events. Any feedback or suggestions you come up with along the way will absolutely be heard by the ShowZone team and might even be implemented in future Events.

The far-reaching implications of this Beta are quite staggering if the Diamond Dynasty community embraces this software. The more people that participate in the Events, the more opportunity there could be to expand on Events and perhaps take a bigger foothold of the competitive scene.

The Closer

It’s probably pretty clear that I really enjoyed my time with the Beta but let me take it a step further – this is the most fun I’ve had with MLB The Show 23 so far this year. The controlled environment led to zero toxicity, the bugs were ironed out on the spot and by the end of the Beta, everything was pretty much working as intended™ and it was an absolute blast. There was no active Set or Season restriction, so I was able to use cards like Charisma Bob Gibson and Incognito Hank Aaron that have rotated out of seasonal Diamond Dynasty play. Having these Events on a regular basis, allowing players to use whatever cards they want – even if they aren’t Ranked legal – adds a whole level of excitement that’s missing from online Diamond Dynasty play this year.

Who knows what kind of rulesets we see in the future. There might be some really interesting rules that get cooked up, or fun card pools that force players to dig deep into their collections while maintaining the controlled environment that eliminates the toxicity of typical online games.

Regardless, the future is incredibly bright for the Point Series Events at ShowZone. If the Beta was this fun, I can’t wait to see how this evolves in the future.