Bassmaster Fishing 2022
Bass Bulletin: The Future of online tournaments - APR.12.22
Welcome, it’s Bass Bulletin time. Let's jump in and talk about all things Bassmaster Fishing 2022.
In this month’s Bass Bulletin, we will be talking about the future of online tournaments, the Elite Fishing Pack, Bass Lake Bundle, and launching the game on Epic Store and PlayStation Asia. We’ll also look back at our inaugural 2022 Online Bassmaster Classic and the 2022 Online Chickamauga Lake Elite event that has just wrapped up.
To close things out we sit down with Des O’Connor for a deep dive on why the bass in Bassmaster Fishing 2022 are bigger than in real life.
Online Tournaments
In February we kicked off our first online tournament in Bassmaster Fishing 2022 with the 2022 Online Bassmaster Classic that synced up with the real world Bassmaster Classic at the iconic Lake Hartwell.
The idea behind these events is to simulate the structure of real-world competitions by breaking up the event into 3 rounds of competitive fishing with your best 5 catches from each round contributing to your overall score and the winner being the angler with the highest total weight.
Our second online event, the 2022 Online Chickamauga Lake Elite started April 1 and finished April 11. We want to keep the momentum of these online competitive events going and as a team, we are busy planning out a schedule of events throughout the year to keep those competitive juices flowing.
The next event will be an Open Series event at Lake Seminole running from May 6 to May 23. The Open Series events will be more casual and run for longer than our Elite, Classic, or Special events to give you more time to compete when it suits you. In-game rewards for taking part in the Open Series events are still up for grabs however, bragging rights and being crowned the first Bassmaster Online Open Champion are very much all to play for.
2022 Online Bassmaster Classic
Over 2000 players took part in the 2022 Online Bassmaster Classic and these are the anglers who took the top 3 positions. A massive congratulations to Sw1fty86ttv on a super impressive win! Sw1fty also streams his attempts live on Twitch so go drop him a follow!
2022 Online Chickamauga Lake Elite
Our second online tournament has just wrapped up and it’s been awesome to see so many people taking part. The competition was fierce - there really wasn’t much in it at the top of the leader boards, so congratulations to everyone who took part. Here are our top 10 anglers from the event.
Deep Dive : The size of bass in Bassmaster Fishing 2022
Sticking with tournaments, we have seen lots of discussion among the community about how the sizes of bass in Bassmaster Fishing 2022 compared to the real-world, so Benjamin from the community had a chat with Des O’Connor, Studio Producer to talk about bass.
Benjamin - We always knew when developing BM22 that the goal was to create a game that provided players with the challenge and thrill of catching big bass. During the planning stage of the game was there a discussion around the size and weight of qualifying bass species (Largemouth, Smallmouth, and Spotted Bass?)
Des – For sure. The strapline for Bassmaster as an organization is Big Bass, Big Stage, Big Dreams. So we were always going to feature big bass in the game. However, we wanted there to be fewer of them than in Fishing Sim World, so it feels more exciting when you catch one.
Benjamin - Among the community, there has been lots of discussion around whether or not the size and weight of bass in BM22 should be representative of real life. Obviously, we can’t please everyone but why is it we opted to go down the route of having larger-than-life bass?
Des – The maximum size of the stock bass in each of our venues is based on real-world data provided to us by a freshwater biologist in our community so we know the weight range is correct for the location. When populating the waters with fish, we must balance the weight ranges so that it is exciting for both single-player, and for competitive multiplayer. Have we got this balance perfect? Probably not. There are thousands of Bass in each venue, and less than 1% of these are in the highest weight range.
Now, what we have seen from the recent asynchronous tournaments that we have been running is that the community is very good at the game. The size of bags being caught in a 1-hour session has been huge, so we are looking at the balance of the weight ranges and will be looking to make some changes in this area over the coming months.
We still want to have the giants for players to hunt, but we would like the frequency that they are landed to be reduced.
Ben - How do you think the experience of fishing in Bassmaster Fishing 2022 would change if we were to, say, reduce the number of larger bass in the game?
Des – We think by reducing the number of the largest bass in the game we can increase the thrill of catching them, whilst also bringing down the bag sizes a bit closer to more realistic weights. But I imagine we will still have scores on our leader boards that are far bigger than in real life.
If you look at the catches from the real-world Elite event at Chickamauga Lake this last weekend, you have a field of 94 anglers, landing over 900 bass in a 4-day period. But only one of these Bass was over 10lb.
Would players really want catching a 10lb bass in the game to be a 1 in 900 fish occurrence? I think probably not, but I do agree that we have balancing improvements to make. I also want to give a shoutout and a thank you to the community for all of your continued feedback. Making changes to weight ranges and catch rates is a delicate process that we constantly monitor and we will be sure to let you know when any changes are made in update notes.
Bass Lake Bundle
Jump into Bassmaster Fishing 2022 and pick up the Bass Lake Bundle today to land a big basin bass on Lake Seminole and Jordan Lake. The bundle also comes loaded with Career Mode Tournaments and Mastery Challenges for each venue for you to conquer and unlock venue specific clothing. Also, if you pick up the Bass Lake Bundle on Steam, PlayStation, or Epic Store before April 14th, you’ll get a huge 20% discount!
To read the full article on these venues click here
Elite Fishing Equipment Pack
Dive into 30 all-new items to compete like an Elite! Choose one of the new boat wraps that have been designed alongside Elite Anglers Hank Cherry, Carl Jocumsen, Takumi Ito, and Jeff Gustafson. Refine your loadout with new rods and reels from Abu Garcia and lures from Berkley so you can start hooking big bass.
To find out all the details about the Elite Fishing Equipment Pack you can, here
The Official Video Game of B.A.S.S - Epic Store and PlayStation Asia
Get ready to experience the thrill of competitive big bass fishing in Bassmaster Fishing 2022 on Epic Store and PlayStation Asia! Players, anglers & fans of B.A.S.S. can now play the official video game of B.A.S.S. on two new platforms.
For more info head here
Well, that’s all folks for this month's Bass Bulletin! Oh, except to say that Easter is just around the corner, and we have some fun challenges planned to unlock some Easter treats - here is a sneak peek! (and, no, you’re not watching Donnie Darko...)
Tight Lines
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Bassmaster Fishing 2022
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Bass Bulletin: The Future of online tournaments - APR.12.22