“Survival of the Fittest” is an intense battle to the death where survivors are grouped into Tribes and step onto the ARK to compete for their lives in a ‘Hunger Games’ esque competition. The tournament unveiling this new mode will feature thirty-five teams of 2 contestants each, where the last tribe standing will receive a Grand Prize of $20,000 along with bonus gaming gear from Logitech and Gunnar Optiks. The 2nd and third place tribes will receive $10,000, and $5,000 respectively. The world is surrounded by a large force-field which shrinks as the game progresses, if survivors leave the force-field array they will be killed. Survivors start the game in the lobby container where they are able to strategize, trash talk or mind game their enemies. After a period time they are beamed down from the sky to the spawn platform. This area is a giant ring with copious loot placed in the centre: contestants will have to decide whether they want to make a dash for the gear or instead flee into the wilderness to begin their survival experience. There have been a number of changes made to this particular game mode to ensure that it is suitable for a competitive battle that will take place over 4.5 hours. Participants and spectators can expect to see an accelerated game, where leveling, gathering, taming and building happen at a much quicker and exciting rate. Engrams, craftables, and supply drops have been rebalanced and reallocated to make them much more obtainable and viable in this game mode. Scaling on stats have been altered so that tamed Dinosaurs are no longer as powerful as they are in the regular mode, and players themselves take reduced damage, among many other statistical alterations. As the survivors enter this arena, not only do they need to look out for the dangers from the creatures, the elements and the other survivors but also the Game Master. The Game Master communicates with the outside world to create Evolution Events (for non-Tournament settings, these can also be randomized). These events take place every 30 minutes and can have impact on the game, some of the things you are likely to see include freak weather occurrences, dinosaur stampedes (of a variety of types), extra supply drops, day-for-night shift, and player location reveal. There is no fast travel, there is no respawning. Survivors have one shot at becoming the champions of SotF -- or in our Tournament case, two if you count their tribe mate. ARK is amazing and I highly recommend it. Remember to LIKE and. my social media websites:. ■ Twitch:.