The battle royale shooter PUBG (PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds) aims to enter eSports with the PUBG Global Invitational. However, before the event in Berlin begins, “PlayerUnknown” himself reminds us that the game is not yet ready for eSports.
PUBG is not ready for eSports: The PUBG Global Invitational 2018 starts today, July 25, 2018, in Berlin. Just before the kickoff, however, “PlayerUnknown” Brendan Greene says: PUBG is not “eSports ready”.
“We are not ready”
Greene states directly about PUBG that the game is not yet ready for eSports. The PUBG Corp itself is not ready for it, and it has never been claimed otherwise. Nevertheless, the PUBG Global Invitational is a promising event for the battle royale shooter.
What is the PUBG Global Invitational? The PUBG Global Invitational (short PGI) is the first major eSports tournament in PUBG and was announced back in April. The organizer is PUBG Corp itself. The event takes place at the Mercedes Benz Arena in Berlin from July 25 to July 29, 2018.
20 teams from around the world compete for a prize pool of $2,000,000. Matches will be played in first and third person (FPP and TPP) on the maps Erangel and Miramar. Anyone wishing to watch live on-site must be at least 16 years old.
The PGI is an experiment: According to Greene, the event is an experiment with PUBG’s format as an eSports event and the way it is watched. No one has ever done battle royale as an eSports before, and they want to show that it is possible, albeit challenging.
The entire year of 2018 is set to be dedicated to making PUBG truly “eSports ready”. The foundation for eSports is to be solidified, and the game is finally to be made competitive. This means: removing bugs and implementing quality-of-life changes as well as many new features and functionalities.
Fortnite has already failed: However, saying that no one has tried battle royale in eSports before is not entirely accurate. Competitor Fortnite had previously scheduled a tournament – but it failed.
The difficulties of battle royale as a spectator sport are mainly that watching is simply boring. Professionals do not fight for victory but hide to increase their chances of winning.
