Bluehole, Inc., the developer and publisher of popular game PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS (“PUBG”) and ESL are partnering up to bring a PUBG tournament to Gamescom in Cologne at the end of August.
The tournament will feature eighty of the world’s best PUBG players and influencers competing at the game’s first LAN event.
“From very early on we knew that the success of PUBG was reliant on the passion of its community. We want to celebrate this by inviting eighty of the top players from around the world to compete in the first offline invitational,” said Chang Han Kim, VP and Executive Producer at Bluehole Inc. “It’s been incredibly rewarding to see how quickly our community has grown, and can’t wait to hear about everyone’s experience this summer.”
“We’re thrilled to see PUBG enhancing its already amazing in-game experience with a competitive LAN component at gamescom” said Ralf Reichert, CEO at ESL. “The game’s been a smash hit and its natural evolution into a competitive title has been incredibly exciting to watch. We’re looking forward to working with Bluehole on this, and many more events to come.”
The slightly bizarre format of the tournament will see players compete in Solo mode, Duo mode, Duo FPP (First Person Perspective) mode and Squad mode across the four-day event, where the best overall score from three games played will determine the winner.
Starting from August 3rd, Bluehole, Inc. is releasing chests for cosmetic items in PUBG with the proceeds of purchase being used as prizing for winners at the gamescom PUBG Invitational and for charities of Bluehole’s selection. The tournament prize pool will have a total value of $350,000 USD.
Esports Insider says: It’s debatable as to whether it’ll work as an esport — but this is a statement of intent. Many a great game have had big money tournaments at Gamescom so this could be the start of a new “genre” in esports. Survival and Battle Royale games have tried before but never quite got it right. Let’s see if Bluehole can get it spot on.