Australian tournament organiser, Throwdown Esports, has announced a partnership with Acer Predator to be their headline sponsor for their first foray into battle royale esports.
The Predator PUBG OCE Open Series powered by Throwdown Esports will be a five-week tournament running from September 6th, with a prize pool of AUD$15,000 (£8,530). This open tournament will eventually feed into Acer’s Predator League which covers the wider Asia Pacific region.
Boasting a heftier $250,000 (£196,000) prize pool and held offline in Bangkok, Thailand, the tournament will feature representatives throughout South East Asia and Oceanic regions. In January this year, the Predator League culminated in 8 teams from the APAC region competing in DOTA 2, with the Malaysian team Geek Fam taking home the grand prize of $50,000 (£39,300).
Darren Simmons, Oceanic Managing Director of Acer Inc., said in a statement: “We are proud to be partners with Throwdown Esports on the upcoming OCE Open Series. Acer’s Predator line has been evolving over the years with our gaming notebooks, desktops and monitors to provide the best gaming hardware for the gaming and esports community,”
This isn’t the first event sponsored by Acer Predator, with the most recent IEM Shanghai using their products to bolster their event as well. It is refreshing, however, to see bigger companies take notice of grassroots events such as these and give them a helping hand in establishing a foothold in the industry.
Previously Throwdown Esports organised the Oceanic leg of the Rocket League Championship Series, with Season 6 starting August 19th, with 9 weeks of qualifiers and league play culminating in a double elimination bracket where only two teams can make it to the offline finals with a whopping $1 million (£786,000) in prize money up for grabs.
Esports Insider says: Battle Royale esports is still very much in its infancy, with both spectating and format still being figured out. Having a big name like Acer stepping up to host a league around it spells good things for the longevity of the genre, and sponsoring smaller tournaments that feed into their own is a win for both parties.