Gaming
esports
Inside the €1m European PUBG league coming in 2019
We get the inside scoop from PUBG Corp. about why they're overhauling the pro PUBG scene with a massive new league in partnership with StarLadder.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds’ rise through the esports ranks has certainly been impressive. Go back a little over a year and people were questioning if a 100 player battle royale could even work as a spectator experience, and it’s fair to say that the early LAN events didn’t give too much of a positive answer to that question. However, a few solid events quickly proved that PUBG has legs as an esport, and before long, there were a ton of top level LAN events offering up hundreds of thousands in prize money.
But now things are set to change. Developers PUBG Corp. are partnering with tournament organisers to run multiple leagues across the world. In Europe, StarLadder will operate the PUBG Europe League (PEL), which, combined with the Contenders League below it, will feature a €1,000,000 prize pool, and will be the biggest league in the region.
The PEL will feature three phases that run for most of 2019, with teams being promoted from the Contenders League at the end of each phase – think League of Legends-style splits before franchising was a thing. Teams will play weekly matches, and the top teams at the end of each phase will qualify for global events where they will fight against the best teams from other regional leagues. It’s a big departure from the very Valve-like approach that the PUBG scene has had for its first year or so of existence, but PUBG Corp. is confident that this the the right move, to standardise the scene and take a little more control.
“We are organically improving our competitive scene through every match and tournament,” says Atila Yeşildağ, Esports Operations Manager at PUBG Amsterdam. “We believe that we have made certain incremental progress, and now is the right time to take a huge leap to respond to our fans asking for more esports. After all, league structure comes with a lot of benefits,” he says. “There will be a high amount of content and exposure for the teams, coherent schedule for the fans to follow the scene, and a deep regional ecosystem that will give opportunity to aspiring teams to participate in the fun.”
Of course a more structured approach to the top level competition is welcomed by a lot of people, but some are concerned that it could remove one of the things that makes PUBG esports great: the ability for any team to actually win a major LAN. We have seen time and time again that unsigned teams will have a great run to make it to a big LAN, upsetting some of the biggest names in the game to make it there. Now with this new league, that will see the same teams competing for months on end, and some are worried that it will be harder for unsigned teams to make a name for themselves.
Regional leagues will mean less international competitions
© StarLadder
“We do not believe that the league system will completely end this phenomenon, but perhaps it will happen less frequently moving forward,” says Yeşildağ. “We are expecting strong organisations to pick up unsigned, yet successful teams, such as NiP signing Welcome to South Georgo. The barrier will certainly be higher from the initial days of PUBG esports, as it would require dancing with established juggernauts, as well as being successful for a longer consistent period.”
“Having said that, to ensure there is no discouragement to the unknown teams out there, we will have amateur leagues for each of our represented regions. We are also going to have constant movement between each of the league phases, which means in a good crazy run, you may end up from bottom to the top in under a year!”
The new league may put an end to some of the fairytale stories the PUBG scene has produced so far, but it should add a new level of stability we haven’t seen so far. The direct involvement of PUBG Corp. should also mean that production levels increase, and the long time frame will mean we have more consistent sorties, with the same teams playing week in, week out, instead of say 16 of a group of 30 potential teams playing a LAN every few weeks. Other LANs have hosted some top events over the past months, but now the PEL promises to one up all of them – possibly with the exception of the PUBG Global Invitational.
“Multiple factors will ensure that the PEL will be better than any other competition we have had for the PUBG esports scene in Europe so far,” says Yeşildağ. “It will be bigger than anything we have experienced so far for Europe. It will bring all the big teams into an arena where they battle it out to prove who the best of the best in Europe is. It will bring many teams from all the regions into the pot.”
“No more staying out due to slot issues that you have in multiple region-involved events. Every best team from Europe and Middle East and Africa will be there. It’s going to be longer, so it’s not going to be done in a blaze, where one good weekend lets you sweep everything. And it’s going to have stories that lead to global events, where the best of the best in Europe will take on the challenge of other regional champions at the end of the arc in a grand finale.”
There’s still a lot to learn about the PEL, and we really won’t be sure what it will look like and how it will impact the PUBG esports scene until things get underway early next year. But we can say that this seems to be a good step for PUBG. Having a clear top league in the scene, with a massive prize pool and a clear path to the top is surely going to help the scene settle, and hopefully grow viewership and stability. PUBG has already proven many people wrong in the world of esports, and now the PEL looks like it really could accelerate PUBG to the top of the competitive world.
