At occasions swinging between teenage LAN get together and correct esport occasion, the PUBG Invitational was nonetheless a spectacle.
When ESL and Bluehole announced they would be hosting the PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Invitational at Gamescom everybody was super-hyped to see how the preferred recreation of the yr would carry out as a spectator sport in a real aggressive setting. But shortly that hype was some very worrying questions, akin to how are you going to match 100 gamers on LAN in the course of Gamescom, and the way do you handle to broadcast a recreation that may have 100 completely different view factors unfold out over a huge map?
ESL’s involvement actually calmed some fears, regardless of what a lot of the esports sub Reddits will inform you, however even for the largest third-party event organiser on the earth, this might show to be fairly the problem in nearly each division. At occasions the occasion felt like considered one of ESL’s greatest, competing with the likes of the Intel Extreme Masters Katowice World Championships or ESL One Cologne, however at others it felt like a small scale LAN occasion that was swiftly put collectively by a gaggle of youngsters.
“Overall, I’m pretty happy with what the PUBG Invitational achieved,” says Lauren ‘Pansy’ Scott, an skilled esports caster who was readily available to commentate the Invitational. “It highlighted what I expected coming into this event as it showed the massive potential that this game has to really thrive in an esports environment.”
“It showed the massive potential that this game has to really thrive in an esports environment” – Lauren ‘Pansy’ Scott
Potential is the important thing phrase right here. Heading into the Invitational nobody actually knew how a LAN occasion like this might come throughout the the viewers, however everybody knew that it had the potential to be nice. If every little thing went easily and there was some prime degree motion then this might undoubtedly be probably the most entertaining esports on the market. Perhaps the largest sticking level to this watchability was the printed itself. No different esport on the market has this many gamers competing on the identical time, and there’s no assure what the gamers will do, so this makes discovering the motion very troublesome.
For the Invitational ESL devised a customized broadcast answer, the place they might have entry to the direct feed on every of the PCs getting used and will select which one would exit on stream. In concept this appears like an ideal thought, however when the manufacturing staff has to maintain tabs on 100 screens to see the place the motion is, plenty of issues get missed. This was solely made worse by the casters requesting one thing and it taking an excellent 10 seconds to occur. Missing issues is forgivable with one thing of this measurement, however prolonged delays when the casters need to level one thing out needs to be one thing that solely takes a few seconds at most.
“What I’m really looking forward to finally see in action is the spectator client: it would help tremendously with getting the real good action going forward,” says Scott when requested in regards to the points that they confronted on the occasion.
While there’s a spectator mode obtainable in PUBG, it’s nearly unattainable to maintain observe of every little thing that’s taking place with out closely counting on the map view. With some refinement this software may resolve all the broadcast points, however for now it is going to be all the way down to ESL to work on their system.
The visible aspect of the printed could have been one of many weaker components, however there was little doubt that the audio aspect of issues was implausible. The casting duo of Scott and fellow Brit Richard ‘TheSimms’ Simms labored rather well collectively. They managed to kind narratives that spanned the whole recreation, maintaining viewers engaged with the storylines that had been unfolding, but additionally fairly troublesome to observe with out the commentator’s steerage.
“I really discover it method easier to forged PUBG than Counter-Strike: Global Offensive as there’s an general narrative each spherical that could be very straightforward to observe,” says Scott whose major position nowadays is to forged CS:GO tournaments around the globe. “However, when it’s hectic, the game is very tough to keep up with. PUBG definitely has great potential and once the rule sets reflect the ‘ideal game’ better I think the casting can only improve.”
Away from the printed aspect of issues there was the precise format of the occasion itself. For these attending Gamescom in particular person it was fairly troublesome to observe the occasion, with many selecting to easily watch on Twitch as an alternative, which isn’t a good suggestion. The Rainbow Six Siege finals, which had been held simply meters away, had a thunderous crowd that added to the environment of the occasion, however for this there was nothing apart from the occasional shriek of the gamers themselves. Live crowds are a should for esports occasions, and for one thing as widespread as PUBG that turns into much more necessary.
Then there was the lengthy wait occasions between video games and in the beginning of the day. With no less than 70 individuals in every match it was by no means going to be straightforward to get every little thing working accurately, nevertheless it did really feel like these points popped up a bit of too typically.
There was additionally the actually bizarre interviews that got here throughout as awkward extra occasions than not, even when the interviewee was somebody who’s on digital camera for a dwelling. Finally who may neglect the controversy caused by the points system prioritising top place finished as an alternative of kills and gamers simply hiding out within the blue to win.
“PUBG can bring together a load of personalities and create stories in the game that will be remembered for a long time.”
But regardless of all of this I got here away considering that the PUBG Invitational may simply be considered one of my favorite esports occasions of all time. There was plenty of issues that should be improved, and realistically it nonetheless has a protracted option to go earlier than it could actually match the likes of IEM Katowice or ESL One, however the precise leisure from the matches themselves beat something I’ve seen in Dota or LoL this yr.
Whereas they typically depend on the narratives outdoors of the sport to promote the thrill, PUBG can carry collectively a load of personalities, a lot of which had been utterly new to us, and create tales within the recreation that might be remembered for a very long time. That is why PUBG has an ideal shot at changing into one of many greatest esports on the earth.
Fortunately the hearsay flying across the present was that the subsequent ESL PUBG occasion is prior to it’s possible you’ll anticipate, so hopefully we received’t have lengthy to seek out out if this was a one off fluke that labored out or if this actually is the subsequent main esport within the making.
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