The relative entertainment value of all sports can, believe it or not, be boiled down to a single question: are competitors playing to win, or are they only playing to not lose? PUBG‘s tournament rule set, unfortunately, leaves a lot of room for the latter, which put a damper on a recent tournament full of Twitch stars.
It’s a problem that’s cropped up in a handful of big PUBG tournaments.
Because teams score points based on their performances in multiple matches, they don’t necessarily have to win any chicken dinners to take the big prize.
Some teams opt to play cautiously or tread water when they feel like their spot on the winner’s podium is secure. That’s basically what happened during yesterday’s $US100,000 ($129,407) Twitch Rivals PUBG Invitational, which featured a star-studded line-up of teams led by names like Dr Disrespect, Shroud, Annemunition, and GassyMexican. There were certainly some fireworks – but as usual, it all ended with a whimper, not a bang.
Team Speshimen, led by notorious edgelord shepherd Forsen, took first place by playing relatively passively – scoring just two or three kills in three of five matches – and consistently surviving until most other teams were eliminated.
They did this against a backdrop of former Counter-Strike pro Shroud ruthlessly stomping Dr Disrespect and some clever boat strategies from Annemunition’s team, among other things.
In the end, despite the fact that Shroud’s team won three matches and far outpaced everybody else in terms of kills, Forsen’s team did just enough to technically win. That said, both Shroud and Annemunition’s teams took home more money than Forsen and friends due to performance bonuses and other technicalities.
Despite that, some viewers are still salty, even going so far as to accuse Forsen of cheating or somehow rigging the tournament in his favour. At that suggestion, Forsen could only laugh.
“No one complained about the rules before the end result,” he said during a stream after the tournament wrapped up, “because the favourites did not win. They were spamming ‘rigged,’ but why would a company that fucking hates me rig the tournament in my favour instead of fucking Shroud? It doesn’t make any sense.”
As is, however, competitive PUBG doesn’t make a ton of sense either, with anti-climaxes and confusion marring some good action.
Comments
3 responses to “Star-Studded Tournament Can’t Transcend PUBG’s Esports Problem”
What doesn’t makes sense is pubg being seen as esport ready. It’s not even version 1.0 ready but hey, no one seems to have noticed so let’s continue the charade until a real developer makes a legit Royale game.
shroud pointed out the inherent problem with it after they won their second (the third match) on Mirmar where they landed at Hacienda and pretty much moved only like 300 metres before the last three circles landed right on top of them. They really only had to look out and shoot down on the remaining teams.
As an esport I understand the random nature of some mechanics are frowned upon, the circle of death is an obvious examples and so too is the weapon spawns.
As a spectacle sport, like this streamer match it was entertaining. Like a celeb car race, or a Harlem globe trotters match. But the entertainment is watching the popular streamers face off, not so much the game itself.
At least that’s how I felt.
I’ve always liked the ideas of circles favouring populated areas (or a higher percentage chance to). I feel this would increase firefights over the game. Although it’d fuck players like myself which tend to more rat loot and play for advantage.
The problem is, as a ‘sport’, it’s boring to watch. Yeah, lots of people what players on Twitch, Mixer and so on, but we all know the real drawcard is not so much the game, as it is the person playing it.
Fortnight might be better for it, but really, any kind of e-sport BR game is going to need to be built to be watched rather than played.
The play to loose often happens in motor sports for various championships or tittles. Where consistent results can out way a few big wins.