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PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has announced its next big esports event, with a $200,000 invitational taking place at IEM Oakland.
The event will take place on November 18 and 19 in Oakland’s Oracle Arena, home of NBA’s Golden State Warriors.
The tournament, unlike previous large events which have shown off a range of modes, will be a first-person squads tournament with 10 invited teams and 10 qualifying teams. The winning team will take home a healthy $60,000 prize, with the rest divided among the other teams, although specific distribution of prizes hasn’t yet been revealed.
Similarly, no invited teams have yet been announced, but many esports organisations have their own PUBG teams at this stage. If you fancy your news with some speculation, Tema Liquid and TSM’s PUBG teams are likely to be on the invite list based on prior performance, but this hasn’t been confirmed or even hinted at by anyone involved.
PUBG’s gamescom Invitational in August was PUBG’s first real attempt at esports, outside of a smaller event at Dreamhack earlier in the year. PUBG’s first attempt showed potential, but also revealed a couple of minor issues with the tournament. This event should provide an opportunity for the game to show that Bluehole are paying attention to the competitive scene, and are actively trying to make Battlegrounds esports dreams a reality.
