esports
During this week’s Global Invitational, PUBG Corp announced a five-year plan to establish PUBG as an esport. We spoke to PlayerUnknown himself, Brendan Greene, to learn about their ambitious goals.
The day before 20 of the best PUBG teams from around the world took their first leap from the skies and down onto the fields of Erangel for the PUBG Global Invitational in Berlin, we were given the biggest statement of intent for the game’s burgeoning esports scene. PUBG Corp CEO, Chang Han Kim, took to the stage to announce a five-year plan that will see the immensely successful battle royale look to establish, grow and sustain itself as an esport title up through to 2022 and beyond.
The roadmap begins with the PGI Global Invitational and will expand massively over the forthcoming years, as PUBG Corp and its partners look to host regular regional leagues that lead up to a world championship, while also fostering the amateur and grassroots scene to encourage new players.
There’s a heavy emphasis on sustainability too, with multiple ways to ensure teams and players are supported financially so they can follow their dreams of competing in professional PUBG. Finally, viewers play an important part too, with significant investment promised in improving the game’s UI and observer systems.
It’s a declaration that couldn’t have come at a more important time for PUBG, as rivals continue to encroach on their territory and Epic Games have announced their own massive investment into Fortnite esports. This was a sign of serious commitment, one that Kim himself described as their attempt to “establish a new gaming culture… with PUBG esports as a self-standing product and not just a marketing tool.”
Once we’d absorbed every last detail of their ambitious plan, we sat down with PlayerUnknown himself, Brendan Greene, to get his perspective on the future of PUBG esports. We started with the progress the game has made already to bring it to the massive stage of the Mercedes Benz Arena in Berlin. Can he believe it’s already reached this point?
“No! I mean, I dreamt about this. When I first created the battle royale game mode way back in ARMA I always thought… wouldn't it be cool? Esports to me was two teams of five on a stage. I thought, wouldn't it be cool to have 100 people fighting it out in an arena?”
“Well, now we've got 80 people fighting it out in an arena,” he continues. “So, honestly, it's like a dream come true. It's what I always envisioned battle royale could be and now seeing it in real life, it's a bit humbling.”
Beginning in Berlin
But for Brendan and PUBG Corp, this Global Invitational is just the start of their esports adventure. The plan for this event and the rest of 2018 is to lay the groundwork for PUBG esports, establishing how a tournament might work while improving the viewing experience for spectators. Altogether, they want to prove PUBG has serious esports potential so they can deliver on that in the years to come.
“This is something we've always had planned. This was never a short-term project for us. We always saw the battle royale game mode as a spectator sport and a very great possibility for the next great esport,” Greene says. “We always had a plan to make this into an esport. It was always the intention but we knew we couldn't rush it, you know?”
“No one's done it before. We're experimenting in new territory and it's going to take time. Counter-Strike, League of Legends, they took, what, three or four years to really sort out the full thing? So, we’re looking in the same kind of scale. We're thinking in years rather than months. This plan may change over the next few years or it may change over the next six months but that's the kind of scale we're dreaming in. We want to see this continue for ten years.”
If 2018 is about proving PUBG’s potential as an esport, then the next two years will be about ensuring its stability. For this, PUBG Corp has set its focus on players and teams, finding ways to ensure that current pros have the financial security to focus on the game, while amateurs have a clear path to follow if they want to compete at the top level.
“That's super important,” stresses Greene. “The players are what make up your game, so giving them a path to pro, and not only a path to pro, but a path to a sustainable career too. That's why I like working with PUBG Corp because that's at the forefront of our minds. We have to support the players, and we have to make sure that if I want to become a PUBG pro… it will be sustainable. Finding ways to do that is one of our top priorities.”
Currently, the plans are similar to the ways many other esports titles, such as Heroes of the Storm, offer that additional level of help to players. It starts with prize money, but PUBG Corp is also sharing revenue on team merch and in-game items. With this, fans who show their support for their favourite team will be funding them with each purchase.
But it goes beyond financial support for PUBG Corp too. Standardised rules and a globally aligned schedule are also important steps to making a career as a pro player viable. Having that consistency puts everyone on the same page, and while PUBG Corp already have plans for the ruleset and regional leagues, they will always be willing to listen to feedback from players to ensure the system is suitable.
“The wonderful thing about the battle royale community in general is that they're super passionate,” enthuses Greene. “They will let us know exactly what they think, and there's decisions we make that some of them don't like! But, it's more that we're trying to find the fairest way for everyone to compete.”
Room to experiment
Yet, in these early stages there’s still room to be disruptive. Changes to game mechanics may be implemented and then rolled back depending on the response from pros and players, and tournament formats can still be toyed with to find something that works best for everyone – whether that’s solos, duos, teams or a new set-up entirely.
“We don't want to favour one region, one style, one play type. It's about finding a set of rules that work globally, and some teams may not like that,” Greene says. “Like, we increased the players from 60 to 80 and some of the teams didn't like that, but it was because it was more disrupting to their play style.”
“For me, a battle royale is about challenging your play style every single time,” Greene explains. “If you're getting comfortable then I'm doing something wrong! It's a constant evolution but it's something we're going to work on for five years… ten years.”
Specialising for spectators
Part of making an esport successful is also create the best experience possible for the spectators. Despite multiple big tournaments, it still feels like PUBG is learning in this area, as it trials different observing techniques to try and convey everything that’s happening in a match without overwhelming the viewer or missing key moments.
“We've seen it's starting to come together now with spectating a battle royale but it's really hard. 80 players, 20 teams, trying to capture all the action, it's a hard thing to do. We have a great set of spectators here and I think you'll get to see a really well spectated event this time around.”
“Again, no one has done this before, so we're trying to figure out the best way to spectate it. It's a challenge but it's something we really want to put money into and invest into and really make it easier for the spectator to understand and view the game.”
If they can nail down the complexities of broadcasting such a wild and vast game as PUBG then they’re a good chunk of the way their to finding success. It’s especially interesting to hear how they’re looking at traditional sports such as golf to make that possible, as that also has a larger player base and requires you to deliver a story for each player.
With that in mind, plans include giving viewers the option to watch one specific team throughout an entire match, with individual casters guiding you through their moment to moment action. We’ve already seen how something like that can work in the Fortnite Pro AM, which took the time to highlight a pair of players when they were in exciting skirmishes. That also brings us back round to how competitive the battle royale genre is right now, but Greene is not too fussed at the moves similar games are making.
Focusing on number one
“I think a lot of people are going to try and do battle royale this year but I don't know how many will succeed. For us, it's focusing on our game. We’ve outlined a path to esports that we want to follow so for us, that's what our focus is. It's stabilising the game, providing the infrastructure for a sustainable esport and that's where I think we will keep our fan base.”
So, when all is said and done, what will be the measure of success for this week’s Global Invitational for Greene and PUBG Corp?
“I think if the players are happy, I think if the crowd enjoy it, I think if Twitch chat is happy? I think that's a good measure of any event if Twitch chat doesn't hate you!”
Jokes aside, the event will be a very important milestone for PUBG esports. Essentially, it’s the defining moment that’s going to serve as the major introduction to the game’s competitive future. It’ll be very interesting to see in five years time whether we’ll be looking back at PUBG Corp’s plans as a misfire or if this was the first step towards a viable, fully fleshed out esport. From what we’ve seen at the PGI Global Invitational so far, there are still a few kinks to be worked out – but there’s a clear drive and optimism to see the game succeed.
