Playerunknown's Battlegrounds' official big-league begins with a 20-team invitational throwdown in Berlin
Big money! Big prizes! I love it!
Plunkbat (Playerunknown's Battlegrounds for short) may have taken over the world already, but it's not quite made the inroads into esports that you'd expect, leaving the likes of Overwatch and Counter-Strike to fill the vacuum. Well, as we all know, there's only one solution to a lack of esports representation: Fat sacks of cash-money, and PUBG Corp. are providing as 20 teams congregate in Berlin this July to fight for a $2m (USD) prize pot.
And, presumably, a very expensive chicken dinner.
This technically isn't the company's first time at the esports rodeo, with last year seeing Gamescom hosting a $350k prize tournament. This new Berlin event sounds like it's on a whole other level, though, which is to be expected considering the prizes that the teams are competing for.
It's going to be a properly worldwide brawl, too. Three teams a piece will be representing Europe, North Africa and Asia. Two teams each will be coming in from the CIS, South Korea, China and Japan, and South America, Oceania and the Middle East will be contributing one team each.
It'll be a while yet until we know what teams are playing, but the tournament itself will be broadcast live from July 25th through til' July 29th, and will undoubtedly bring in absolutely enormous crowds on Twitch. Even thought PUBG may have slipped down the rankings a bit compared to Fortnite, it's still a powerhouse for streamers.
Undoubtedly this event will also be accompanied by a wide range of promotional merch, both in-game and otherwise. Expect to see a range of official Invitational-branded loot crates, plus a storefront full of tournament and team-themed clobber if you want to represent your crew whether or not you're carrying a virtual frying pan. We'll have more details on the event as they unfold