ESL is bringing a PUBG Invitational tournament to gamescom

One of 2017’s biggest games is about to get its first true taste of esports, as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds will have an invitational tournament at this year’s gamescom in Cologne, Germany. The tournament will take place Aug. 23 to 26, and is set to feature 80 “of the world’s best PUBG players and influencers” in the game’s first LAN event. There will be tournaments for Solo, Duo, first-person Duo, and Squad modes across each of the four days of the event. “We’re thrilled to see PUBG enhancing its already amazing in-game experience with a competitive LAN component at gamescom,” said Ralf Reichert, CEO at ESL. “The game’s been a smash hit and its natural evolution into a competitive title has been incredibly exciting to watch. We’re looking forward to working with Bluehole on this, and many more events to come.” Starting on Aug. 3, players will be able to purchase in-game customization items in PUBG with the proceeds being used as prizes for the gamescom winners and charities that developer Bluehole, Inc. will select. “From very early on we knew that the success of PUBG was reliant on the passion of its community. We want to celebrate this by inviting 80 of the top players from around the world to compete in the first offline invitational,” said Chang Han Kim, VP and Executive Producer at Bluehole Inc. “It’s been incredibly rewarding to see how quickly our community has grown, and can’t wait to hear about everyone’s experience this summer.” On top of the increased prizing through the purchasing of exclusive in-game items, the tournament prize pool will have a total value of $350,000. The event will be livestreamed every day on PUBG’s social channels. Esports organizations TSM and Elevate have added PUBG teams, and more are expected to join. The press release also stated that PUBG has now sold more than six million copies in just four months of early access.