FACEIT PUBG tournament kicks off in London
By Yinsu Collins
Last Updated: 17/04/19 4:11am
PUBG's first official global event has kicked off in London.
Twenty four teams from nine competitive regions will be going battling out over the week for a share of the $400,000 prize money in the FACEIT Global Summit: PUBG Classic.
PUBG have teamed up with FACEIT for the event and Michele Attisani, CBO and Co-Founder of FACEIT explains why London was the prime location for the tournament.
He said: "From our stand point, London is a pretty natural location. We've been really successful with building esports events in the UK and London in general.
"In the past, we've had great success with our ECS and Counter-Strike and those events have sold out arenas."
The CSGO FACEIT Major, which was broadcasted on Sky Sports last year, saw sold-out crowds at the SSE Arena and Jake Sin, the global Esports manager for PUBG believes PUBG has the potential to replicate similar level of success.
He said: "Our approach is pretty simple and humble. PUBG haven't quite figured out exactly how it should be produced and broadcasted yet so we're willing to work with innovators in this space and experiment with different ideas to work out what works best for PUBG and Battle Royale.
"It's a very challenging genre to be able to turn into esports and having seen what FACEIT have done with Counter-Strike, it's an investment that makes sense to us."
The elimination stage and Grand Finals will be taking place at the ExCel Centre which has a capacity of 4,000.
Tickets will vary from £6 to £49.50 and Michele Attisani reveals what the fans can expect.
He said: "We always strive to provide a unique experience for people who come to the event physically.
"A lot of people will ask, 'if I can watch this online why would I make the effort of buying a ticket, flying or taking the train and get a hotel just to watch it in person?'
"It's obviously a lot of effort we're asking the fans to do but we have made sure that the experience of coming to the event physically would be worth it.
"One of them would be having a high level of immersion with the players so we've made sure to get the fans as close to the players as possible.
"On top of that, especially with PUBG, we have an unique opportunity because the game is very complicated to follow due to a high number of participants but we have a pretty good set up in the arena to accommodate that.
"Lastly, it's about the passion of the people who are coming to the event. That element alone makes it special. Especially in the UK, we have one of the loudest and most excited audience in esports which will make it a great event."
The FACEIT Global Summit: PUBG Classic will be the first event to crown a PUBG world champion in the official world circuit.
The elimination stage will start from April 19th with the Grand Finals on April 20 and 21.
