The PUBG Global Invitational.S has been moving along for four weeks, however, this weekend we were treated to a unique viewing experience in the Survival Tournament. A bevy of adjustments to the traditional PUBG Esports settings changed everything we’ve come to expect in the tournament so far — producing an exciting one-off tournament for the $60,000 USD prize pool.
Survival Tournament featured a handful of major adjustments to the blue zone and circle settings, as well. If you tuned in for the matches you would have noticed the first zone already revealed on the map as teams flew across in the plane. This forced each team into a smaller area of the map almost immediately, essentially forcing teams to make their looting location decisions in real-time. These drastically different circle settings brought the standard thirty-minute match down to about twelve or thirteen. Constant pressure from the zone increased movement amongst the players and teams, leading to all kinds of collisions for important positions inside the zone.
Increases to blue zone damage also encouraged teams to stay within the fast closing play zone. For comparison, the blue zone damage during Phase 4 of the Weekly Survival is 3 HP/s – during the Survival Tournament, it was turned up to 10 HP/s. With only four teams and sixteen players on the battleground, this change to the traditional settings did not allow teams to loot inside the blue avoiding combat.
Before we jump into the highlights of this weekend’s event, it’s important to remember that the matches were held in the game’s third-person perspective or ‘TPP’ mode. This was by far the most surprising settings change announced prior to the start of the Survival Tournament, though it brought many players and fans back to the perspective that PUBG originally began with. While it may not have provided us with much in terms of each team’s success or challenges moving forward, it did generate an interesting tournament with plenty of action to keep fans locked in.
ENEMIES ALL AROUND
We were quickly reminded of the advantages and disadvantages of playing in Third-Person during the opening match of the Survival Tournament. Attack All Around ends up walking away with the first Chicken Dinner of the event after using their cover and utility as FaZe Clan and Meta Gaming clashed above them.
The differences in how teams play these sort of zones changes entirely when you take into consideration the perspective of these matches. Having the opportunity to spot and follow the enemy player without risking harm to yourself is unquestionably the biggest difference between our traditional settings and the one we enjoyed this weekend.
Attack All Around manages to stay low and keep out of the line of fire as the relentless blue zone forces their two opponents into each other. This match also highlights the intensity of many late-game circles during the tournament, with three or all four teams still alive as the final zone begins to collapse.
TWO KINDS OF ‘PULL UPS’
Of course, the Survival Tournament also had the drive-by and vehicle pull ups of a typical PUBG Esports match. That said, Snakers from Oath Gaming tried his own brand of arriving to a compound, with a glorious pan in-hand.
Obviously, one of these methods works better than the other, but to be fair, I still wouldn’t count out Snakers running uphill in the open wielding a pan. If this highlight doesn’t perfectly sum up the event’s entire vibe, then I don’t know what can. And if you thought, “I wonder if Snakers died trying to pan someone?”, then you’d be wrong because he actually wins this match for Oath Gaming as a solo.
Survival Tournament was loaded with great moments like this, so even with its insane settings, the event was a lot of fun to watch.
FIRST RULE OF POCHINKI FIGHT CLUB
If you’ve followed North American PUBG Esports for some time, you know this isn’t the first fisticuffs we’ve seen in-game. During the Survival Tournament, Infantry and Tianba landed in Pochinki and decided to settle their differences the old fashion way.
Matrym and Simms voiced the shock and excitement that every spectator was feeling! It was bizarre to see players not firing weapons at one another after a hot-drop into Pochinki. Before we knew it, one-on-one fights to the death began to the delight of all of us watching at home.
Three consecutive fights resulted in Infantry’s favor, but a heroic gauntlet was run by “mingz1” which kept Tianba alive. The players were using every possible technique to win these fist-fights, but the score would be settled via the fourth and final knockout from Infantry’s “Boliang”.
TSG TAKE HOME $30,000
Ultimately, the Survival Tournament and its $30,000 USD grand prize belonged to Triumphant Song Gaming (TSG) for their impressive stretch of matches in the Championship Final. With two second-place finishes and one Chicken Dinner, TSG collected 33 Points in three matches to hold off Virtus.pro, MultiCircle Gaming, and DayTrade Gaming.
TSG was closely contested by all three teams in the Final, but when it mattered most, Triumphant Song Gaming was the best team this past weekend. The final standings were incredibly close and resulted in single-digit point totals for second, third and fourth place. One point had the potential to swing a team’s earnings by thousands of dollars.
The Survival Tournament was a unique break from the standard format we’ve been enjoying throughout PGI.S, but now every team’s focus shifts back to the Weekly Survival and Weekly Finals. The top-four teams were able to secure some additional cash as we head into the second half of the PUBG Global Invitational.S where the biggest prize pools will be awarded.
