Twenty teams are set to participate in the first stadium event for PUBG, with $200,000 on the line.
Intel Extreme Masters Oakland will have a $200,000 tournament for PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. The event will take place over two days at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California, where the teams will battle it out in eight rounds, with four rounds per day. All rounds will be first person perspective and teams will be rewarded points for both final placements and kills in each round.
The team that wins it all will take home $60,000, while second place is awarded $45,000 and third will be given $30,000. The top eight teams will be getting smaller pieces of the $200,000 prize pool:
- Fourth place: $20,000
- Fifth: $15,000
- Sixth: $12,000
- Seventh: $10,000
- Eighth: $8,000
The doors open at 10:00 AM PDT, with the first match starting at 1:00 PM PDT. The victor will be crowned at 5:00 PM PDT on Sunday, after the last game has finished and the points have been tallied.
Invited Teams
TSM - Viss, AimPR, SmaK, Break
One of the first major org-backed teams to enter PUBG, TSM took third place in the Auzom Premier League last month. Viss and SmaK also managed to tie for third place at the PUBG Charity Invitational earlier this year. All four players have experience with Arma 3 as well as some other first-person shooters, ranging from the likes of Call of Duty to Counter-Strike.
Team Liquid - Hayz, Scoom, Molnman, Ollywood
Team Liquid entered the PUBG fray back in early August. Hayz in particular has a very strong background in PUBG, having gotten the most kills in the EU bracket of the PUBG Charity Invitational from earlier on this year. Most recently, they secured second place in the Global Loot League PUBG weekly.
Team Noble - Boom, Edakulous, Tczygote, Interrogate
The team was picked up by Noble back in May, with an emphasis on the player’s first person shooter background: Interrogate and Edakulous have backgrounds in Counter-Strike while Boom has been involved in PUBG esports since the Alpha stages of the game. Tczygote, the most recent addition to the team, played for Gale Force Esports before transferring over to Noble early last month.
Luminosity Gaming - Ninja, JP2, Drassel, Chipzy
LG is entering IEM Oakland with a big win under their belt already thanks to a first place finish in the Squads first person tournament at the Gamescom PUBG Invitational in August. The team is led by Ninja, one of the most popular PUBG streamers in the tournament. The team is part of LG’s H1Z1: King of the Kill competitive roster, along with Aydren and Glitterxplosion.
Alliance - Ciggzy, Odin, Romz, Veazyy
The ex-Team Legion squad joined Alliance in late September and soon after took sixth overall in the Auzom Premiere League last month. Veazzy was most well known for his time with Warheads before he joined Legion, while the rest of the team has backgrounds in other first person shooters like Arma and Call of Duty.
Cloud9 - Moody, Frolicer, Chappie, SolidFPS
Cloud9’s Battle Royale team consists of first person veterans as well as an Army veteran in the form of Chappie. The team most recently took second in the Curse Trials tournament and tenth in the PUBG BEAT Invitational. Moody and Frolicer also placed first in Curse Trials’ October duos first person perspective tournament.
FaZe Clan - Fuzzface, Mxey, Jembty, Haxete
The group made a name for themselves as Gorilla Core Esports before being acquired by FaZe last week. The team took first honors in the Auzom Premier League, overcoming KnightsGG and TSM to take the title. They had a record 177 kills throughout the entire season to claim the title. They also seemed to be the most consistent in the tournament, with 33.33% of round wins and almost 81% of the time in the top ten.
Ninjas in Pyjamas - Sweaterr, Crunch, Borg, Ekkz
Crunch, Borg and Sweaterr were all part of Cloud9 before they moved over to the NiP roster. They placed thirteenth in last week’s PUBGOnline EU Contenders tournament, winning the first round.
Penta Sports - Frosz, Simsy, Jeemzz, Ultra
Penta entered the Battlegrounds back in late summer. The squad has placed well recently, with a third place finish in the Global Loot League and a fifth place finish in the Auzom Premier League. They also ended last months’ PUBGOnline series in third.
Evil Geniuses - Goul, Pandaego, Wattz, Gnomey
EG officially entered the PUBG scene a month ago and this will be their first major tournament. Pandaego was part various Dota 2 teams as a coach and player, making the move to PUBG to join EG.
Tempo Storm - Valliate, Yaboidre, Meluke, Sambty
The former Pure RNG squad signed onto Tempo Storm three months ago, with Sambty being the newest addition when he joined last month. At one point, Pure RNG was the top team in the PUBGOnline Showdown North America and the team has moved on to take 17th place in the Auzom Premier League. They also placed fourth in the PUBG BEAT Invitational.
Method Gaming - AndyPyro, Layton, EnergTurtle, Aitzy
Method’s squad formed in late September, with Layton entering late to replace RaptorDaRaptor earlier this month. Method just barely outpaced Tempo Storm in the Auzom Premier League, placing 16th. They also won Legends Arena Pro League Season 1.
Qualified Teams
These are the teams that needed to go through qualifying matches in order to get into the Invitational. These teams went up against 312 other teams to qualify for the event. Each scored at least top five in their respective first round match, then again in their second round, and finally placed top four in the final, 20-Squad Round Three.
Crimson Esports - Jazza, Teabone, Miracu, Texqs
Wind and Rain - Stab, Gustavqq, Tryffeli, WookieBookie
*AAA* Gaming - Monkey, Oraxe, Shadow1K, Shiv
Digital Chaos - Awien, Ewanhc, Faustocoppi, Jokkizz
Ghost Gaming - Miccoy, Definelegit, Austin, Prophie
Ronin Esports - Duckk, Kraqen, MiniFridgeJr, notadeveloper
Miami Flamingos - Tonyv, Zenttriix, DatKoko, 1HunnaRounds
CornShuckers - Zanpah, EnV, Paaaradox, Elusive
How and Where to Watch
Fans all over the world can watch the IEM Oakland PUBG Invitational on the ESL_PUBG twitch stream, where they most recently streamed the qualifiers. The first games on both days start at 10:00 AM PDT.
Casting talent includes Lauren “Pansy” Scott, Steve “Toffees” Pierce, Matt “Matrym” Oates and Lee “Deman” Smith. Analysis will be provided by Josh “Steel” Nissan and Martin “Avnqr” Goth. James “Kaelaris” Carrol and Richard “The Simms” Simms will serve as interviewers. There will be seven observers for the tournament.
