This April, Competitive gaming platform FACEIT partnered with the PUBG Corporation to host the first global event of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds’ 2019 Esports season. The multi-stage tournament held at London’s ExCel saw 24 teams battle for the championship. Bluman Associates were commissioned to provide full video display solution and management.
The FACEIT platform is home to 12 million registered users, hosting 34 million monthly games with up to 90,000 gamers playing at any one time. The summit included teams from North America, Europe, Korea, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, Latin America and Oceania.
Streamed to registered internet and television viewers, the tournament started with three days of broadcasted heats, followed by three days of finals as the players competed for a $400,000 prize pool in front of live and broadcast audience.
The system provided by Bluman Associates comprised of 12 front project double stacked units, displaying onto a 10k pixel by 1080 high screen. The system also included 16 LED Screens, exhibiting the six individual teams battling it out for the title.
The gaming aspect of the project heavily relied on HTML5. This allowed player information and stats to be projected on to the widescreen display. The team sent a 2 by 2k HTML5 Rasta over a pre-rendered wireframe, programmed with data such as pod sizes and video screen layout. This allowed team logos, scores, stats and maps of different scenes to be routed to the relevant pod, enabling the audience to keep up to date with competition information in real-time.
FACEIT Director of Content Mike Bembenek has delivered many Esports experiences. “The challenge we face producing an Esports event is balancing the broadcast verses live audience experience. FACEIT provide a platform for a very engaged global audience of gamers, however – whether people will enjoy the tournament in front of a screen or in a live arena is difficult to predict.” stated Bembenek. “Our role is to ensure we provide the best for both worlds by creating big canvases using wide-screen technology and high production values.”
The event broadcasted over 10 hours of gaming watched globally, with the live audience predominantly from Asia and the far East. This was one of the first cross culture Esports events held in London.