This won’t be your conventional esports tournament!

64 player are set to compete on the ESL Arena show floor at gamescom, as the community presents them with challenges and obstacles that they need to overcome. These challenges will be decided by popularity votes on social media. By completing them, teams will unlock money that they then will donate to the charity they chose to represent. Everyone wins!

Out of the 64 participating players, 32 will be directly invited influencers while the other half will be determined through European open bracket qualifiers. The two pools of players will then get paired up into duos who will compete together for the duration of the tournament. Over the course of 3 days, 12 games will be played in total (four per day).

Starting early July we’ll host open bracket tournaments on ESL Play in the following countries to determine the 32 qualified players (4 lobbies equates to 100 players).

• UK: 3 players (4 lobbies)
• Germany: 4 players (no limit)
• Turkey: 2 players (4 lobbies)
• South-East Europe: 2 players (4 lobbies)
• CIS: 2 players (4 lobbies)
• Italy: 2 players (4 lobbies)
• France: 4 players (4 lobbies)
• Spain: 3 players (4 lobbies)
• Nordics: 4 players (4 lobbies)
• Poland: 2 players (4 lobbies)
• Rest of Europe: 4 players (no limit)

Sign up for your regional tournament today!

PLAYERUNKNOWN’s Charity Challenge streams will be found on the official ESL PUBG Twitch channel, as well the various influencer streams live from the gamescom showfloor.

Stayed tuned and follow ESL PUBG on both Twitter and Facebook for further tournament information, such as confirmed influencers and qualifier updates.

The ESL Arena at Wacken will feature time slots for both Free Play, where anybody can try their hands at the aforementioned titles, as well as Open Qualifiers for PUBG, LoL and Street Fighter to find out which attendees are the best of the best. No pre-registration necessary. For those participating in the tournaments, we’ll have awesome prizes on the line, including ESL swag, tickets to future ESL events, gaming gear from Razer & more. You can find the exact time slots for Free Play and the Open Qualifiers on the official Wacken website.

In addition, ESL Arena Wacken sponsors Razer have set up a booth of their own, where they are showcasing their latest gaming peripherals, laptops and products. On top of that, you’ll have the chance to test them on the spot, by playing the various games offered right at the booth.

But thanks to ESL Arena sponsor NicNacs, it doesn’t just end there. As an additional incentive for the League of Legends Open Qualifiers, none other than Spandauer Inferno will be taking part in a showmatch on Friday, August 3rd. Awesome prizes and a once in a lifetime opportunity to beat Spandauer Inferno on the big stage await those, that take part in the competition.

To learn more about Wacken, the ESL Arena or how to find your way around the festival grounds, be sure to check out the official website. Good luck to everyone at Wacken!

Three spots in PGI 2018 are up for grabs in the European Qualifiers tournament, with the finals to be held in Leicester, UK, at the city’s Haymarket Theatre from 29 June to 1 July. Those final rounds, which will see twenty teams compete in fifteen matches across three days, will be presented by ESL before a live audience. The top three squads will each earn a place at PGI 2018, which will take place in Berlin in from 25 July to 29 July. They will face off against the best teams from across the world for a $2 million prize pool.The first phase of matches in the European Qualifiers tournament has already ended, and standings for all stages are available from the ESL Play website.

Phase two will see the remaining 320 teams do battle, with their matches scheduled to run from 19 May to 27 May. Those clashes will determine the teams that will advance to the offline qualifiers. The first-round matches will be broadcasted by ESL on Twitch, and you will be able to watch them here: twitch.tv/esl_pubg.

The European Qualifiers tournament will be the latest PUBG tournament presented by ESL. It follows the Intel Extreme Masters 2018, which took place in Katowice in February. At that event, sixteen teams from three continents battled for a $50,000 prize pool in front of a live audience.

The Haymarket Theatre is a 900-seat venue in the heart of Leicester. This will be the second ESL event to be hosted at the venue. Tickets for the live finals will be available starting 19 May, 11:00 BST from the Haymarket Theatre’s website, here, esl.pm/EUQLPGI18.

“We’re honoured to present the first official PGI european qualifiers in the UK” said James Dean, Managing Director, ESL UK.  “PGI is an absolute phenomenon and we are excited to execute an ambitious 80-player stage setup that befits the scale of the game!”

“We are thrilled to find the best PUBG squads in Europe to compete in Berlin at our first truly global esports undertaking, PGI 2018,” said Alex Nam, Head of EMEA Business, PUBG Corp. “We can’t wait for the community to be part this process with us at every step along the way.”

For more information on the PGI European Qualifiers, visit esl.pm/PGIEU and follow ESL PUBG on Twitter and Facebook for further updates.

The playing field has been cut down by half as only 320 teams remain. This leaves us with 16 lobbies, filled by 20 teams apiece. And the requirements to advance to the next got a lot harsher as well. While the previous round allowed the top 10 teams per lobby to advance on further, now that we’ve reached the Round-of-320, only the five best teams per lobby will remain in the running for those coveted PGI 2018 spots. Which 80 teams will survive the weekend?

Check out the Ro320 groups!

With lots of strong groups to choose from filled with well known pro teams, winners from the previous round and aspiring open qualifier teams we picked out some groups to keep an eye on.

Group 1

Talk about a stacked group. Lots of well known organizations as well as impressive open qualifier teams – this group is bound to come down to the wire. Team Liquid, Wind and Rain, Ninjas in Pyjamas and Alliance are names well known to esports fans and especially those that follow PUBG. Add to that aggressive teams like N7 and North Sea Gaming and you’ve got yourself a highly competitive group. This is one to watch out for.

Group 3

You can’t help but expect exciting things from a group that contains Rogue, Team Crimson and Method amongst others. Rogue and Method are mainstays at PUBG LAN events, filled with some of the best players the game has to offer. But one of the most exciting teams in the group might the Team Crimson. If you’re not familiar with this squad, you will be after this weekend. In the previous round they laid down the law with 57 kills while finishing in first place of their group – the second most aggressive performance in the qualifiers so far! By the way, Rogue was the third most aggressive team with 56 kills, so get ready for some fireworks.

Group 5

We can’t go without mentioning whichever group FaZe Clan are in. After the show they put on in the first round with 77 kills in 4 maps we can’t wait to see what they have in store for us next. And keeping their recent tournament performances in mind, they are definitely one of the front runners to win the EU Qualifiers, since it’d be hard to imagine PGI 2018 without the Scandinavian powerhouse. Sit back and enjoy the show.

Tune in this weekend when our talented casters and analysts bring your all the qualifier action. The broadcast starts on Saturday, May 19th, at 13:00 CEST live on Twitch, so don’t miss out!

And be sure to so ESL PUBG on both Twitter and Facebook to receive the latest tournament updates.

You can find the full seeding breakdown right here:

European Qualifiers

The European Qualifiers will be divided in three Majors stages:

• Qualifier Phase 1: May 7th-10th
• Qualifier Phase 2: May 19th – 27th
• Offline Qualifier Finals in Leicester, UK: June 29th – July 1st

Qualifier Phase 1

There won’t be any shortage of opportunities in the first phase of the qualifiers, which are designed to support up to 640 hopeful teams. Over the course of two rounds, that number will get reduced to 320 teams for Phase 2 of the qualifiers.

• Total teams: 640
• Lobby size: 20 teams
• Two rounds
• Each round consists of 3 matches
• Top 10 teams per lobby advance to the next round

Sign up the the EU Open Qualifier today!

Qualifier Phase 2

As the Qualifiers continue, the playing field grows stronger. In this phase, the qualifier become more ruthless, with only the top 5 teams advancing per lobby. But with an increase in matches per round, teams will have more chances to comeback from bad positions.

• Total teams: 320
• Lobby size: 20 teams
• Round of 320: 4 matches, top 5 advance to Round of 80
• Round of 80: 8 matches, top 5 advance to Offline Qualifiers

Final Qualifier Phase

Taking place in the Haymarket Theatre in Leicester, UK, the Offline Qualifier finals will be the final hurdle for all participants. Only three teams will get the chance to compete at the PGI 2018, so over the course of three days, the last 20 teams will do battle in 5 matches per day to determine the eventual podium placements.

• Where: Haymarket Theatre, Leicester, UK
• Total teams: 20
• 3 days, 5 matches per day
• Top 3 receive invite to PGI 2018

The Haymarket Theatre can accommodate up to 900 live spectators.

Prize Pool

• 1th 20,000$ and a spot in the PGI finals
• 2th 16,000$ and a spot in the PGI finals
• 3th 12,000$ and a spot in the PGI finals
• 4th 8,000$
• 5th-6th 6,000$
• 7th-10th 4,000$
• 11th-16th 2,000$
• 17th-20th 1,000$

Do you think your team has what it takes to advance all the way to the PGI 2018? Then sign up for the Open Qualifiers today!

Be sure to follow ESL PUBG on both Twitter and Facebook for any further qualifier updates.