It has been a somewhat quiet week in the esports scene. A few spouts of drama, some heated action and improved broadcasts made for a few notable experiences to forget about the cold weather outside.
UNILAD creates a team full of drama
Popular social and media platform Unilad has dipped into the world of esports by launching an organization. Unfortunately, for the company and everyone involved, it hasn't got off to a smooth start. The company's head of esports, Kurtis Stocks, failed to meet up with prospective Rocket League players and then UNILAD subsequently announced a completely different roster of names, leaving hopeful applicants in the dark about what's going on, why the no-show, and why the lack of communication.
Euan "Tadpole" Ingram was one of these hopeful applicants for UNILAD, who went to Twitter to reveal that there was still a lack of communication from UNILAD. Stocks then responded, accepting responsibility but only to denounce said responsibility when others complained about the situation — indeed, the Twitter conversation passed through multiple dimensions. Is it just business or should more care be given to players? I'm in the latter camp.
FC Barcelona to back PES
The huge football club announced plans to back the PES2018 esports tournament by forming a team in order to participate. It's big news for not only Pro Evolution Soccer 2018 and KONAMI, but also esports as a whole to have such an influential brand to take part in real and electronic sports.
PUBG hitting big competitive strides, controversy still follows
As part of the IEM event in Katowice, Poland, 16 of the world's best PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) teams were invited to take part. It was to be the mighty Russians, Avangar, who took the overall prize and the biggest share of the $50,000 prize pool behind some serious slaying.
Controversy wasn't far behind, though, with it becoming apparent after the tournament that one of Optic Gaming's players had been making use of a glitch during competition. The "wall glitch" allows a player inside a building that is tight up in one corner to see outside as if the wall wasn't there.
The moment it was caught on the stream, Optic couldn't have possibly gained any competitive advantage, but using glitches in a professional tournament with $50,000 on the line isn't exactly kosher. Ultimately, PUBG Corp needs to get its act together and clear out these glitches, but pro players need to have some responsibility and play fairly at all times.
From Poland, several of the teams headed out to the Ukraine to join up with some of China's best PUBG players at the Starladder event. This would see 20 rounds of PUBG played over four days, and on the very first day Team Liquid did what no team has done in a competition yet: Three chicken dinners in a row. Each day also sees a sixth game, a TPP show match to "warm the players up."
Halo World Championship 2018 gets first qualifiers
Following the dominating win from Splyce at the Halo Orlando Global Open, the show quickly flew across the Atlantic to the UK. London's Gfinity Arena staged the European Finals where the region's four representatives at the main event in Seattle would be crowned.
Eventually it was Myztro Gaming, Fable, Vexed eBuyer and Europe's current dominators, Team Infused, claiming the four coveted spots. For Team Infused, a cheque for $10,000 also went their way as the tournament winners.
Next up is the ANZ region qualifiers in Sydney before the biggest teams in Halo from North America get their chance at qualifying for the World Championship.
Halo World Championship 2018: What you need to know