against All authority have made a name for themselves in competitive PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, winning the game’s first major tournament at Intel Extreme Masters Oakland over the weekend.
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This isn’t the first time PUBG has been part of a competitive tournament, but IEM Oakland did see the burgeoning esport adopt a little more consistency. While its showing at Gamescom saw a significant mix of modes and perspectives, this weekend’s showing suggests that competitive play will revolve around first-person squads.
The tournament, made up of 20 teams (12 were invited, while a further eight competed for their spot in an open tournament), was played over two days, with a total of eight games. Teams racked up points based on their finishing position, as well as how many kills they scored in each match. That meant that despite being the only time to come first more than once, Digital Chaos didn’t score enough points to challenge for the top spot, eventually coming fifth with 1300 points.
against All authority ended up winning comfortably, finishing the tournament with 1620 points. That put them significantly ahead of their closest competitors, Tempo Storm, who could only manage 1385 points. aAa’s victory was particularly impressive as they had not been invited to the tournament, having progressed through the open tournament to earn their spot.
PUBG is still finding its footing as a competitive esport, and as such there seem to have been a few issues with the tournament. The most notable of these were some interesting observer choices, which saw the camera focus on the map, or even players on their own in the wilderness, while firefights were going on elsewhere.
aAa’s victory saw them take home $60,000 of the $200,000 prize pool. Tempo Storm came in second, while Ghost Gaming were just behind them, coming third with 1375 points. FaZe Clan came fourth, while esports powerhouses TSM, Cloud9, Team Liquid and Ninjas in Pyjamas found themselves further down the rankings.