Daybreak’s zombie survival/free-for-all deathmatch game H1Z1 has been garnering some real “steam” since its release in January of 2015. Despite a short upset from the fans when the game was split into separate PVP and PVE Survival games, its popularity has continued to rise to this day.
As with many multiplayer games that witness a rise in popularity, H1Z1 too has its own tournaments, most notably the H1Z1 Invitational at Twitchcon 2016. Now it seems that Daybreak is looking to take the matter into their own hands with their newly announced “H1Z1: King of the Kill Tournament.”
The tournament will feature a total of 15 teams, that’s 75 players, competing for a piece of the $300,000 (£240,000) prize pool. Some of the teams include well-known names such as Echo Fox, Rogue Gaming, Panda Global and Denial Esports. One of the unique things that sets this tournament apart from others is the “esports docuseries” that will accompany it.
The docuseries will be made up of six parts and dubbed “H1Z1: Fight for the Crown” and will be shown on The CW Network this spring, with the finale featuring the 5-man tournament.
Having such a new game already be featured on national television could mean a fantastic future for H1Z1. Even with that in mind, both of the game’s “modes” hold mixed ratings on Steam with many people complaining about everything from the game being poorly optimised to rampant, unbanned hackers and game breaking bugs.
Esports Insider says: Such exposure and early developer attention is sure to help the game and its community out in the long run. If the developers fixed the players’ concerns in regards to hackers, optimisation and bugs, this could become a great game for esports. After all, the esports world could use more PVP survival games to break the occasional monotony of first person shooters and MOBAs.