Chance is bad in sports, because it is often expected that each competitive game gives those competing an equal chance of victory. Why is an RNG bad for esports? Well, RNG stands for random number generator, and it adds an element of chance to games. Mostly I’m just bragging because I got seven kills last night However, it’s not yet been seen whether or not this RNG basis could hurt its prospects in the long term. Questions are already being asked about whether H1Z1, and by extension, the genre, can be considered an esport, and with the battle royale genre so reliant on RNG-based scavenging, it’s a lot more luck based than standard sports it’s a valid question. This isn’t their first tournament either, with developers Daybreak Entertainment handing out nearly $450,000 over the course of their 20 invitational events. Esports organisations Cloud9, NRG Esports and even Steve Aoki’s esports outfit Rogue, are all putting teams together for the event. H1Z1’s King of the Kill mode, itself a known force in the battle royale genre, recently leapt into the murky esports water with a huge $300,000 tournament that’s seen several teams invest in teams for the tournament. It’s brutal, with lightning fast firefights and tense standoffs, as the drama plays out against the approaching fog.
In the Duo and Team modes though, Battlegrounds shines. In solo play, one player dropping with 99 other competitors that are all looking out for themselves, is complete chaos. For those viewing it, it’s strong because it naturally generates conflict and has the added benefit of being simple to understand for the most casual of watchers. You scavenge, you fight, you die and then you load into another server to do it all again. One of the genres real strengths for players is that it accelerates the now-popular survival genre by having its entire core loop in 30 minutes. H1Z1 currently has 120,000 players concurrently on Steam Soon, a rolling electrical fog will roll across the island, forcing players to contest an ever smaller area until eventually, just a single player, pair or team will emerge the victor. The premise of the recently released Battlegrounds and it’s ilk are simple: 100 people parachute down to earth, entering a Thunderdome the size of a small island.