H1Z1 Developers Announce a Pro League for 2018

Daybreak Games has announced that they’re partnering with Twin Galaxies to create a pro eSports league for the survival game, H1Z1. This league will launch in early 2018 and will feature 15 teams of five fighting in large 75 player free-for-all matches. Details on the new tournament are still quite limited, but we currently know a few details.

The developers have promised a “player first” approach with this eSport league. There’s a guaranteed minimum salary of $50,000 which is equal to Overwatch players. In addition to this, there’s also a governing committee that will have representation from players and team owners. Players can also expect to see a Player Bill of Rights and a well-defined revenue sharing model. However, we don’t know anything about this revenue sharing model right now.

H1Z1 held its first tournament two years ago and held other events such as the Elite Series at DreamHack. DreamHack is the worlds’ largest digital festival where attendees bring their own computers for the world’s largest LAN party.

“Our goal with the H1Z1 Pro League is to create a world-class experience worthy of our incredibly competitive community,” the H1Z1 general manager, Anthony Castoro, from Daybreak Games told Gameindustry.biz.

A statement has also come from a Twin Galaxies board member. Statton Scalvos states that “Twin Galaxies’ Pro League Division’s mission is to create, govern and operate best-in-class esports leagues, tournaments and special events in a true partnership with leading game publishers.”

It’s difficult to say if this will be the start of something wonderful for H1Z1 considering it’s playerbase. Compared to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite, the playerbase for H1Z1 is almost minuscule. The pro league does sound to be starting in a good place however with a strong player focus which is something that other leagues and companies had to learn about the hard way.