Two UK players were the last men standing in the first solo Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds esports match at Gamescom today.
TSM’s Gary “BreaK” Marshal and Team Liquid’s Daniel “Hayz” Heaysman took part in a patient 1v1 duel at the end of the game, with the clock ticking down.
Hayz initially had the upper hand over BreaK, and was watching from behind a tree as BreaK took down the third remaining player.
“Anyone who wins this will be a good player but they will have luck on their side, and I had luck on my side in that game.”
TSM BreaK
Hayz strafed to his right and got the first few shots off on BreaK, but was unable to kill him outright.
Once BreaK learnt of Hayz’ position, a stand-off ensured, with no man’s land between the two players.
Eventually, it was BreaK who got the victory, earning himself 500 points in the first match of the day, after picking up 11 kills.
BreaK told ESL in a rather humble interview after the game that he ‘kind of made up his gameplan as he went along’.
“I might die first in the next game, there’s a lot of RNG involved in Battlegrounds,” he said. “A lot of good players could have easily killed me.
“Anyone who wins this will be a good player but they will have luck on their side, and I had luck on my side in that game.”
BreaK and British casters Pansy and Richard Simms tweeted after the match:
I WANT THESE GUYS DED!
— BreaK (@TSM_Break) August 23, 2017
Thanks for the support guys! Fucking love this game. Animal play from @TSM_Break
— Lauren Scott (@TheyCallMePansy) August 23, 2017
BREAK!
— Richard Simms (@TheSimms) August 23, 2017
BreaK ended up finishing second in the solo tournament, and Hayz finished third. The winner was Korean player and former Overwatch pro Evermore.
The PUBG Invitational at Gamescom features a $350,000 prize pool and is the first true esports test for the smash hit PC game of 2017.
Today’s stream of the first match pulled in more than 125,000 viewers on Twitch.
Further reading: ‘Battle royale games have a big place in the future of esports’ – Team Liquid sign UK PUBG players
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
