Michael “shroud” Gresziak is no stranger to battle royale games. The 24-year-old former Counter-Strike pro is well-known for his incredible prowess in PUBG and Apex Legends, and he’s been widely considered one of the best battle royale streamers on Twitch.
But Shroud also believes that the battle royale esports scene won’t be successful.
Even though he thinks battle royale games are fun for everyday players, he provided his thoughts about this topic on his stream. The main point of shroud’s argument is that each game isn’t decided by skill, but rather, by luck.
“There’s no way you get rid of the RNG at the beginning, of who gets what loot,” Shroud said. “That’ll stay, that’s what makes it kind of interesting. Progressively, what makes it less interesting, is the mid-game. Because the mid-game, everyone is hiding, and then the late game is a clusterfuck.”
Many people in the esports community have mirrored Shroud’s opinion, especially with the Fortnite World Cup qualifiers underway.
“If they can find a way to balance the game in the sense that there won’t be 40 people at the end circle—maybe only 10 like it should be—then yeah, 100 percent, it will work,” Shroud said.
Shroud’s viewpoint is completely valid. With so many people in the final circle, it doesn’t come down to skill as much as it’s about which team gets the final circle in the end.
Battle royale esports have constantly struggled with balancing their point system to incentivize fighting among players. They need to put a priority on kills instead of ladder placement so teams start to hunt out fights at a more consistent rate and keep the action from stagnating.
