The Pepsi MAX Big Hunt Dominated By Foreign Teams

On the 9th of August, two of Malta’s biggest Warzone streamers, Spooner and SandMax hosted a sponsored a novelty tournament organised by GMR Entertainment and Pepsi MAX, with Malta’s largest Warzone prizepool to date, a cool €500.

Unlike other tournaments, the Pepsi MAX Big Hunt featured a somewhat unorthodox format, with a huge number of points being allocated if players manage to kill the two hosts in the custom lobby setup. Moreover, since both Spooner and SandMax would be streaming the event, their opponents were deliberately encouraged to stream snipe, resulting in the expected mayhem of having all the teams in the lobby scramble to kill the hapless hosts, often getting riddled with bullet holes before even landing in Verdansk.

The three-hour-long event saw both Maltese and foreign teams competing for a shot at the €400 first prize, and the €100 consolation prize. Ultimately, the team consisting of Stewo and Sxnfra won the event by a significant margin. The German-Italian mix are competitive veterans, with Stewo boasting over $21,000 in winnings on Checkmate Gaming, and Sxnfra with over $5000 won in various Warzone competitions. The competitive pedigree of the second-placed team, consisting of abWiz7 and OEKIY_, with the Greek player also having over $20,000 in earnings from Warzone competitions.

Whilst this event may have been a one-off, battle royale competitions keep experimenting with formats in order to get the best results for viewership and participation. Whilst Warzone is undergoing a rough period due to bugs, balance issues, and massive cheating problems, it remains to be seen whether its competitive side can survive the turbulence, and can the Maltese scene survive with foreigners taking the wins in all successive local tournaments?