H1Z1’s official esports league abruptly shut down in the middle of its inaugural season, barely six months after starting. The announcement comes at a time when the free-to-play game is struggling to maintain an audience.
ESPN reported on Saturday that the league’s second, 10-match half had been suspended indefinitely, and that a second league season isn’t being scheduled. That was according to a message sent to teams and players by Jace Hall, the co-chairman of Twin Galaxies, a governing partner in the league. All teams were released, effective immediately, from their league obligations.
ESPN further reported that delayed payments and other organizational problems had led up to the league’s shutdown. Fifteen teams were supposed to divide $6 million, receiving $200,000 per season split. The second stipend was originally due on July 28, with the second split scheduled to start Sept. 15. The latest, under contract, that the stipend could be paid (if the second split was still beginning in 2018) was on Monday. That didn’t happen, and the H1Z1 Pro League shut down. Hall told Polygon the league shutdown is unrelated to the stipend payments.
At least one team had already quit the league, unable to pay its players, while others remained, paying players out of their own accounts and taking a loss on the participation.
Though H1Z1 converted its primary mode of play to a battle royale in 2016 — with the help of Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene, even — it is by far overshadowed by Greene’s PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite Battle Royale.
Steam Charts showed the game having 31,263 average concurrent players for the month of October 2017. For October 2018, it was 2,454. Going free-to-play in March boosted its playership over 13,000 for that month, but it hasn’t been within half of that total since the H1Z1 Pro League began play in April.
The league still debuted with a flashy prime-time special on the CW Network in late April, though it, too, failed to catch on. ESPN noted that the league’s broadcast on Facebook topped out at 7,900 concurrent viewers. Hall, according to ESPN, cited the dwindling interest in H1Z1 as a reason for its closure. Twin Galaxies and H1Z1 maker Daybreak Games established the league in October 2017.
In the note to teams, Hall said the H1Z1 Pro League was still working to pay the contractually obligated stipends to the team owners. Polygon has reached out to both Hall and Daybreak Games representatives for comment.
Update Nov. 21: Hall replied with this statement, and directed readers to a Twitter video about the shutdown and related issues.
The discontinuation of the league is not related to any payment. It is directly related to the decline of the game audience from the start of the league calendar year until now.
It doesn’t make sense to proceed with a league expression until the game and it’s user base actually grows to a sustainable level to warrant a continued effort.
The matter of the stipend payment to teams is completely unrelated to the decision to not continue the league. Which is why the league still intends to fulfill its obligation there within the league calendar year as per the contract.
Lets get down to it. Honest and transparent as always. No problem. https://t.co/sZTqpFQmJM
— Jace Hall (@JaceHall) November 21, 2018