Battlefield shows it’s still not ready to be an esport

Battlefield has shown, once again, that it’s not ready to compete with the big dogs when it comes to its esports scene. After years of half-trying and full-failing to build a successful esport, Battlefield 6 had to cancel its first event. 

On Wednesday, the Battlefield X account announced that they are postponing their million-dollar Battlefield Redsec Elite Series due to technical difficulties, presumably related to the latest patch.

Developers explained: “After a thorough review, due to an unforeseen technical issue that impacted the integrity of the competition, we’ve made the difficult but necessary decision to postpone the Battlefield REDSEC Elite Series in all regions. We want to be upfront: this is on us.”

While they didn’t go into detail about what the technical issue was, multiple users have reported a memory leak issue in the latest patch. Regardless of the specific technical issue, it’s not a great start to Battlefield’s attempt at creating a developer supported esport with their battle royale mode.

Battlefield competitive community surprisingly supportive

While you may expect there to be negativity around the announcement, there was a surprising amount of support around the announcement. Players were, of course, disappointed — but they praised the transparency of the Battlefield team. 

Professional esports caster Pansy took to Twitter to share her thoughts on the situation, including suggesting that in the future, Battlefield should create a separate esports environment, so they can protect from unforeseen issues like this in the future.

“Sad to see, but probably the best call,” Pansy stated. “The game doesn’t have to be perfect, but it needs stability for competitive integrity. Probably time to make a tournament realm or be super cautious when you drop big updates before.” 

So while Battlefield has made a mistake, the community sentiment still seems to be on the side of excitement, and in a rare instance, forgiveness. Nonetheless, the pressure is on to see if Battlefield can finally create a successful esports scene.

Battlefield has toyed with 5v5 esports modes in the past, coming out with a 5v5 option in Battlefield 1 late in the games cycle when the hype was already gone, and scrapping a 5v5 mode in Battlefield 5 in 2019.

While community tournaments have always existed in the past, the Battlefield Redsec Elite Series is EA’s first real swing at an esport. Only time will tell if they can make it work, but it’s not looking promising.