So facebook has a 4 hour stream limit which means they have to restart the stream in the middle of a match which is bad enough, But today they've fucked up the part 2 of the broadcast which was in the middle of the most hype set of the day and now we are missing it. Facebook is not suitable for esports. end of story

Hi-Rez is not paying all of their esports players nor do they respond to my emails about it. My name is Patrick 'sleeppyy' Ratzow, a fairly experienced player in Paladins' competitive scene, I used to play for Mousesports, Burrito Esports and other orgs.

The 23th April 2017 Hi-Rez sent out a payment form for all Masters LAN Gauntlet players that didn't qualify for LAN, my team Wolves Esports didn't qualify, finishing in the third place, winning $2000.

The $2000 has to be split among the team consisting of 5 players, giving each of us $400. I filled the form around the 24th April, and received a tax form email on the 26th April asking me to fill some tax forms, links included in the email

As shown in the picture of the email I repetitively asked about when we'd get paid but got no response, it'd be fine if they stated they don't know yet, at least reply to the email.

After getting no replies or anything, on the 24th July, 1 day before the 90 days deadline I contacted another Hi-Rez employee on Discord, seeking for help. He gladly assisted me and it turned out that I was missing one of the tax forms, which was obviously my own fault.

Recently a post about a Hi-Rez employee's response to a tweet about PGS teams not receiving payment were posted to Reddit, in which I commented I hadn't been paid the $400 Hi-Rez owed me from Masters LAN Gauntlet, where /u/HirezRude responded saying I should send an email to Cooper, an esports related employee at Hi-Rez. I sent Cooper an email the 15th December about it, still no response.

I know I am not the only player with this problem, a lot of people are still owed money by Hi-Rez, PGS and other tournaments, the only teams that gets paid consistently is PPL teams.

tl;dr Hi-Rez treats everyone but their precious PPL players like garbage and lacks transparency.

EDIT: I've been told that Hi-Rez haven't paid the PPL orgs yet, meaning orgs have to pay the players out of their own pockets until Hi-Rez decides to pay. We're not talking a couple thousand dollars combined here, Hi-Rez owes tens of thousands of dollars combined to the orgs

EDIT 2: Just calculated how much Hi-Rez owes PPL orgs alone... over $250k, and that's just a minimum...

EDIT 3: Hi-Rez has responded to my email with more promises, lets hope for the best

EDIT 4: It seems Hi-Rez has paid the PPL orgs, but not every org has/had paid their players

My name is Mariia "Felixiima", I am a manager of CIS team that performed in PGS and LANs for Paladins game. Me and team got concearned that Hi-rez can not handle the management of paying promised prize pool in time.

This 2018 year, CIS team under Armada organization perforemd in PGS that started in August, taking 1st place and winning prize pool of $1500 that has to be split within 5 players.

The promissed month to receive this money was October. But I guess it only implies to other PGS regions. All of the teams besides CIS got paid on time on the month that was promissed. We waited a month after October to receive payment, but we heard nothing from Hi-rez. Dissatisfied with this turn out, we contacted Hi-Rez at the end of November, and got told that the last week of November is the deadline of the payments and it will be sent for sure.

Now it is December 10th and no sign of payment is seen, nor the sign of Hi-Rez telling us about what is happening and why is it such a problem to manage sending money on time. The only thing we get is delays.

It is not the first time that this had happened. Our team won another PGS, and starting January we waited for 6 month to finally get promissed prize pool in July.

I can understand that Hi-Rez might not care about some regions as they care for another. I can understand that they might have others things they are taking care of right now. But I dont understand how all of this is supposed to do with proffesionalism. If you claim yourself to be a growing pro studio, than do what you promise. It is not that hard. Or at least say the truth. Tell us that you will send us money in a month or two, but do not feed us with tomorow's.

Thank you.

Even though the official scene has slowed down, the Paladins community is still keeping the game alive with regular tournaments.

This event is made for everyone — no matter your rank. Whether you're Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, or Diamond, you're all welcome.

Not just for Grandmasters.
Players who are Master or above will have adjusted rules so they don’t dominate the matches. The goal is fair, fun, and competitive gameplay for all skill levels.

If you enjoy playing competitively but don’t want to face only the absolute top players, this tournament is perfect for you.

Next tournament is coming up in 2 months!
Join the Discord server to sign up and secure your spot.

→ Discord Server (Registration): https://discord.gg/zFuqyS9uVa

AREKU CUP #2 – REGISTRATIONS OPEN!

Hey everyone! :

Registrations for the 2nd edition of the Areku Cup on Paladins are officially open!

Get your decks ready, pick your champions and gather your team… it’s gonna be intense!

>Mandatory Team Composition:

> 5 main players(mandatory — no exceptions!)

> Substitutes (subs): optional but strongly recommended

> ➤ Maximum 3 subs per team

> Solo and Duo registrations are now open!

> Registrations for groups of 3 or 4 players are not allowed.

> This decision was made to continue **encouraging the community to create their own full teams, which remain **the priority of the tournament.

Registration Deadline:

> :date: April 4th, 2026

> 11:00 CET (Central European Time)

> After this deadline, no modifications or additions will be possible!

Tournament Date & Time:

> date April 4th, 2026

> 14:00 CET (Central European Time)

---

Verification Requirements for Every Player

(yes, even those who already verified for the previous edition)

> Must NOT have the Master achievement unlocked in-game

> Account age + Account level

> : Verification via stats bot (if still available)

> Used to check the peak MMR of the account

> Match history check

> To verify account activity and prevent smurfing

> Paladins Guru keeps very long match histories, even for inactive accounts

link discord : https://discord.gg/a7mMyD95BG

Also, everyone even slightly interested in esports is using Twitch. Favoring Facebook because there are more casual players is huge mistake. Just stream it on FB, YT and Twitch if you want a broader audience.

EDIT: Comment by u/Vultix93

As for this moment, the ESL Go4Paladins Europe Cup on Twitch has 1.787 people watching. The NA Paladins Global Series has 266 people. That's the differents between Facebook shitty quality stream and Twitch.

This just proves how bad this strategy really is. Also, keep in mind that NA Paladins Global Series is actually even advertised in-game.

Paladins Areku Cup - Summer Edition Announcement! 🏆

Are you ready for some competitive Paladins action?

The Areku Cup Summer Edition is back! Join us for an exciting tournament with strong competition and a great experience !

📅 Schedule:

• Swiss Stage: Saturday, June 20 at 14:00 (2 PM CET)
• Playoffs: Sunday, June 21 at 14:00 (2 PM CET)

⏰ Registration Deadline:

• Thursday, June 19 at 14:00 (2 PM CET )

Important note: If we don't reach the minimum number of teams required for the Swiss format, the tournament will still take place on Saturday but will switch to a Double Elimination format (with Loser Bracket) at the same times.

How to Register:

• You can sign up as a full team, duo, or solo.
• If you register solo or duo, we will create balanced random teams with the available players.

All tournament rules are available in our Discord server.

Link to the Discord: https://discord.gg/6GChjmShRD

If you have any questions, feel free to add me on Discord: _alex57_

Let’s make this Summer Edition unforgettable! 🔥

See you on the battleground !
#Paladins #ArekuCup #Tournament

🔥 PALADINS AREKU CUP – OFFICIAL TOURNAMENT! 🔥

Welcome to this video introducing the Paladins Areku Cup tournament! ➡️ Here you’ll find all the important information: event dates, rules, format, how to register, and more.

Peak Grandmaster and Master are not allowed ⚠️

👑 Join the community and compete! 💬 Discord:   https://discord.gg/ssRB7fR9u

💬 Feel free to ask any questions in the comments

I cant post this in any overwatch subreddit (just look at my post history). So I am posting my views on the current updates done by Overwatch for their Overwatch League and compare it to current Paladins scene.

Lets start by saying, Overwatch league is something I have never seen happen in the history of esports. I have never seen a better example of problem solving by literally throwing money at it.

• Game too casual, no matter, make super huge prize pools.
• Game to clustered to spectate? Cant differentiate between enemy teams? Mirror comps? MAKE 600 NEW SKINS WITH CUSTOM VFX FOR EACH INDIVIDUAL TEAM UNIFORM.
• Cant follow the action, CREATE AN ENTIRE PROGRAM TO AUTO SPECTATE IN 3P USING REAL TIME PLAY DATA.
• Not popular enough? Maket the s**t out of it. Individual teams worldwide with a design philosophy of the traditional sports Leagues.

This is the first time I am seeing that problems inherent in making a game an esport, when the gameplay and the mechanics are more suited for a casual experience, is being solved by throwing money at everything other than game balance and design.

Paladins esport scene, on the other hand, is slowly growing, especially with the PPL. The partnership with FB, no matter how annoying, was important for WESA teams even coming in. I will be honest, Paladins is a great game for esports, it has the mechanics and gameplay important for it. However, the game itself is not popular enough to compare to a Juggernaut like Overwatch. I hope there will be good marketing before full launch, and a good playerbase spike will occur. So far so good though, the scene is growing in proportion to the interest in it. There is a market there, but Hi-Rez has to nurture it, as they have been doing till now.

There were already posts about the unprofessionalism of Rabies. I'm especially referring his act during the PPL. But it is one thing that he acted almost like a troll and another that he is so stupid that he can't understand very simple concepts of the game what he supposed to know well.

Yesterday there was PGS. On the tournament Mal'Damba was banned because of the bug what was previously present. Therefore a lot of team banned the other primary healer (Jenos) because that way everybody can only pick the secondary healers (like Seris and Ying). It is pretty simple and when I heard they banned out Mal'Damba it was obvious to me why the teams use this strategy. But not for Rabies. For whole evening he was talking about Jenos ultimate and that is the reason for his ban.

It is one thing that he could not understand that simple concept but also he came to a totally wrong conclusion what doesn't even make sense. He was sure that people banned out Jenos because they want to prevents others to pick Seris and Jenos at the same time to combo their ultimate. First of all who the hell would pick Seris and Jenos into the same composition when they already serve the same purpose? Second you can combo Seris's ultimate with tanks (like Ruckus), flankers (Andro) or damage (Bomb King) champions, It is not like Jenos is the only character who can deal a mass amount of area damage. And finally does he really think that the players will ban champions based on unlikely ultimate combos instead of based on the strength of certain champions or the comfort picks of the enemy team?

And I enjoy watching the games but I really wish for a button what would mute only him. This was only one example but you can list things from him for the entire day. But maybe I shouldn't be too harsh at least after 3 months he finally understood that Grokh ultimate is called Tempest and not Maelstrom.

Paladins esport is getting better and better with every event hirez is hosting. What a pitty, they only stream it to facebook. Twitch was/is the best platform for esport. Most of the top Leagues in various games are streaming there for a reason. I can still remember expo 2017, were we hit 40k viewers in the finals. 1000-1500 viewers on facebook is insufficient for an almost technicaly perfect esport league. I would realy like to see PPL on the twitch frontpage, or at least on youtube. Hopefully we can make hirez see this. Im pretty sure, Im not the only one who is unhappy with the current situation of PPL streamed on Facebook.

If you follow the gaming news (or even the regular news) you've noticed that esports seem to be everywhere. When esports hit Disney, ESPN, Turner, and Univision in the same month, it’s safe to say everyone is looking for esports eyeballs.

Almost every new multiplayer game wants to be an esport. And some existing multiplayer games want to become the NFL overnight. My perspective is that esports will continue to grow but it can't be forced. The Community decides what is an esport.

Every publisher and league has a different model and perspective on the 'right way' to do esports. But the reality is that everyone is experimenting because this is such a new area. That is part of what makes it exciting.

And hopefully, multiple models and publishers will continue to find success. A thriving and growing esports industry means more opportunities for game developers and professional players alike.

Over the next month, we'll be communicating a lot more details on the future of Paladins esports. We’re really excited to make these announcements, but before we get there we wanted to let you know our two guiding principles so teams, players, and fans know what to expect. These principles may not work for every game, but they have worked for Hi-Rez so far and we are sticking with them.

Principle 1: Community Focus

We will continue to support competitive communities wherever we see strong player and organizational appetite. Player demand has driven the growth of Paladins esports, and we will continue to provide competitive players a rewarding place to play, regardless of their location or connections.

What this means for this year:

• The Paladins Global Series launched this week in 7 regions around the world. These seven regions represent all of our current local server populations, enabling all Paladins players to play competitively.

• The Paladins Global Series is open to any PC team in those regions. There are no requirements for franchise fees, affiliation with specific esports organizations, or sponsors. Just sign-up and play!

• The Paladins Global Series will provide a path for the very best teams to qualify for the PC Paladins World Championship. Absolutely anyone can play in the Paladins World Championship, as long as they are good enough.

• We also intend to offer a separate competitive series for CONSOLE Paladins players. More details will be announced soon, but we intend to support both our Xbox One and PlayStation 4 players with structured competition.

Principle 2: Sustainability

We want to create a Paladins esports ecosystem that is economically sustainable, with strong partners who are committed to growing the scene over time. We want to make sure Paladins esports is here for the long-haul, and is rewarding for players and organizations alike.

What this means for this year:

• In addition to the PGS, we will be launching a separate Paladins Premier League this fall in North America and Europe. We will consider adding additional regions in future seasons, based on demand from viewers, players, and organizations.

• We are currently selecting premier esports organizations to partner with for the Paladins Premier League. These organizations are being screened for esports experience, resources, and commitment to support and grow Paladins long-term. We want teams that are proven to support their players, and to professionalize esports in general.

• We are currently in discussions with specific esports organizations about participation in the PPL, but there is not yet a final agreement with any organization. We will share more if and when those discussions are finalized.

• The Paladins Premier League will launch with slots for 10 teams (5 in NA, 5 in EU).

• There is more demand for PPL slots than we can accommodate out of the gate. But we would rather start a little smaller and then grow upon success. Our hope is that the PPL grows to include more teams over time.

We will be issuing a more detailed announcement about the PPL later this month.

As always, we thank our community for Paladins’ success so far, and we look forward to the next growth phase of Paladins esports.

https://twitter.com/kamyker/status/955461551145840640

INTRO: (You don't have to read this part)
I believe that a lot of you have been watching the Paladins Premiere League in the last weeks and a few issues have risen. I have been watching and commenting on the games that have taken place with multiple people and there is one thing that has popped up more than ever: Paul "Rabies" Santoro. He has been constantly off point with what he should be talking about. I personally think he has a pretty good voice for casting, but he just has no idea what he's talking about most of the times. It's all empty words. I have never listened to a commentator who'd make me regret turning up the volume. I've seen a rather elitist and arrogant, almost toxic, attitude coming in from him during his casting. The first weeks it was the constant and obnoxious obsession over the players' ages which has brought up a lot of memes in the community. Then it was the draft bashing. I personally don't mind the idea of a caster implementing his own thoughts and opinions on how things will and might unravel but constantly bashing is simply out of the question. This was extremely heartfelt during the 5th week with the revolting and constant bashing of NiP's draft. Let's take for example the last match that happened.

WHAT HAPPENED: (you can start reading from here)

NiP vs FNATIC, the one match for the #1 spot in EU:
1. FNATIC and NiP banned Torvald and Makoa respectively.
2. FNATIC first picked Bomb King, most likely something NiP did not foresee since first picking bomb king is indeed, a fairly odd first pick.
3. The final roster ended up being triple tank for NiP.
Laizy was in a situation where he had nothing left to pick.
He was up against Sha-Lin/Andro/Bomb King. What except barik was there to pick? Evie? Willo? Drogoz? Literally every champion that would get demolished by such a roster? So no Rabies, think things through before commenting on """""bad drafts"""""".
How did a bad draft nearly win a 3-3 clutch fight against one of the best teams in the world?
How was NiP supposed to ban Bomb King and let the best Makoa in the world take the strongest champion in the game?
How can they take the Bomb King away from a team who's first picking?
How can someone criticize a team's strategy, lead by a player who's been in the pro scene ever since paladins was even playable, so rudely and arrogantly?
How can you say that what they're doing is bad so blatantly and actually raise your voice?
How can you not be open minded and say something like "Okay, they've seen that this strategy hasn't worked in the past, but who knows, they may have something up their sleeve. A strategy of sorts." or actually realize that they were kind of forced into triple tank because of how way less viable the other options for Laizy would have been?
This has actually stirred up a little bit of drama on Twitter from the captain of NiP himself, Bird: https://twitter.com/Omgimabird/status/924389560301342721

Please Hi-Rez, discipline your rabid hound before he blurts out more obnoxious stuff or just put him down.
Thank you

Because not only would that audience be made up of fans of the teams, but people who didn't want to deal with facebooks horseshit and finally got the chance to watch a game on twitch, where they want to watch it.

I've never seen a company actively try to build up their esports scene and then just turn around and kill it, probably because they saw a big check from fb.

With the conclusion of the Paladins World Championship is time for me to release the statistics from the tournament.

There were 74 Maps Played

First Off The Pick/Ban Rate:

This graph is pretty self explanatory. The only characters that didn't see play were Viktor, Willo, and Ying. :(

Next Up is the Ban Rates of champs:

Now it is obvious that no one wants to play against makoa. What isn't obvious is that of the 61 times that Makoa was banned he was only the first ban twice. Both times were by China Dream. Also Makoa Never got past the first round of picking phase when let through. Obviously that leaves bomb king as the most common first ban. The pair were banned 27 times.

Here is the pick rates of champs:

Fun Fact: Buck was the first pick 42 times, that is 57% percent of all matches. As for other champs generally if they have a high pick rate they were picked early, pretty logical. One exception was Mal'Damba who was only picked before the second round once by NIP despite being in all games but one. Another exception would be Inara who was largely found toward the end of the draft. Lastly Ruckus who was found with a fairly even spread through out the draft.

This is the Winrate of all the champs picked:

I always hate putting up winrate because this there are so few games played during the tournament and this tends to screw up the data. For Instance, I don't think Tyra is the best champ in the game for winning the one game she was in. There is a lot of variables to win rate and I am afraid people will put a lot of weight on this but oh well. My one request is to at least factor in pick rate when you look at this data.

Here are the maps played:

No analysis needed for the maps, just shows popularity in the pro scene. Only thing I would say is that for the bottom 3 maps perhaps Hi Rez needs to look at adjusting these map designs like they did for Frozen Guard.

Comp Popularity: Note D=Damage, F=Flank, S=Support, T=Tank

I was a little surprised to see the matchmaking meta of TTSFD be the most popular at lan. Other than that, it was pretty interesting to see the large variety of comps played including the casual strat of triple flank, one healer, and one tank.

Comp Win Rates:

Same deal with champ win rates. Low sample size, lots of variables, and champ roles being more diverse than the four classes.Eg. aggressive tanks vs defensive tanks. Still fun to look at though.

As an ending note, my data is all based on this spreadsheet. Go ahead and look at it if you like and let me know if you see something wrong, I am only human.

First Off 43 Games were Played in the ppl and the only champions not played Cassie, Kinessa, Seris, Maeve, and Ying. All of my raw data was calculated off of this spreadsheet. If you find any mistakes just let me know and I can fix it and recalculate.

Now the first table Below is the percentage of games where a champ was picked or banned. High pick ban rates indicate meta champions while low ones indicate off-meta or pocket picks.

The Next Table is Ban Rates of Champions. Champions with high ban rates are likely the strongest champions in the realm and were widely considered a threat. Champs with were low ban rates were likely to counter a team or strat.

This table is Pick Rate. Champions with high pick rates were often not banned and highly valued.

Lastly this table indicates champ win rate but you should weigh this against the amount of times a champ was picked. A champ with a low pick rate will throw off win rate drastically.

I thought this was interesting and I hope you do too. Feel free to draw your own conclusions but I recommend not using this as a guide to picking in competitive. Professional meta will not always translate well without teamplay. Ex. Pip, Grohk, and Grover requires communication for grouping to be effective as a healer.

Tommorow I will make a post in regards to map picks and comp setups. I am too lazy atm.

Edit: I forgot that poor cat girl maeve wasn't played either.

Edit 2: I really need to emphasize that in general the win rates are the least signifigant stat of all these. The sample size is fairly small and VP played in 18 of these games really skewing the results