PlayStation Tournaments enter beta testing phase on PS5

By Cristina Alexander August 25, 2022

Sony has announced that PS5 players in select countries will be able to participate in a public beta for PlayStation Tournaments.

PlayStation Tournaments launched in 2016 on the PS4, and allow players to compete against each other and even win various prizes in competitions and challenges. Sony said in an official blog post that the “all-new on-console tournament experience” will be rolling out on the PS5 in select countries in the coming weeks. Sony said that PlayStation Tournaments will come with new features and improvements that will make participating in competitions easier for newcomers and players who previously competed on the PS4. Here’s what those new features will look like once you get access to PlayStation Tournaments.

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Easily discoverable tournaments: Players can sign up for tournaments from the PS5 Control Center and Game Hub. Just press the PlayStation button to launch the Control Center when an eligible game is open.
Seamless on-console signup: As the name suggests, you can register for the tournament straight from the PS5.
Shorter tournament times: Traditionally, tournaments dragged on longer and brackets increased as more players signed up for them. Now Sony is updating PlayStation Tournaments with a bracket capping system that will ensure that a tournament runs at a set time limit and creates multiple brackets should the bracket size exceed that limit.
Higher tournament frequency: Tournaments will be offered more often to give people with different schedules an opportunity to compete at a time that works best for them.
All-new UI: PlayStation Tournaments on PS5 will feature a new UI that’s programmed to allow players to see tournament information from the action card in the Control Center even while playing a game.
Real-time match results and automatic reporting: Match results are instantly shown and automatically recorded as you progress through the bracket. This information can be accessed at any time.
Prizes: Each tournament will offer prizes, while some of them will have unique rewards just for participating. All players have a shot at winning prizes regardless of their skill level.

The public beta for the new and improved PlayStation Tournaments comes more than a month after Sony acquired Repeat.gg, an esports site that hosts leaderboard tournaments and tracks player performance. The company’s acquisition of the esports platform and beta testing of PlayStation Tournaments for launch on the PS5 may encourage more people to consider participating in competitive gameplay.

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