Twitch streamer Dr Disrespect is a battle royale connoisseur, having played and streamed everything from PUBG to Ring of Elysium to Fortnite, but his answer to the best battle royale ever might surprise some.
We have to go back to when Guy Beahm first resurfaced his Dr Disrespect character, bringing it to Twitch complete with long black mullet and thick moustache.
In 2016, the game of choice for many streamers, and the game that gave the first hint at what the battle Royale genre might become, was H1Z1’s King of the Kill mode.
It pitted 100 players against each other on a large map – a system now recognized by gamers the world over, but back in 2016, this was still a much more novel concept for many.
Dr Disrespect was one of the leading H1Z1 streamers, and it was crucial for his early success on Twitch, with viewers flocking to the platform specifically to watch the new BR craze.
That’s why then, when asked what the best battle royale ever was, the Doc was adamant that H1Z1 – at a very particular time – is number one for him: “I’m talking in its prime – when it was transitioning from the first map to the second map.”
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“It’s by far better than any other battle royale: proximity chat, vehicle use, the way the guns felt, the intensity of an in-game situation,” the Doc explained, “So I’d have to go with H1Z1 number one, in its prime.”
As for his other picks, the Doc gave number two to PUBG (also in its prime), and then gives number three to the newest release, Apex Legends
Of course, since its ‘prime’, H1Z1 has been supplanted by PUBG, and later Fortnite, as the king of the battle royale genre, but there is many who still have fond memories of its heyday.
On March 6, 2019, new development team NantG attempted to revive H1Z1 with a massive update to the game, but it generally fell flat with players.
At this point, it seems unlikely that H1Z1 will ever be able to get back to its glory days, but like the Doc, many still consider it the best BR experience there ever was, despite the advancements in the genre.