PUGB online tournament a massive hit in Arviat
Published 3:45 am Thursday, February 5, 2026
Hamlet of Arviat staff had no idea the turnout would be so overwhelming when it announced it was launching an online gaming tournament on Friday, Jan. 23.
There were 100 spots available to join the online shooting battle using the popular video game PUGB.
Arviat’s director of community development, Jolene Curley, said the 100 entries were claimed for the tournament in just over one minute after the registration period opened.
Curley said there was a slight glitch at the beginning of the tournament that forced a few players to leave.
Everything got straightened out and all 100 who signed up for the event were able to participate, she added.
“We didn’t know what to expect and, once the tournament started, people were killing their enemies like crazy,” said Curley. “The whole tournament was over in less than two hours.”
Josiah Nagiyak claimed top spot in the whirlwind event, where everyone was fighting for themselves. Nagiyak took home $300 in prize money for his performance.
Stanley Komakjuak earned second place and $200 while Joseph Kuksuk finished with $100 for third place.
Curley said the hamlet is looking at hosting another PUGB tourney in the near future with better prizes.
The participants were really happy with the way the online gaming tournament played out, according to Curley.
“It was very unusual for the hamlet to host a PUGB: Battlegrounds game, so everyone was kind of laughing and really enjoying the game,” she said. “The next time, we’re going to maybe stream live on TikTok, but we couldn’t ask for things to go much better than they did with this being the first time. It went great.
“It was kind of like an experiment with a very unusual activity that we got the community to do. I thought at first that maybe no one would be interested, but the room filled up fast, in a minute and a couple of seconds. Now we know what to expect when we host the next one.”