diff --git a/acto/runner/runner.py b/acto/runner/runner.py
index c3214e8061..f3b6f953ed 100644
--- a/acto/runner/runner.py
+++ b/acto/runner/runner.py
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 from acto.kubectl_client import KubectlClient
 from acto.snapshot import Snapshot
 from acto.utils import acto_timer, get_thread_logger
+from acto.utils.k8s_event_watcher import K8sEventWatcher
 
 RunnerHookType = Callable[[kubernetes.client.ApiClient], None]
 CustomSystemStateHookType = Callable[
@@ -456,7 +457,7 @@ def wait_for_system_converge(self, hard_timeout=480) -> bool:
         while True:
             try:
                 event = combined_event_queue.get(timeout=self.wait_time)
-                if event == "timeout":
+                if event in ["timeout", K8sEventWatcher.ABORT]:
                     converge = False
                     break
             except queue.Empty:
@@ -590,9 +591,13 @@ def wait_for_system_converge(self, hard_timeout=480) -> bool:
 
     def watch_system_events(self, event_stream, q: multiprocessing.Queue):
         """A process that watches namespaced events"""
-        for _ in event_stream:
+
+        watcher = K8sEventWatcher(q)
+
+        for payload in event_stream:
             try:
                 q.put("event")
+                watcher.observe(payload)
             except (ValueError, AssertionError):
                 pass
 
diff --git a/acto/utils/k8s_event_watcher.py b/acto/utils/k8s_event_watcher.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6cfa874bba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/acto/utils/k8s_event_watcher.py
@@ -0,0 +1,135 @@
+"""determines whether cluster is stuck in an unhealthy state through interpreting K8s events"""
+
+import json
+import multiprocessing
+from typing import Callable, Optional
+import copy
+from acto.utils.thread_logger import get_thread_logger
+
+
+class Predicate:
+    """Predicate for deciding abort"""
+
+    def __init__(
+        self,
+        reason: str,
+        message_filter: Callable[[Optional[str]], bool] = lambda x: True,
+        threshold: Optional[int] = None,
+    ) -> None:
+        self.reason = reason
+        self.message_filter = (
+            message_filter  # event count threshold for deciding an abort
+        )
+        self.threshold = threshold
+
+    def match(self, reason: str, message: str = ""):
+        """decide whether a k8s event reason and message matches predicate"""
+        return self.reason == reason and self.message_filter(message)
+
+    def __str__(self) -> str:
+        return f"(reason: {self.reason}, count_threshold: {self.threshold})"
+
+
+# todo: unify this with other Acto configs
+k8s_event_watcher_config = {
+    "default_threshold": 3,
+    "abort_predicates": [
+        # a full list of kubelet emitted reason can be found at
+        # https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/blob/master/pkg/kubelet/events/event.go
+        # event reason emitted by K8s controllers however, needs a scan
+        # from source code unfortunately
+        # kublet reasons, todo: add fine-calibrated message filters
+        Predicate("Failed"),
+        Predicate("BackOff", threshold=5),
+        Predicate("FailedCreatePodContainer"),
+        Predicate("ErrImageNeverPull"),
+        Predicate("FailedAttachVolume"),
+        Predicate("FailedMount"),
+        Predicate("VolumeResizeFailed"),
+        Predicate("FileSystemResizeFailed"),
+        Predicate("FailedMapVolume"),
+        # it is possible that scheduling fails due to node.kubernetes.io/not-ready
+        # which should be transient. We need to filter for truly alarming ones
+        Predicate(
+            "FailedScheduling",
+            lambda msg: any(
+                keyword in msg
+                for keyword in [
+                    "affinity",
+                    "Insufficient memory",
+                    "Insufficient cpu",
+                ]
+            ),
+        ),
+    ],
+}
+
+
+class K8sEventWatcher:
+    """watch for K8s events that might signal an unresolvable state
+      and request Acto to abort the convergence wait"""
+
+    ABORT = "k8s_event_watcher_abort_request"
+
+    def __init__(self, output_channel: multiprocessing.Queue) -> None:
+        self.logger = get_thread_logger(with_prefix=True)
+        self.output_channel = output_channel
+        self.counter = dict()
+        self.abort_requested = False
+        self.abort_predicates = copy.deepcopy(
+            k8s_event_watcher_config.get("abort_predicates", [])
+        )
+        for predicate in self.abort_predicates:
+            t = predicate.threshold
+            predicate.threshold = (
+                t
+                if t is not None and t > 0
+                else k8s_event_watcher_config.get("default_threshold", 3)
+            )
+
+    def observe(self, payload: bytes) -> None:
+        """observe a K8s event in json byte string format"""
+        if (
+            self.abort_requested
+        ):  # do nothing since we have already requested Acto to abort the convergence wait
+            return
+
+        try:
+            event: dict = json.loads(payload.decode("utf-8"))
+            reason = event.get("object", {}).get("reason")
+            message = event.get("object", {}).get("message")
+        except Exception:
+            self.logger.warning(
+                "Failed to deserialize K8s event from payload %s", str(payload)
+            )
+            return
+
+        for predicate in self.abort_predicates:
+            if predicate.match(reason, message):
+                involved_object = event["object"].get("involvedObject", {})
+                self.logger.info(
+                    "Observered K8s event matching abort predicate %s for object %s"
+                    ,predicate, str(involved_object)
+                )
+                object_id = involved_object.get("uid", "")
+
+                need_abort = self._inc_and_check(object_id, predicate)
+                if need_abort:
+                    self.logger.warning(
+                        "Aborting convergence wait due to failed predicate %s",
+                        predicate
+                    )
+                    self.output_channel.put(self.ABORT)
+                    self.abort_requested = True
+                break
+
+    def _inc_and_check(self, object_id: str, predicate: Predicate) -> bool:
+        if not predicate in self.counter:
+            self.counter[predicate] = {}
+
+        if not object_id in self.counter[predicate]:
+            self.counter[predicate][object_id] = 0
+
+        self.counter[predicate][object_id] += 1
+        need_abort = self.counter[predicate][object_id] >= predicate.threshold
+        return need_abort
diff --git a/test/e2e_tests/test_convergence_wait_abort.py b/test/e2e_tests/test_convergence_wait_abort.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a31056bf45
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/e2e_tests/test_convergence_wait_abort.py
@@ -0,0 +1,124 @@
+"""This module tests quick abort from waiting for system convergence upon observing unresolvable 
+errors from K8s events when deploying a testcase"""
+
+import logging
+import os
+import pathlib
+from typing import Callable
+import tempfile
+import unittest
+from acto import utils
+from acto.kubernetes_engine.kind import Kind
+from acto.utils.k8s_event_watcher import k8s_event_watcher_config
+from acto.runner import Runner
+
+test_dir = pathlib.Path(__file__).parent.resolve()
+test_data_dir = os.path.join(test_dir, "test_data")
+
+
+class TestConvergenceWaitAbort(unittest.TestCase):
+    """tests if K8sEventWatcher correctly issues abort request by examing log output"""
+
+    def __init__(self, methodName: str = "runTest") -> None:
+        super().__init__(methodName)
+        # lower threshold for the sake of faster test
+        k8s_event_watcher_config["default_threshold"] = 2
+
+    def test_unsatisfiable_affinity_rule(self):
+        """should issue abort when affinity cannot be satisfied"""
+
+        def log_file_test(log_file_path) -> bool:
+            keyword = "Aborting convergence wait due to failed predicate (reason: FailedScheduling,"
+            with open(log_file_path, "r", encoding="utf-8") as log_file:
+                for log_line in log_file:
+                    if keyword in log_line:
+                        return True
+                return False
+
+        resource_manifest_path = os.path.join(
+            test_data_dir, "k8s-event-watcher", "unsatisfiable-affinity.yaml"
+        )
+        self._test_convergence_wait_abort(
+            "unsatisfiable-affinity", resource_manifest_path, log_file_test
+        )
+
+    def test_invalid_image(self):
+        """should abort when detecting image pull errors"""
+        def log_file_test(log_file_path) -> bool:
+            keyword = "Aborting convergence wait due to failed predicate (reason: Failed,"
+            with open(log_file_path, "r", encoding="utf-8") as log_file:
+                for log_line in log_file:
+                    if keyword in log_line:
+                        return True
+                return False
+
+        resource_manifest_path = os.path.join(
+            test_data_dir, "k8s-event-watcher", "invalid-image.yaml"
+        )
+        self._test_convergence_wait_abort(
+            "invalid-image", resource_manifest_path, log_file_test
+        )
+
+    def test_satisfiable_deployment(self):
+        "should never abort a convergence wait for satisfiable deployments"
+        def log_file_test(log_file_path) -> bool:
+            keyword = "Aborting convergence"
+            with open(log_file_path, "r", encoding="utf-8") as log_file:
+                for log_line in log_file:
+                    if keyword in log_line:
+                        return False
+                return True
+
+        resource_manifest_path = os.path.join(
+            test_data_dir, "k8s-event-watcher", "satisfiable-deployment.yaml"
+        )
+        self._test_convergence_wait_abort(
+            "satisfiable", resource_manifest_path, log_file_test
+        )
+
+
+    def _test_convergence_wait_abort(
+        self,
+        cluster_name: str,
+        resource_file_path: str,
+        log_test_predicate: Callable[[str], bool],
+    ) -> str:
+        """apply a resource manifest and examine the log file"""
+
+        tmp_dir = tempfile.TemporaryDirectory()
+
+        log_file_path = os.path.join(tmp_dir.name, "test.log")
+
+        logging.basicConfig(
+            filename=log_file_path,
+            level=logging.WARN,
+            format="%(message)s",
+            force=True,
+        )
+
+        kube_config_path = os.path.join(
+            os.path.expanduser("~"), ".kube/test-" + cluster_name
+        )
+
+        cluster = Kind(acto_namespace=0, num_nodes=3, version="v1.27.3")
+
+        cluster.create_cluster(cluster_name, kube_config_path)
+
+        runner = Runner(
+            context={
+                "namespace": "test",
+                "crd": None,
+                "preload_images": set(),
+            },
+            trial_dir=tmp_dir.name,
+            kubeconfig=kube_config_path,
+            context_name="kind-" + cluster_name,
+        )
+
+        utils.create_namespace(runner.apiclient, "test")
+
+        runner.run_without_collect(resource_file_path)
+        cluster.delete_cluster(cluster_name, kube_config_path)
+
+        assert log_test_predicate(log_file_path)
+        tmp_dir.cleanup()
diff --git a/test/e2e_tests/test_data/k8s-event-watcher/invalid-image.yaml b/test/e2e_tests/test_data/k8s-event-watcher/invalid-image.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..2f76fc3f87
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/e2e_tests/test_data/k8s-event-watcher/invalid-image.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+apiVersion: apps/v1
+kind: Deployment
+metadata:
+  name: busybox-deployment
+spec:
+  selector:
+    matchLabels:
+      app: busybox
+  replicas: 12
+  template:
+    metadata:
+      labels:
+        app: busybox
+    spec:
+      containers:
+      - name: busybox
+        image: strange-invalid-image
+        resources:
+          requests:
+            cpu: 1
+
+          limits:
+            cpu: 1
+
+        command:
+          - "sh"
+          - "-c"
+          - "while true; do sleep 3600; done"
+      
+        
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/test/e2e_tests/test_data/k8s-event-watcher/satisfiable-deployment.yaml b/test/e2e_tests/test_data/k8s-event-watcher/satisfiable-deployment.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3aff7f028f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/e2e_tests/test_data/k8s-event-watcher/satisfiable-deployment.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+apiVersion: apps/v1
+kind: Deployment
+metadata:
+  name: busybox-deployment
+spec:
+  selector:
+    matchLabels:
+      app: busybox
+  replicas: 3         
+  template:
+    metadata:
+      labels:
+        app: busybox
+    spec:
+      containers:
+      - name: busybox
+        image: busybox
+        command:
+          - "sh"
+          - "-c"
+          - "while true; do sleep 3600; done"
+      
+        
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/test/e2e_tests/test_data/k8s-event-watcher/unsatisfiable-affinity.yaml b/test/e2e_tests/test_data/k8s-event-watcher/unsatisfiable-affinity.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f584b43371
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/e2e_tests/test_data/k8s-event-watcher/unsatisfiable-affinity.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+apiVersion: apps/v1
+kind: Deployment
+metadata:
+  name: busybox-deployment
+spec:
+  selector:
+    matchLabels:
+      app: busybox
+  replicas: 5         #unsatisfiable affinity rule when we have only 3 worker nodes
+  template:
+    metadata:
+      labels:
+        app: busybox
+    spec:
+      affinity:
+        podAntiAffinity:
+          requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
+          - labelSelector:
+              matchExpressions:
+              - key: app
+                operator: In
+                values:
+                - busybox
+            topologyKey: kubernetes.io/hostname
+      containers:
+      - name: busybox
+        image: busybox
+        command:
+          - "sh"
+          - "-c"
+          - "while true; do sleep 3600; done"
+      
+        
\ No newline at end of file