PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), the defining game of the battle royale genre (where the object of the game is to be the last team standing), commences its third World Championship Tournament series since catching the gamer community by storm in 2017 on February 8th, 2021, aptly named the PUBG Global Invitational.S.
32 of the world’s best 4-person teams will be pitted against one another across an 8-week span of time commencing on February 8th, 2021 in a LAN/online hybrid tournament taking place in Seoul, South Korea and across the Asia region.
Each 4-person team that has been invited stems from all 8-major regions of the world’s playerbase (North & South America, Europe, Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia, China, & Chinese Taipei), encompassing 128 Esports Professionals battling for Chicken Dinners (what a match win is called in PUBG) throughout the event for a piece of the $2,442,000 guaranteed prize pool with an additional 30% of revenue generated from the sale of in-game PGI.S items being added. Each team was carefully selected based on their 2020 performance and overall careers across PUBG Esports.
If you’re like me, then you’re probably wondering what the S means? The S signifies Survival, Series, Supremacy, Showmanship, Showdown, Seoul, and what PUBG wanted to make crystal clear was Safety amidst the backdrop of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19 altered PUBG’s parent company, KRAFTON Inc’s plans for hosting a world championship tournament this past year with all regional play happening online amidst the backdrop of the global pandemic. In announcing PGI.S, the decision was made to host a hybrid LAN/Online tournament format in the Asia region, with teams located the furthest away geographically being allowed entry into South Korea in alignment with the government of South Korea’s requirements for international travellers.
Each team was flown to Incheon International Airport with proof of a negative COVID-19 Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test result issued within 72 hours of travel then subsequently completed a 14-day mandatory quarantine at a hotel complex as has become the norm for international travel to mitigate the spread of importing COVID-19.
Event Format (initial announcement):
The tournament will consist of an initial week of placement matches (amount of matches has been undisclosed) followed by two parts spanning across the 8-week period: Weekly Survival and a Weekly Final.
Weekly Survival: Top 16 ranked teams after placement matches will commence battle through 16x matches during weekdays to identify 16x Chicken Dinner Winners who will earn prize money and a spot in the Weekly Finals. As each team wins, they will sit out the remaining Survival matches and be replaced by the next highest team across the 17-31st placements.
Weekly Final: Consists of the previously identified 16x Chicken Dinner Winners from the week who will battle across 10x matches and a larger amount of prize money on the line, earned based on team performance.
If a team has already earned their spot into the Weekly Final then the next highest-ranked team from the waiting list takes their place in the Weekly Survival and the subsequent match begins. This essentially means that placing within the top 16 initially during the placement week is vitally important to maximize odds in obtaining a Chicken Dinner ticket into the Weekly Finals each week. Furthermore, the 32nd ranked team will be event complete after the placement week. Lastly, the 31st ranked team will only get 1x chance at earning a Chicken Dinner to get into the Weekly Final each week.
It’s a very interesting event format and PUBG did state that, “*More detailed rules will be available in the later announcement.” so we’ll standby for any updates to their initially proposed format.
In-Game Advertising – BILLBOARDS:
PUBG has teased in-game advertising with pictures adorning the halls of the Museum on Erangel of Gen.G Esports‘s dominant performances at the PUBG Global Championship in 2019 and also allowing community submissions of graffiti art be displayed prominently throughout the game’s maps but they will be taking their efforts a step further for PGI.S.
The addition of in-game billboards strategically placed around the map will provide the current casual playerbase a subtle reminder to tune into the PGI.S broadcasts as they’ll be getting piped live into the battleground for any player to enjoy during their pursuits of chicken dinners.
It has taken PUBG three global events to pursue a mature and proven in-game advertising feature set that previously titles have utilized, more notably Counter Strike – who would broadcast live matches directly embedded to the game’s main menu to remind the playerbase that a major competition was ongoing. A great move that should benefit viewership metrics in conjunction with PUBG’s recent uptick in playerbase (with a 3-month % gain of 21% in players) as well as provide additional revenue generation for PGI.S in-game items – further increasing prize pool rewards.
The advent of in-game advertisements has seen an increase in use cases lately; with Riot Games announcing in May of 2020 that they would be rolling out Arena Banners into their League of Legends title during Esports competitions with their first commercial sponsor being Mastercard.
The in-game advertisements provide additional reinforcement of PUBG’s current Esports initiatives, showcasing an evolution of their marketing strategy for the better. Organizations, players, viewers, and community members of the scene in addition to the grass-roots spoke and wheel networks surrounding competitive PUBG can rejoice in the fact that the Esports efforts are improving and evolving for the better.
In addition to spotlighting the PGI.S event, the advertising mechanics can provide additional revenue streams for the game and appeal to gaming-industry related companies to potentially advertise to the game’s six-figure player-base. All benefits, managed responsibly, lead to improved sustainability for the game and it’s community — a welcomed approach by those that have pursued revenue generating roles, positions, and competitive jobs under the PUBG umbrella.
Tune in for some epic competition spanning across 8-intense weeks of competitive PUBG Esports on February 8th, 2021 with the World’s best PUBG Esports Professionals battling it out for their share of the +$2.4 million prizepool.
Matches will be broadcasted on PUBG’s Official Twitch Channel.
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What are your thoughts of in-game advertisements and the future of PUBG Esports going into 2021 (leave your comments below)?