PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds fans and pro players have been waiting to see what the battle royale’s 2020 esports plans would be.
As January comes to an end, PUBG Corp. has finally revealed PUBG’s 2020 esports schedule, including four global events and the PUBG Global Championship.
“Last December, we announced our plans to evolve and expand PUBG Esports in 2020. We learned a lot from 2019 and this year we aim to be ambitious with improvements. This new format is designed to be more accessible, engaging and action packed for our partners, players and viewers,” the official press release states.
PUBG Corp. goes on to say that they want “raise the global status” of PUBG esports.
There will be four global events in 2020, including three PUBG Global Series events and the PUBG Global Championship.
There will be a total of 32 teams competing at each of the three PGS events. The top four teams from the most recent tournament will automatically qualify for the next event, leaving the remaining 28 slots to be filled by teams competing in regional qualifiers. There will be six regions: Korea, China, Japan, Europe, Americas, and Asia Pacific.
Each PUBG Global Series tournament will have three stages: Group Stage, Elimination Stage, and Grand Finals. According to the press release, these three stages will stretch over 9 days. The top 12 teams, including six from each group, from the Group Stage will advance to the Grand Finals. The Elimination Stage is the last opportunity for four more teams toqualify for the Grand Finals.
“To crown the 2020 PUBG World Champions, 16 teams will battle it out at PGC 2020. The top four teams from the 3rd PGS event will automatically qualify for PGC. The remaining 12 spots will be filled by the highest ranked teams based on the sum of points scored in the Grand Finals from all three PGS events,” PUBG Corp. explained.
PUBG is hoping to attract top teams with not just an organized tournament structure, but better prizing.
According to PUBG Corp., they will be aiming to distribute more than $6 million in prize pool by creating “a more diversified sharing program for participating teams.” Between the prize pool and crowdfunding, PUBG will guarantee participants a minimum of $20,000 each for each PGS event.
“The first three PGS events will feature a prize pool of $500,000 each, while PGC 2020 will award $2,000,000,” they explained.
PUBG Corp. also said that Pick’Em Challenge will be returning “stronger” in 2020. Every PGS event will share 25% of PGS item sales to participating teams. 10% of the sales will be contributed to the event prize pool. Another 10% of the sales will be distributed to participating teams and 5% will count towards the prize pool of the PUBG Global Championship 2020.
The first major esports event will be PGS: Berlin.
This two-week event will take place at Mese Berlin from March 31 to April 12. Group Stage and Elimination Stage will run from March 31 to April 5. The following three days will feature the Grand Finals, beginning April 10.
Starting in March, PUBG squads can compete in Regional Online Qualifiers to earn a slot at PGS Berlin.
This solid esports plan comes as a relief to PUBG fans and players alike, since 2019 was a rocky time for the game’s competitive side. Many esports organizations pulled out of PUBG thanks to the esports title’s uncertainty.
For more event info, including how to qualify, visit the PUBG Esports website.
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