PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS News

As the PUBG Continental Series (PCS) Charity Showdown comes to a close across Asia, APAC, North America, and Europe, we wanted to take this moment and thank all of our fans, players, and teams for helping us create a strong start to the 2020 PUBG Esports’ competitive calendar.



Four teams reigned supreme, with DivisionX Gaming (APAC), Tianba Gaming(ASIA), Oath Gaming (North America), and Northern Lights (Europe) taking the crown in their respective territories. In addition to their own winnings, a promised donation of $400,000 USD will be split evenly and given to each winning teams' charity of choice to aid in COVID-19 relief.

Additional donations from our amazing PUBG Esports fans will also be donated along with this. We will provide the result of donations with the upcoming announcement.

As previously announced, fans can look forward to two additional PCS tournaments held across Asia, APAC, North American, and Europe. Today, we’re happy to reveal that the names for these upcoming events are PUBG Continental Series 1 (PCS 1) and PUBG Continental Series 2 (PCS 2). For more details around the both PCS events, please find more details below.



[h3]PCS 1 and PCS 2 Overview[/h3]
PUBG Esports fans can set their dates and look forward to PCS 1 in June and PCS 2 in August. Just like the PCS Charity Showdown, PCS 1 and PCS 2 will be held across four different regions: APAC, Asia, North America, and Europe. Each of the tournaments will be conducted using with the same overall format and ruleset.

Participating Teams
Each regional event will feature a total of 16 participating teams, all of which must secure seeds through their regional qualifiers. For more detailed information around the regional qualifiers, please refer to each region’s announcement.

Tournament Operation

Fans can look forward to four days of intense competition over the course of two weeks. Each day will feature five matches across Erangel and Miramar.

Prize Money

Players will be battling it out for their share of each regional event’s $200,000 USD prize pool. The stakes will grow even higher as the Pick’Em Challenge returns. Taking the framework of the Pick’Em Challenge from last year’s PUBG Global Championship 2019 (PGC 2019), we look to offer another way to provide more loot for our participating teams and fans.




[h3]PCS 1 will take place from June 25 to July 5. [/h3]

[h3]The schedule for each of the regional events are as follows::[/h3]

The full schedule for PCS 2 will be announced at a future date.

[h3]PCS 1 Pick’Em Challenge[/h3]


Hot off last year’s success during PGC 2019, the Pick’Em Challenge returns as a revenue sharing method for our pro teams to take part in during each of the upcoming regional PCS events.

From June 17 to July 2 (KST), the PCS 1 Pick’Em Challenge will give PC fans a chance to guess which team will reign supreme at each of the regional events. We're also happy to announce that our console players will be able to participate in the Pick'Em Challenge this year from June 23 to July 2( KST).

If your pick wins, you’ll get the opportunity to take home some champion level loot. While we’ll announce specifics on how to participate at a later date, we’re excited to give you a high-level overview of the program and a sneak peek at some golden loot.

Similar to last year’s PGC 19 Pick’Em Challenge, PCS 1 will include exclusive items that will be sold in-game. The items will be revealed at a later date, but 25% of the profits will be distributed back to pro teams across the four regions. 12.5% of the profits will be added to each of the regional prize pools, while the remaining 12.5% will be distributed equally amongst the participating teams.

Finally, please see below for a concept image of the items you can obtain through the PCS 1 Pick’Em Challenge.



We’re looking forward to extending the momentum built from the success of the PCS Charity Showdown by creating unique and interesting viewing experiences for PCS 1 and PCS 2. Thanks again for making our inaugural events a success and we look forward to announcing more details around both PCS 1 and Pick’Em Challenge.

As safety measures surrounding COVID-19 continue to keep people in their homes, the #PlayApartTogether message remains just as important. To further support this industry wide initiative, we're running a PUBG Free Play Weekend on Steam!

From June 4th 17:00 UTC until June 8th 17:00 UTC, you and your friends can try out PUBG at no cost.

Even better, the game will be available for purchase at a discount of 50% off so you can continue your Battlegrounds journey and work towards the all-new ranked mode! We know these times are difficult, but keeping yourself and others safe during this pandemic is important.

[h3]We hope you enjoy your free time in PUBG and we'll see you on the Battlegrounds![/h3]

• 50% Discount will only be available during the Free Play Weekend event
  In-game purchasing will not be available until after purchasing the full game

Dear PUBG Fans,

Back in February, we asked for your help in trying something new. At the time, Australia was just starting to recover from devastating brushfires across their country and in an effort to help them through that difficult time, we set up a fundraiser through the sale of the Australia Fire Relief - Pan skin on both PC and Console. While the world has changed a lot since then, we wanted to share the results of your generous efforts and give an update on where we’re sending that money.

First of all, we’re extremely humbled to announce that you as a community have raised a collective $588,115.52 by purchasing the pan skin. This number is after platform fees have been taken into account and the amount that was sent to the WIRES organization via Globalgiving on May 19th (PDT). 

For those curious, WIRES (Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service) is Australia’s largest wildlife rescue organization and has been caring for the wildlife of Australia for over 30 years. With the worldwide impact of COVID-19, their essential work has become even more difficult, especially in the wake of both a massive countrywide drought and the fires that killed over 1 billion animals.

Now more than ever we feel this is a worthy cause for the money you’re donated and we hope you do as well. It is truly inspiring to see the good that we can do together and we’re honored to be in a position where the sale of a small digital item and the generosity of our community can have such a big impact on the world. We’ll be looking at additional causes we can support in the future, but for now you have our deepest and most humbled thanks for helping with this campaign.

For more information on WIRES, you can visit https://www.wires.org.au/. Be sure to also drop by and send a thank you note (or just a follow) to community artist @swatercolour for donating the art used on the pan skin.

Thank you once again,

--The PUBG Team

As many of you know, we’ve been working to add a skill-based ranking system to PUBG for quite some time.  Ranked Mode provides an additional challenge for experienced players, allowing them to climb the ranks and see where they stand among other players. Ranked will be an ever-evolving core feature of the game going forward and comes with many things to understand, so let's go over some of the design goals and launch features.  We plan to dive deeper into specific pieces in the coming weeks and months.

[h2]Goals[/h2]

• Provide an official way to measure skill in PUBG that shares inspiration and direction with PUBG Esports
  
• Provide new ways for players to show off their skill and status to each other
  
• Provide an environment specially tuned for serious PVP only competition
  
• Provide a new queue that divides ranked from normal play, allowing their rules and settings to evolve independently and
  
• with separate purpose
  
• Provide a different atmosphere for Ranked play by introducing a special Ranked lobby and additional post game details
  
• Provide new unique seasonal rewards, reserved for Ranked players of a given season
  
• Introduce new systems that aim to help protect the integrity of Ranked games and leaderboard

[h2]How does a Season work?[/h2]

At the start of each new Ranked season, all player rankings will be set to an unranked state. Players will need to complete their placement matches for each mode (TPP/FPP) they wish to play in to determine their starting rank. Your previous ranks will have an impact on placement in future seasons, however Platinum V is the placement rank cap regardless of previous performance.

As the season plays out, your matches will earn you RP that raises and lowers your Rank Tier and Division. At the end of the season, rewards will be given out based on your highest placement in the season. We’ll talk more about what those rewards are a bit further down.

[h2]What rules will be used?[/h2]

• 64 players, FPP / TPP Squad only
  
• Random Map (Erangel, Miramar, Sanhok)
  
• No Redzone, No Bots.
  
• The timing and the speed of the Blue Zone has been adjusted for more intense gameplay

Ranked will use a variation of the SUPER settings/loot that PUBG Esports uses, which focus on 64 player squad oriented play. Ranked settings mean more loot in your hands faster, a more competition-focused bluezone, and by very popular demand, NO Redzone. Ranked Mode will use the same maps used in the pro circuit: Erangel, Miramar, and Sanhok, which will be chosen randomly each match. Finally, there will be no bots in Ranked Mode. 

We made the decision to support both FPP and TPP. Although FPP is the main mode for esports, TPP is the most popular mode with normal players. We're keeping the focus on squad play to start, but players can also choose 1, 2 or 3 person squads. FPP and TPP will be ranked separately, with the highest achieved rank in either mode determining the rewards you earn that season. 

There are a few other differences between Normal and Ranked matches as well. For example, crossbows and Motorgliders do not currently spawn in Ranked mode. We expect that there will be a lot of discussions about the rules and balance settings used in Ranked Mode, and will be listening to your feedback as we plan and evolve each system. 

[h2]What about cheaters and penalties?[/h2]

As TS discussed in his Community Letter a couple weeks ago, new restrictions will be in place to help preserve the integrity of Ranked matches. 

Players may be required to authenticate their account using a unique phone number and reach a minimum level in Survival Mastery to play Ranked matches. If an SMS verified account becomes permanently banned, the device used to link the account also becomes banned, preventing it from being used again for another account.

Note: SMS authentication is not required for players on Console.

Being a skilled player means being able to perform at a high level under many different conditions. To that end we are introducing penalties in ranked mode for players who try to get around the random map selection. Players who try to "dodge" a game while still in the lobby will find themselves needing to wait out a timer before queuing up again. In addition, if a player leaves a game early, it will be recorded as if they had died at the time of leaving. This includes any RP loss that would normally occur.

Players are free to form their own teams with their friends but will not be able to queue for a match unless all players are within two Ranked Tiers of each other. The queue will also be unable to start if any player on the team is currently facing a ranked matchmaking restriction. 

Any players who become permanently banned will be removed from the Leaderboards.

[h2]What can I earn?[/h2]
Rewards are a time honored tradition of Ranked play. Being able to show off your accomplishments season over season is important to you and we want to give you cool stuff to allow for that.

Let’s start off with the main event. A ranked skin set will be awarded to all players who achieve the rank of Gold V or higher in any queue. The exact skins in the set will change for each season, but the designs will share a distinct Ranked aesthetic. It should be easy for anyone to tell at a glance that you’re using a ranked reward skin even if they can’t remember exactly which season it’s from. This skin set will be unique for each ranked season and won’t be offered anywhere else, so you’ll need to work hard and participate if you don’t want to miss any of these cool rewards!

All players who at least finish their placement matches will also receive a unique nameplate and emblem for their PUBG ID at the end of the ranked season. These ranked rewards will allow players to show off what tier they were able to achieve on their PUBG ID. For the best of the best among you, the Top 500 players in each region will find that the ranked nameplate and emblem set they receive will have something extra in the design to recognize them as a step above the other Masters.

Players can also earn progress toward all Season Pass Missions while playing in Ranked Mode.


[h2]Closing thoughts[/h2]
Ranked mode is an important feature, and there are a lot of different opinions globally.  We appreciate all of the discussions, ideas, and feedback on the topic.  Ranked rules, settings, maps and perspectives will continue to evolve and we look forward to continuing to expand the feature.  

Thanks, and we’ll see you on the Battlegrounds!

- PUBG Ranked Dev Team

Update 7.2 has just hit live servers and brings with it PUBG's long-awaited Ranked Mode. In Ranked Mode, up to 64 seasoned opponents battle it out in squad based combat to try and increase their Rank using a new competitive ruleset that puts more focus on loot and pacing. As you complete ranked matches, your Rank Points will rise and fall depending on your performance, which will move your Rank and Tier in turn. Reach at least Gold V and you'll be rewarded with some exclusive skins at the end of the season!

Also in this update is this season's balance pass, which makes shotguns a little more reliable, lowers the power variance between some ARs, and brings some quality of life improvements to vests. Unfortunately, due to a usability issue, we've had to postpone the planned Gas Can improvements to a later date. We'll keep you updated once we have a better idea of when to expect it.
Update 7.2 is live, so read on for all the changes!

Update 7.2 is live, so read on for all the changes! https://www.pubg.com/2020/05/12/update-7-2/

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