Cover image source: @PUBG Mobile
It was an action-packed day 1 at the PMCO Global Finals with clutch plays, devastating last game circles and end to end action in all the maps but as the dust settled, it does seem as if some teams are on a different league altogether as they pulled out ahead of the rest of the competition.
India’s hope and one of the teams with the largest followings, Team SouL struggled for the majority of the day finishing outside the top 10 thrice and just once inside the top 5. What was even worse is the fact they only managed to secure just 3 kills across the 4 maps. The highlight of their day was the fact that they picked up the first kill of the day, but it was all downhill from there as they failed to keep up the pace with some of the better opposition.
Perhaps it wasn’t even the placements but rather the nature of SouL’s losses and the incredibly passive style of play that is concerning. Despite landing in high loot areas and picking up the necessary supplies, SouL fell flat while rotating, often choosing structures with extremely poor lines of sight or ones that are hard to rotate out of and were quickly taken advantage of.
Defending world champions, RRQ Athena were pegged as the team to look out for and they showed just why, with a dazzling display of controlled aggression and a penchant to never back out of fights. However, on Vikendi, this very characteristic became their undoing as the team lost a 1v4 fight against TOP Esport’s Yao rather comically. While the play will indeed go down in the highlight reels, it prevented RRQ from finishing 1st or at least 2nd and has cost them a fair few points which might be crucial towards the end.
However, otherwise, RRQ are still looking like one of the top teams in the competition with some incredibly strong fragging potential. They got a 13 kill chicken dinner on Miramar and upper half finishes on both Vikendi and Erangel and sit comfortably in third place.
Having placed second in the Prelims, XQF somehow looked even stronger in the main event and played out of their minds in the last map of the day. Picking up a whopping 20 kills and a chicken dinner, despite being in a 2v4 in the end, XQF end the day on top of the table, with a massive 23 point lead over fellow countrymen TOP Esports. In fact, they finished in the top 5, 3 out of 4 times and in the top 10 in all the maps, showing just how strong of a team they are.
Another Chinese team, Elite Esports are also in the top 5 at 4th place, with 3 top 4 finishes and it shows how strong of a region China is. In 5th place are NA’s Spacestation Gaming, who somehow held on to the direst of situations many a time only to sneak their way into top placements later on.
Here are the standings after Day 1 of PUBG MOBILE Club Open, sponsored by @Vivo_India! Tune in tomorrow to catch the live action in Erangel, Sanhok, Miramar & Vikendi! pic.twitter.com/MzjoGl8htH
— PUBG MOBILE INDIA (@PUBGMOBILE_IN) July 26, 2019
However, only 4 of a total of 16 maps have been played which means that everyone and anyone has a chance to make up for a bad day. In fact, many teams often use Day 1 as a testing ground to learn about other teams and counter them in the following days. 6 more maps will be played out on day 2 with another 6 on day 3. Stay tuned for all the action and coverage from the PMCO Global Finals in Berlin.