PUBG Mobile Esports Plans for 2020 Explained

Cover and thumbnail via @PUBG Mobile Esports

• A new tier of competition called the PUBG Mobile World League will be introduced in 2020.
• It will run alongside PMCO and the Country specific Campus Championships.
• A total prize pool of 5 Million USD has been allocated by Tencent for 2020. 

If you thought that 2019 was a big year for PUBG Mobile esports, you’d be pleasantly surprised with what the publishers have in store for us in 2020. The Director of PUBG Mobile Esports, James Yang announced a host of new plans and structure for 2020 and gave clarity into what we could expect from the competitive side of the game, next year. 

Image via @PUBG Mobile Esports

PUBG Mobile will recognize three tiers of competition in 2020 - Amateur, semi-pro and professional. The esport ecosystem will cater to these three tiers with ways for teams who are performing well to higher reach higher tiers. 

Campus Championships and PMCO

The Campus Championships, which are already in place in a few countries, will cater to amateur players. These will be country specific. The PMCO or PUBG Mobile Club Open will be for semi-professional and professional players and teams. The format for this will be similar to what it currently is, teams from individual countries fighting it out in qualifiers for a chance to represent their country in the PMCO Finals. In some cases, instead of individual countries, the qualifiers will encompass entire regions. In other cases, individual country qualifiers will be followed by Regional Qualifiers which will then lead up to the main event. The registration for the Spring Split, will begin in January.

PUBG Mobile World League 

Additionally, a new tier of competition called the Pro League will be introduced to cater to semi-professional and professional teams. The Pro Leagues will be country or region specific. The Regional/Country Pro Leagues will then roll up to the World Pro League and finally there will be a World Championship. The Pro League will also take place in two phases - one in May and the other in October. 

Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand will have country specific Pro Leagues in 2020. Americas and South Asia on the other hand will have Regional Pro Leagues. The top teams from each of these leagues will be promoted to the World League and from there the World Championship. 

The total prize pool for 2020 will be 5 million USD, but the exact split for each event and subsequent tiers is currently unknown. 2020 is shaping up to be an excellent year for PUBG Mobile esports with more structure, stability and of course more money injected into the ecosystem. More information on the structure, formats, dates and events will be released in coming months.