PMGC 2021 Finals will be a ‘semi LAN’ event

NS PUBG Mobile Global Championship Finals (PMGC) 2021, scheduled for January 21-23, will not be a LAN event, Tencent chief PUBG Mobile Global eSports James Yang told Dot Esports in an interview.

The event will apply the “semi-LAN” format with 16 finalists competing at a server. To ensure that the participants have a level playing field, several teams will be flown to a specific location to compete in the grand final.

“Some teams will stay in their countries, [while] Some teams will fly to the location. [The PMGC grand final] is not a complete online or offline event. Yang said.

Yang did not reveal where the contest will take place, but said it will be announced “soon”. The venue will not have a stage and the teams will compete in a closed environment. The format may see some changes depending on the state of the pandemic.

Related: PMGC 2021 League group stage draw results

While Yang said last July that the company was “doing its best” to organize the PMGC as a LAN event, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has derailed these plans. “We expected to hold LAN events later this year, but even now I didn’t expect COVID to be this strong,” he said.

As a result, the PMGC tournament stage has been transformed into a fully online event. It has been split into East and West so that the teams don’t experience ping disparities. 20 teams are competing in each region.

The PMGC tournament phase will run from November 30 to December 24, with 15 teams advancing to the grand final round, along with an invited team. The final round will take place from January 21 to 23.

Yang also declined to comment on who the invited team in the grand finals will be. This will also be announced soon, he said.

PMGC 2021 has a total prize pool of $6 million. This makes it the top prize pool in PUBG Mobile eSports history for a single event.

Even if several other e-sports events have taken place like this year’s LAN event, it’s not surprising to see Tencent not taking a risk after the PMGC 2020 Finals. Last year, the finals were supposed to be will take place at the Coca Cola Arena in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. All teams were flown to Dubai to compete. However, just a day before the event, Tencent revealed Some players have tested positive for COVID-19 and all teams will be competing in isolation from their hotel rooms to prevent further spread of the virus.

“We can’t let the teams take the risk [this year],” Yang said.