Opening the team list for the MET is Gen.G, that have returned to the top of Korea League after a year of roster shuffles and struggles. A lot of the success can be dedicated thanks to “Loki” and “Esth3r” returning to their pre-PGI peak forms ( over 1.5 Kill per game, each ), “Esth3r” stepping up as a team shotcaller, “Taemin” providing a consistent back-up to them and 10 points per game average on Miramar. And then there’s PKL MVP, Cha “Pio” Seung Hoon — a game-changing talent averaging over 1.5 K and 280 DMG in the last three PKL phases. With all the pieces of the puzzle intact, Gen.G is ready to push for the Global Championship, and MET will be a big test of them in a tournament format.

18-round event will also be a challenge for Detonator.Korea, as this will be a first international LAN for the team lead by “Wick2d”, and while they’re one of the best teams in the world on their good day ( 65pts on Week 3 Monday, 97pts in Week 5 ) and they’re filled with heavy-hitting talent, their result will depend on their consistency — after all, it’s the same roster that choked their ticket to the Faceit Global Summit and finished only 3rd in Phase 2, even with previously mentioned 162pts in 12 of their 48 games.

Challenging the Korean powerhouses in Bangkok will be the champions of PCL Spring Season in VC Gaming. And while VC is one of the lowest-ranked teams when it comes to scored kills, with majority of the kills coming from the “DJBOY” and “Summer” duo, they’re making up for that by fighting for every placement point ( 4.7 points average from their 29 placement finishes ) and stepping up when it mattered the most ( 2 Week titles in 3 Week finals perfomances ). And while their perfomance in recent third-party LANs could be better ( 10th in Douyu Season 7, 11th in Weibo Cup 2019, 14th in Huya League ), VC will be a contender for the MET crown.

VC’s first championship trophy, will MET be their second ? ( source : PUBG Champions League )

Up next there’re the Expendables Squad of the Chinese proscene in Team Weibo. As the team representing Sina Weibo social media platform was a bottom-feeder in pre-PCL landscape, team went for a heavy shopping , signing ex-Kingzone “Running”, ex-V5 “Little1ee” and former OMG sub in “Enigma86”. These moves ended up pretty good as Weibo finished 5th in PCL, 3rd in Weibo Cup, 11th in Huya League and 15th in Douyu Season 7, and looks in a shape for a deep run in Bangkok.

Running’s ( and everyone’s ) face when we get a Sosnovka Island circle.

Another team that aims to take the trophy to China is 17Gaming, although weeks that followed their 3rd-place finish in PCL have been shaky. Tigers have transfered “Monkeyking” to Team SMG, replacing him with Tianba’s “Baolei” and ex-V5 and SMG “Lanren”, but both guys are yet to perform on Monkeyking’s level. To make things worse, team’s ace fragger in “Shou” had to visit the hospital due to wrist pain and have been struggling with his perfomance in the Huya League and Weibo Cup ( in both of which 17 have missed the finals ). Even with all of that, Tigers have always found a way to bounce back and they are one of the main contenders for the victory.

Rounding up the list of championship contenders are the SEA Championship Phase 2 winners, Thailand’s Armory Gaming. While AG’s core is the same as in their Faceit Global Summit 5th place run, there was a roster change as “HoN_BoYa” decided to not join the time on full-time basis, and he was replaced with “ThanawatTH”, returning to AG squad after a military service. He quickly showed his worth, finishing 2nd in kills at SEAC ( only behind his teammate “Duckmanz” ), and with him in-form AG will aim to score a Premier PUBG PC title for their region.

The one player you don’t want to face on Miramar

Challengers rising

While the earlier mentioned teams will be the main contenders to win it all in Bangkok, they’ll have to battle not only themselves, but 10 other teams trying to show up on the big stage.

Joining Gen.G and DTN as PKL representatives will be the two teams playing under Danawa Play Game ( DPG ) banner — DPG Danawa and DPG EVGA. Those teams have made a roster swap between each other before PKL Phase 2, with “Juwon” and “SuPPak” moving from EVGA to Danawa, and the duo of “Gak” and “Inonix” moving the other way. That made a huge impact, as “Gak” lead Danawa to 2nd place in PKL Phase 2 with a consistent scoring throughout the season and “Inonix” becoming the league’s highest killer, while EVGA lead by “Juwon” have qualified to MET with 98 points in the Week 6, overcoming their 61-point deficit from the start of the week. Now both of the DPG teams are heading into Bangkok, where they can contend for a victory on a good day.

Rounding up the team list from China will be Black Ananas and Vici Gaming ( VG ), respectively the runner-up and 4th-place team of PCL Spring. Both teams are heading to Bangkok after having a terrible runs at the post-PCL events ( BA’s 14th place finish in Douyu Season 7 was the only time one of teams made it to the Finals ), and their performance may need a boost from the respective teams stars — BA’s “Dec12th”, PCL Spring MVP and one of the best Chinese snipers, and the long-time captain and ace rifler of VG — “QF”.

Representing the home SEA region alongside Armory Gaming we will see RRQ ( Rex Regum Qeon ) from Indonesia and Tokio Striker from Thailand. For RRQ this will be their first outright international event ( they played at PAI 2019, but it was due to the Vietnam teams not receiving their visas ), making it there after a outstanding performance of “VALDEMORT” and “CoppinLee” ( 41 kills in 12 games between those two ). Meanwhile, Tokio Striker have been one of the best teams in recent seasons of Thailand’s Pro League ( 1st in Season 2 Premier, 5th in Season 2 Final, 4th in Season 3 Premier and 1st in Season 3 Finals ), but it took a 18-kill Chicken Dinner in the final round of SEAC Phase 2 for them to beat Arkangel in the tiebreaker to clinch the final SEA spot at the MET. For both teams, Asia Series is a opportunity to show their potential on the global stage, and they’ll bring their best to do so.

Coming from the Japan Series, we have DetonatioN Gaming White ( no connection to Detonator ) and Rascal Jester. While both teams have been a proven commodity on the PJS landscape, MET will be the first interregional tournament for recently rebuilded DNG White — which picked up “SSeeS” from their sister team, DNG Black, and “Machao” before the start of Phase 2, both proving their worth with 30+kills in 24-game season and experienced core of Rascal Jester, backed up by former Grim Reaper and one of the best riflers in Japan right now in “Wesker”. Heading to Bangkok, the realistic goal for both teams will be a top 10 finish, which will be a better result than Crest Gaming Xanadu had in the Asia Invitational last January.

Speaking of PAI 2019, the PUBG Master League ( TW/HK/MO ) will be represented by the same organisations as in Macau — Nova Monster Shield and Ahq Esports. Nova MS have changed their roster after their 8th place finish at PAI, picking up “1anGOOD” and “YanLi”, and after taking a while to get into a high and steady form, they’ve broken the Ahq streak of six consecutive first-place finishes in the region at the PML Season 2 Finals. As for the Ahq, while PML Phase 2 marked a ( at least temporarily ) halt to their regional dominance, this may actually be best for them — Ahq represented Taiwan in the every premier event to date ( PGI, PAI, Faceit Global Summit ), never finishing higher than 12th, and having less pressure may help them in breaking that streak and finally representing their region well on the global stage.