On March 12, former Blizzard employee Alex Penn tweeted that he was starting his first day with PUBG Corp in Santa Monica. An esports professional moving from Blizzard to work on PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS might be newsworthy on its own, but what was truly interesting about the tweet was Penn’s job title.

Penn was hired to be the company’s esports league operations manager, which raises the question: is PUBG Corp building a developer-run esports league?

First day 🙂 Esports League Ops Manager at PUBG Santa Monica. pic.twitter.com/WBRpW9YFiq — Alex (@alexpenn) March 12, 2018

Even during the game’s early access phase, PUBG fans were clamoring for esports content. Major organizations like Team Liquid, Cloud9 and Team SoloMid have signed PUBG squads. ESL has already hosted multiple invitational events, most recently at IEM Katowice. South Korea hosts two ongoing leagues, the AfreecaTV PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS League (APL) and the PUBG Survival Series (PSS). Earlier this month, Russia’s StarLadder hosted the StarSeries i-League PUBG, another invitational event.

While PUBG Corp and its parent company, Bluehole Studio, have been involved in supporting these early esports efforts, they have been noticeably quiet about their own esports plans. The Esports Observer has reached multiple times to interview PUBG Corp, Seoul, over its esports plans, and our requests have been respectfully declined, with a company spokesperson citing that it is too early to discuss this aspect of the game.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Even during the game’s early access phase, PUBG fans were clamoring for esports content.[/perfectpullquote]

In the PUBG 2018 Roadmap, Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene state regarding PUBG esports: “Seriously, we are not there yet, but we will be.” While we still have no official details, Penn’s new title and background may give us some insight into PUBG Corp’s plans.

Penn got his start in esports with the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS), first as an analyst for Cloud9, and then as the head coach of Team Coast. From there he was hired by Major League Gaming, which was later acquired by Blizzard Entertainment. Penn worked for Blizzard as a league operations specialist until this month when he began his new position with PUBG Corp.

Both the LCS and Blizzard’s esports initiatives focus on reducing third-party tournaments in favor of developer-controlled leagues and circuits. Given Penn’s background, it is possible that PUBG Corp will adopt a similar strategy, dropping support for third party invitationals in favor of developing a centralized league.

If PUBG Corp does in fact plan to develop a league, the next big question is whether or not it would use a franchise model. We’ve now seen both the North American LCS and the Overwatch League implement a franchise system, both of which saw interest from outside investors and some of the biggest names in esports. While PUBG is still unproven as an esport, given its massive popularity investors would likely line up to bid on a spot just on the chance that PUBG’s league could be the next OWL.

[perfectpullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Both the LCS and Blizzard’s esports initiatives focus on reducing third-party tournaments in favor of developer-controlled leagues and circuits.[/perfectpullquote]

Ultimately, the future of PUBG esports remains shrouded in mystery. There are still multiple development issues to work out including bug fixes and improvements to the spectator mode. With so many players active at once, battle royale games are challenging to turn into an engaging viewer experience. PUBG Corp will need to resolve these problems before launching any sort of official esports initiative. Fortunately, they are already taking steps in that direction.

PUBG Corp also recently announced the acquisition of Madglory, an online service developer to “enhance the playing and viewing experiences for PUBG players.” Madglory has worked with esports-focused companies in the past, like League of Legends developer Riot Games and Super Evil Megacorp, maker of the popular mobile game, Vainglory.

In addition to improving in-game features like matchmaking and voice chat, the newly renamed PUBG Madglory will launch a PUBG Developer Portal complete with an open API. Other esports titles such as Heroes of the Storm have seen major improvements to their observer mode come from community developers. With the help of Madglory—and the community as a whole—PUBG Corp has opened the door for esports fans to solve the game’s biggest viewership challenges themselves.

Whether we ultimately see a franchised league or an invitational circuit, PUBG Santa Monica’s latest hire and PUBG Corp’s newest acquisition show that the company is committed to esports, and is looking at other major titles for guidance.